Puccini's Tosca is an operatic thriller full of passion, lust for power and despair - a gripping drama that oscillates between love, betrayal and deadly obsession.
What do integrity and ideals mean in a perfidious system of power? What responsibility does an artist bear when their own actions become seemingly meaningless? And how far does the obsession with power and desire go? In less than 24 hours, Puccini condenses the plot into a feverish drama that uses Rome in 1800 as a historical stage set to plunge its characters into extreme situations.
At the center is the power-mad police chief Scarpia, whose intrigues drag the opera diva Tosca and her lover, the freedom-minded painter Cavaradossi, into a maelstrom of betrayal, violence and blackmail. Scarpia has Cavaradossi tortured to punish his political stance, but his real target is Tosca herself. He wants to win her over by promising to spare Cavaradossi - a pact that has fatal consequences.
Puccini contrasts the brutality of the action with music of overwhelming beauty. His score works with abrupt cuts, stark contrasts and cinematic dramaturgy that keeps the tension and intensity high until the very last moment and only rarely allows brief pauses for breath full of fragile grace.
Premiere October 11, 2025
Further performances: October 15 and 26, November 8 and 21, December 9, 11 and 17, 2025, January 2 and 31, February 12, March 10, 2026
