About the opera
- Run time: 2hrs 45min, 2 intermissions
- Sung in: Italian
- Subtitles: English, Italian and other languages
- Opera house: Vienna State Opera
Soprano Maria Agresta is the passionate title diva, opposite charismatic tenor Piotr Beczala as her lover, the idealistic painter Mario Cavaradossi. Baritone Bryn Terfel is the menacing Baron Scarpia, the evil chief of police who employs brutal tactics to ensnare both criminals and sexual conquests. Giampaolo Bisanti conducts the electrifying score, which features some of Puccini’s most memorable melodies.
In the new 2023-24 season at the Vienna State Opera sopranos Angel Blue, Elena Stikhina, and Krassimira Stoyanova alternate as the desperate diva, tenors Vittorio Grigolo, Piotr Beczala, and Riccardo Massì share the role of the ardent painter-revolutionary Cavaradossi. Baritones Ludovic Tézier, Erwin Schrott, and Amartuvshin Enkhbat sing the merciless Baron Scarpia, and maestros Yoel Gamzou and Bertrand de Billy conduct Puccini's masterpiece.
Ticket information
- Select a date an book
- E-Ticket (Print@home)
Vienna State Opera
Address:
How to get there:
Underground: U1, U4 to Karlsplatz
Trams: 1, 2, D, 62, 71 to Opernring
Music and Libretto
Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) was enormously popular in his lifetime and is generally regarded as the greatest Italian composer of the post-Verdi generation. An operatic composer with a most original gift for lyrical melody, Puccini possessed a masterful technical savoir-faire and an extraordinary sense of the theatre. Although he created only ten operas in a 40-year career, his mature operas remain a firm part of the operatic repertoire and are among the most popular operas ever written.
His third opera, Manon Lescaut, brought him lasting fame and marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with the librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Together, they wrote Puccini's three greatest masterpieces: La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900) and Madama Butterfly (1904). In 1910, the premiere of La Fanciulla del West took place at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Puccini then composed a lighter piece, La Rondine, performed at the Monte-Carlo Opera. In 1918 Il Trittico premiered at the Metropolitan Opera. His last opera, Turandot, remained unfinished.
Puccini’s librettists Giuseppe Giacosa (1847–1906) and Luigi Illica (1857–1919) based their text on Victorien Sardou’s play La Tosca, which had enjoyed years of international success with the great actress, Sarah Bernhardt. It was a major feat of adaptation: the original’s five acts and twenty-two characters were reduced to three acts and nine characters in the completed opera.
May 2023
Conductor: Giampaolo Bisanti
Floria Tosca: Maria Agresta
Mario Cavaradossi: Piotr Beczala
Baron Scarpia: Bryn Terfel
October 2023
Conductor: Yoel Gamzou
Floria Tosca: Angel Blue
Mario Cavaradossi: Vittorio Grigolo
Baron Scarpia: Ludovic Tézier
February 2024
Conductor: Bertrand de Billy
Floria Tosca: Elena Stikhina
Mario Cavaradossi: Piotr Beczala
Baron Scarpia: Erwin Schrott
April 2024
Conductor: Yoel Gamzou
Floria Tosca: Krassimira Stoyanova
Mario Cavaradossi: Riccardo Massì
Baron Scarpia: Amartuvshin Enkhbat
