The Complete Opera Book Part 77

Metropolitan Opera House, New York, February 4, 1901, with Ternina, Cremonini, Scotti, Gilibert (_Sacristan_), and Dufriche (_Angelotti_).

CHARACTERS

FLORIA TOSCA, a celebrated singer _Soprano_ MARIO CAVARADOSSI, a painter _Tenor_ BARON SCARPIA, Chief of Police _Baritone_ CESARE ANGELOTTI _Ba.s.s_ A SACRISTAN _Baritone_ SPOLETTA, police agent _Tenor_ SCIARRONE, a gendarme _Ba.s.s_ A GAOLER _Ba.s.s_ A SHEPHERD BOY _Contralto_

Roberti, executioner; a cardinal, judge, scribe, officer, and sergeant, soldiers, police agents, ladies, n.o.bles, citizens, artisans, etc.

_Time_--June, 1800.

_Place_--Rome.

Three sharp, vigorous chords, denoting the imperious yet sinister and vindictive character of _Scarpia_--such is the introduction to "Tosca."

Act I. The church of Sant'Andrea della Valle. To the right the Attavanti chapel; left a scaffolding, dais, and easel. On the easel a large picture covered by a cloth. Painting accessories. A basket.

Enter _Angelotti_. He has escaped from prison and is seeking a hiding place. Looking about, he recognizes a pillar shrine containing an image of the Virgin, and surmounting a receptacle for holy water.

Beneath the feet of the image he searches for and discovers a key, unlocks the Attavanti chapel and disappears within it. The _Sacristan_ comes in. He has a bunch of brushes that he has been cleaning, and evidently is surprised not to find _Cavaradossi_ at his easel. He looks into the basket, finds the luncheon in it untouched, and now is sure he was mistaken in thinking he had seen the painter enter.

The Angelus is rung. The _Sacristan_ kneels. _Cavaradossi_ enters. He uncovers the painting--a Mary Magdalen with large blue eyes and ma.s.ses of golden hair. The _Sacristan_ recognizes in it the portrait of a lady who lately has come frequently to the church to wors.h.i.+p. The good man is scandalized at what he considers a sacrilege. _Cavaradossi_, however, has other things to think of. He compares the face in the portrait with the features of the woman he loves, the dark-eyed _Floria Tosca_, famous as a singer. "Recondita armonia di bellezze diverse" (Strange harmony of contrasts deliciously blending), he sings.

Meanwhile the _Sacristan_, engaged in cleaning the brushes in a jug of water, continues to growl over the sacrilege of putting frivolous women into religious paintings. Finally, his task with the brushes over, he points to the basket and asks, "Are you fasting?" "Nothing for me," says the painter. The _Sacristan_ casts a greedy look at the basket, as he thinks of the benefit he will derive from the artist's abstemiousness. The painter goes on with his work. The _Sacristan_ leaves.

_Angelotti_, believing no one to be in the church, comes out of his hiding place. He and _Cavaradossi_ recognize each other. _Angelotti_ has just escaped from the prison in the castle of Sant'Angelo. The painter at once offers to help him. Just then, however, _Tosca's_ voice is heard outside. The painter presses the basket with wine and viands upon the exhausted fugitive, and urges him back into the chapel, while from without _Tosca_ calls more insistently, "Mario!"

Feigning calm, for the meeting with _Angelotti_, who had been concerned in the abortive uprising to make Rome a republic, has excited him, _Cavaradossi_ admits _Tosca_. Jealously she insists that he was whispering with someone, and that she heard footsteps and the swish of skirts. Her lover rea.s.sures her, tries to embrace her. Gently she reproves him. She cannot let him kiss her before the Madonna until she has prayed to her image and made an offering. She adorns the Virgin's figure with flowers she has brought with her, kneels in prayer, crosses herself and rises. She tells _Cavaradossi_ to await her at the stage door that night, and they will steal away together to his villa. He is still distrait. When he replies, absent-mindedly, he surely will be there, her comment is, "Thou say'st it badly." Then, beginning the love duet, "Non la sospiri la nostra casetta" (Dost thou not long for our dovecote secluded), she conjures up for him a vision of that "sweet, sweet nest in which we love-birds hide."

For the moment _Cavaradossi_ forgets _Angelotti_; then, however, urges _Tosca_ to leave him, so that he may continue with his work. She is vexed and, when she recognizes in the picture of Mary Magdalen the fair features of the Marchioness Attavanti, she becomes jealous to the point of rage. But her lover soon soothes her. The episode is charming. In fact the libretto, following the Sardou play, unfolds, scene by scene, an always effective drama.

_Tosca_ having departed, _Cavaradossi_ lets _Angelotti_ out of the chapel. He is a brother of the Attavanti, of whom _Tosca_ is so needlessly jealous, and who has concealed a suit of woman's clothing for him under the altar. They mention _Scarpia_--"A bigoted satyr and hypocrite, secretly steeped in vice, yet most demonstratively pious"--the first hint we have in the opera of the relentless character, whose desire to possess _Tosca_ is the mainspring of the drama.

A cannon shot startles them. It is from the direction of the castle and announces the escape of a prisoner--_Angelotti_. _Cavaradossi_ suggests the grounds of his villa as a place of concealment from _Scarpia_ and his police agents, especially the old dried-up well, from which a secret pa.s.sage leads to a dark vault. It can be reached by a rough path just outside the Attavanti chapel. The painter even offers to guide the fugitive. They leave hastily.

The _Sacristan_ enters excitedly. He has great news. Word has been received that Bonaparte has been defeated. The old man now notices, however, greatly to his surprise, that the painter has gone. Acolytes, penitents, choristers, and pupils of the chapel crowd in from all directions. There is to be a "Te Deum" in honour of the victory, and at evening, in the Farnese palace, a cantata with _Floria Tosca_ as soloist. It means extra pay for the choristers. They are jubilant.

_Scarpia_ enters unexpectedly. He stands in a doorway. A sudden hush falls upon all. For a while they are motionless, as if spellbound.

While preparations are making for the "Te Deum," _Scarpia_ orders search made in the Attavanti chapel. He finds a fan which, from the coat-of-arms on it, he recognizes as having been left there by _Angelotti's_ sister. A police agent also finds a basket. As he comes out with it, the _Sacristan_ unwittingly exclaims that it is _Cavaradossi's_, and empty, although the painter had said that he would eat nothing. It is plain to _Scarpia_, who has also discovered in the Mary Magdalen of the picture the likeness to the Marchioness Attavanti, that _Cavaradossi_ had given the basket of provisions to _Angelotti_, and has been an accomplice in his escape.

_Tosca_ comes in and quickly approaches the dais. She is greatly surprised not to find _Cavaradossi_ at work on the picture. _Scarpia_ dips his fingers in holy water and deferentially extends them to _Tosca_. Reluctantly she touches them, then crosses herself. _Scarpia_ insinuatingly compliments her on her religious zeal. She comes to church to pray, not, like certain frivolous wantons--he points to the picture--to meet their lovers. He now produces the fan. "Is this a painter's brush or a mahlstick?" he asks, and adds that he found it on the easel. Quickly, jealously, _Tosca_ examines it, sees the arms of the Attavanti. She had come to tell her lover that, because she is obliged to sing in the cantata she will be unable to meet him that night. Her reward is this evidence, offered by _Scarpia_, that he has been carrying on a love affair with another woman, with whom he probably has gone to the villa. She gives way to an outburst of jealous rage; then, weeping, leaves the chapel, to the gates of which _Scarpia_ gallantly escorts her. He beckons to his agent _Spoletta_, and orders him to trail her and report to him at evening at the Farnese palace.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright photo by Dupont

Cavalieri as Tosca]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photo by Mishkin

Scotti as Scarpia]

Church bells are tolling. Intermittently from the castle of Sant'Angelo comes the boom of the cannon. A Cardinal has entered and is advancing to the high altar. The "Te Deum" has begun. _Scarpia_ soliloquizes vindictively: "Va, Tosca! Nel tuo cuor s'annida Scarpia"

(Go, Tosca! There is room in your heart for Scarpia).

He pauses to bow reverently as the Cardinal pa.s.ses by. Still soliloquizing, he exults in his power to send _Cavaradossi_ to execution, while _Tosca_ he will bring to his own arms. For her, he exclaims, he would renounce his hopes of heaven; then kneels and fervently joins in the "Te Deum."

This finale, with its elaborate apparatus, its complex emotions and the sinister and dominating figure of _Scarpia_ set against a brilliant and constantly s.h.i.+fting background, is a stirring and effective climax to the act.

Act II. The Farnese Palace. _Scarpia's_ apartments on an upper floor.

A large window overlooks the palace courtyard. _Scarpia_ is seated at table supping. At intervals he breaks off to reflect. His manner is anxious. An orchestra is heard from a lower story of the palace, where Queen Caroline is giving an entertainment in honour of the reported victory over Bonaparte. They are dancing, while waiting for _Tosca_, who is to sing in the cantata. _Scarpia_ summons _Sciarrone_ and gives him a letter, which is to be handed to the singer upon her arrival.

_Spoletta_ returns from his mission. _Tosca_ was followed to a villa almost hidden by foliage. She remained but a short time. When she left it, _Spoletta_ and his men searched the house, but could not find _Angelotti_. _Scarpia_ is furious, but is appeased when _Spoletta_ tells him that they discovered _Cavaradossi_, put him in irons, and have brought him with them.

Through the open window there is now heard the beginning of the cantata, showing that _Tosca_ has arrived and is on the floor below, where are the Queen's reception rooms. Upon _Scarpia's_ order there are brought in _Cavaradossi_, _Roberti_, the executioner, and a judge with his clerk. _Cavaradossi's_ manner is indignant, defiant, _Scarpia's_ at first suave. Now and then _Tosca's_ voice is heard singing below. Finally _Scarpia_ closes the window, thus shutting out the music. His questions addressed to _Cavaradossi_ are now put in a voice more severe. He has just asked, "Once more and for the last time," where is _Angelotti_, when _Tosca_, evidently alarmed by the contents of the note received from _Scarpia_, hurries in and, seeing _Cavaradossi_, fervently embraces him. Under his breath he manages to warn her against disclosing anything she saw at the villa.

_Scarpia_ orders that _Cavaradossi_ be removed to an adjoining room and his deposition there taken. _Tosca_ is not aware that it is the torture chamber the door to which has closed upon her lover. With _Tosca_ _Scarpia_ begins his interview quietly, deferentially. He has deduced from _Spoletta's_ report of her having remained but a short time at the villa that, instead of discovering the Attavanti with her lover, as she jealously had suspected, she had found him making plans to conceal _Angelotti_. In this he has just been confirmed by her frankly affectionate manner toward _Cavaradossi_.

At first she answers _Scarpia's_ questions as to the presence of someone else at the villa lightly; then, when he becomes more insistent, her replies show irritation, until, turning on her with "ferocious sternness," he tells her that his agents are attempting to wring a confession from _Cavaradossi_ by torture. Even at that moment a groan is heard. _Tosca_ implores mercy for her lover. Yes, if she will disclose the hiding place of _Angelotti_. Groan after groan escapes from the torture chamber. _Tosca_, overcome, bursts into convulsive sobs and sinks back upon a sofa. _Spoletta_ kneels and mutters a Latin prayer. _Scarpia_ remains cruelly impa.s.sive, silent, until, seeing his opportunity in _Tosca's_ collapse, he steps to the door and signals to the executioner, _Roberti_, to apply still greater torture. The air is rent with a prolonged cry of pain. Unable longer to bear her lover's anguish and, in spite of warnings to say nothing, which he has called out to her between his spasms, she says hurriedly and in a stifled voice to _Scarpia_, "The well ... in the garden."

_Cavaradossi_ is borne in from the torture chamber and deposited on the sofa. Kneeling beside him _Tosca_ lavishes tears and kisses upon him. _Sciarrone_, the judge, _Roberti_ and the _Clerk_ go. In obedience to a sign from _Scarpia_, _Spoletta_ and the agents remain behind. Still loyal to his friend, _Cavaradossi_, although racked with pain, asks _Tosca_ if unwittingly in his anguish he has disclosed aught. She rea.s.sures him.

In a loud and commanding voice _Scarpia_ says to _Spoletta_: "In the well in the garden--Go _Spoletta_!"

From _Scarpia's_ words _Cavaradossi_ knows that _Tosca_ has betrayed _Angelotti's_ hiding place. He tries to repulse her.

_Sciarrone_ rushes in much perturbed. He brings bad news. The victory they have been celebrating has turned into defeat. Bonaparte has triumphed at Marengo. _Cavaradossi_ is roused to enthusiasm by the tidings. "Tremble, Scarpia, thou butcherly hypocrite," he cries.

It is his death warrant. At _Scarpia's_ command _Sciarrone_ and the agents seize him and drag him away to be hanged.

Quietly seating himself at table, _Scarpia_ invites _Tosca_ to a chair. Perhaps they can discover a plan by which _Cavaradossi_ may be saved. He carefully polishes a winegla.s.s with a napkin, fills it with wine, and pushes it toward her.

"Your price?" she asks, contemptuously.

Imperturbably he fills his gla.s.s. She is the price that must be paid for _Cavaradossi's_ life. The horror with which she shrinks from the proposal, her unfeigned detestation of the man putting it forward, make her seem the more fascinating to him. There is a sound of distant drums. It is the escort that will conduct _Cavaradossi_ to the scaffold. _Scarpia_ has almost finished supper. Imperturbably he peels an apple and cuts it in quarters, occasionally looking up and scanning his chosen victim's features.

Distracted, not knowing whither or to whom to turn, _Tosca_ now utters the famous "Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore, non feci mai male ad anima viva":

(Music and love--these have I lived for, Nor ever have I harmed a living being....

In this, my hour of grief and bitter tribulation, O, Heavenly Father, why hast Thou forsaken me),

The "Vissi d'arte" justly is considered the most beautiful air in the repertoire of modern Italian opera. It is to pa.s.sages of surpa.s.sing eloquence like this that Puccini owes his fame, and his operas are indebted for their lasting power of appeal.

Beginning quietly, "Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore,"

[Music]

it works up to the impa.s.sioned, heart-rending outburst of grief with which it comes to an end.

[Music]