Classical Music | Tenor

Recorded on 12/31/1969, uploaded on 04/09/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Puccini was but still a rising operatic composer rying to prove his mettle when he came across Victorian Sardou’s play La Tosca in 1889. Of the four operas he had so far composed, only two (Manon Lescaut and La Bohéme) had been successful and the latter had yet to win over critics. Puccini saw Sardou’s play at least twice, both in Milan and Turin, and was enthusiastic about transforming it into an opera. In a letter dated May 7, 1889, he begged his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, to attain the rights to the play from Sardou. The French playwright was unreceptive towards Puccini’s demand. He complained of his play’s reception in Italy and stated his preference for a French composer to turn his creation into an opera. Ricordi, however, was able to persuade Sardou and the rights were granted to Puccini. Yet, the difficulties were not over.

The librettist assigned to the project by Ricordi, Luigi Illica, expressed his doubt that the play could be effectively portrayed in a musical form. Furthermore, Sardou was still uneasy about the choice of Puccini as a composer. La Tosca, the third play to come from a collaboration with the popular actress Sarah Bernhardt, was Sardou’s most popular work and in his eyes Puccini was still an unproven composer. When the playwright stated that he didn’t even like Puccini’s music, the composer was offended and withdrew from the project. Consequently, Ricordi reassigned the composition tasks to Alberto Franchetti. Franchetti, however, never became comfortable with the opera and, either out of pressure from Ricordi or respect for Puccini, surrender the rights in May 1895, after which Puccini was once again reinstated in the project.

Even with the opera back in Puccini’s hands, a final libretto which pleased the composer was not completed until 1898. The opening page of the manuscript is dated January 1898, but work on the opera proceeded with great pains. Puccini demanded changes to the libretto and eventually cut numbers completely out. Ricordi even expressed disapproval for some of the music Puccini provided, though the fast approaching premiere in January 1900 left little time to make changes. Because of the opera’s setting in Rome, Puccini and Ricordi arranged the premiere to be there. The move was a gamble though with the city having been plunged in civil unrest for years. A bomb threat on the theatre at which the opera was to be performed delayed the premiere by a day. Yet, the performance created quite a stir and was attended by many dignitaries. Though it was not quite the success Puccini had hoped for, it was nonetheless received with an enthusiastic response from the audience and went on to many subsequent productions. Today, it was one of Puccini’s most popular operas.

One of Puccini’s most famous arias, “E lucevan le stelle” (“When the stars were brightly shining”) comes from Act III of Tosca. Cavaradossi, a painter in love with Tosca, awaits his execution on the roof of the Castel Sant’Angelo. A lone clarinet opens the aria as he begins to write a letter but finds himself entrapped by his memories of Tosca and bemoans his tragic fate. The music is passionate with Cavaradossi’s intense melody augmented by the power of the strings and underpinned with harmonies suggesting the dim-colored sounds of the Aeolian mode.      Joseph DuBose