Name: Tosca
Start: 2022-04-20
End: 2022-04-20
Location: Bolshoi Theatre

Organization

Lighting designer

Stefano Poda

Costume designer

Set designer

Singer

Soprano

Dinara Alieva

Floria Tosca

Diana Harutyunyan

Elena Guseva

Maria Lobanova

Anna Netrebko

Anna Nechaeva

Zoya Tsererina

Tenor

Hovhannes Ayvazyan

Mario Cavaradossi

Massimo Giordano

Oleg Dolgov

Azer Zada

Baritone

Elchin Azizov

Baron Scarpia

Gevorg Hakobyan

Gabriele Viviani

Vladimir Stoyanov

Nikolay Kazansky

The sacristan

Alexey Prokopyev

Bass

Vladimir Baykov

Cesare Angelotti

Vasily Gafner

Spoletta

Ivan Maksimeyko

Ilya Selivanov

Alexander Chernov

Alexander Borodin

Sciarrone

Alexander Kolesnikov

Vladimir Komovich

A jailer

Valery Gilmanov

Alexander Markeev

Stage director

Conductor

Plácido Domingo

Chorus master

Valery Borisov

Daniele Callegari

Murat Karahan

Najmiddin Mavlyanov

Alexander Krasnov

Anton Grishanin

Riccardo Massi

Freddie De Tommaso

Maharram Huseynov

Bolshoi Theatre

Italian

Tosca

Moscow

Russia

New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater

New Stage

Plácido Domingo and The Bolshoi - "Tosca"

Public

Russian

Approved

Tosca Puccini

‎The film in the framework of the project "Ticket to the Bolshoi" is dedicated to the preparation for the premiere of Giacomo Puccini's opera "Tosca". On the New Stage, the opera was staged by director Stefano Poda. This is not his first work with a world-famous work, but his debut in the Bolshoi. An adept of the author's theater, Poda works not only as a director, but also as a set designer, costume designer, lighting designer and choreographer, each time creating an aesthetically and conceptually integral performance. What new does the director want to find in a well-known plot? Why is it important to stage "Tosca" right now and how do opera artists prepare for the premiere? The answers to these questions you will find in the new film.  New film dedicated to the premiere of "Tosca" opera. One of the most favourite operas in the world returned to The Bolshoi theatre after almost a seven-year break. An Italian staging crew is working on the production – conductor Daniele Callegari and director Stefano Poda.‎

The first performance of Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca took place at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on January 14, 1900. The composer was inspired to create the opera by Sarah Bernhardt, who played the role of Tosca in the drama of the same name by Victorien Sardou. Puccini first saw her in this role in 1889, and then again attended a play with the participation of this outstanding actress and met with her. For many years he dreamed of creating an opera on this subject, and when he finally got at his disposal a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, he immediately began to work. On September 29, 1899, the opera was completed.

It is natural that "Tosca" was first performed in Rome: the events referred to in the opera take place in the eternal city, moreover, they are associated with several toponyms: the Basilica of San Andrea della Valle, the Palazzo Farnese, the Castle of Sant'Angelo on the banks of the Tiber. In these majestic interiors unfolds the love story of the opera diva Floria Tosca and her beloved artist Mario Cavaradossi, who by the will of fate are involved in the whirlpool of political intrigues. These characters, like the other actors, the chief of the Roman police Scarpia and the criminal Cesare Angelotti, are fictional. But the plot itself and its tragic denouement have a historical background: the fall of the Roman Republic created under Napoleon and the persecution of the Republicans by supporters of the Pope.

The premiere was a triumphant success. Within a few months, the opera entered the repertoire of many theaters in Italy (including Milan's La Scala, where the premiere performances were conducted by Arturo Toscanini). A year later, onzaa sounded on the largest stages of the world: in Buenos Aires, London, Rio de Janeiro, Constantinople, Madrid, Lisbon, New York. In the Russian Empire, it was first presented by the Odessa Opera House in 1901.

At the Bolshoi Theatre, the first performance took place on April 27, 1930 (the opera was performed on the stage of a branch called "Floria Tosca"). This performance was renewed several times – until the mid-1940s – under the baton of conductors Alexander Melik-Pashayev and Kirill Kondrashin. The legend was the next production, carried out on the main stage of the theater in 1971 by maestro Mark Ermler, director Boris Pokrovsky and artist Valery Leventhal. In this performance, which has been preserved in the repertoire for almost half a century, Galina Vishnevskaya, Tamara Milashkina, Maria Bieşu, Makvala Kasrashvili (Tosca), Vladimir Atlantov, Virgilius Noreika, Zurab Anjaparidze, Zurab Sotkilava, Vyacheslav Osipov (Kavaradossi), Yuri Mazurok (Scarpia) appeared on the stage.

After a seven-year break, one of the most repertoire operas in the world returned to the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. The new production was carried out by the Italian director (who also acted as a set designer, choreographer and costume and lighting designer) Stefano Poda. One of the main principles to which he adhered is the aesthetic and conceptual unity of the performance. According to the director, opera is beautiful because it unites many arts: music, word, painting, sculpture, architecture, and this union gives birth to a new especially valuable essence.

Stefano Poda works masterfully with the stage space. Scenography, according to his plan, is solved as an installation, a huge picture in which modern materials find an organic combination with ancient motifs. In a space flooded with the purest light, visions of a bygone world arise one after another – the figures are both real and ghostly, as in a dream, as a kind of "déjà vu". The images of Italy are not just a beautiful background: they "play" on a par with the artists, appealing to the cultural memory of the viewer.

The musical director of the production was maestro Daniele Callegari. The famous Italian conductor is in demand in the largest theaters in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, the Paris National Opera, the Liceu Theater in Barcelona, the Berlin State Opera ...

English

Tosca by Puccini, Wed 20 Apr 2022, From (2021/2022), Directed by Stefano Poda,, Conductor Plácido Domingo, Daniele Callegari, Anton Grishanin, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Russia

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Programme, About & Synopsis

Videos

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues