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Schedule - Deutsche Oper Berlin

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Tosca

Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924)

Information on the piece

Melodramma in 3 acts
Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
based on the drama LA TOSCA by Victorien Sardou
First performed on 14th January 1900 in Rome
Premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 13th April 1969

3 hrs 15 mins / 2 intervals

In Italian with German and English surtitles

Pre-performance lecture (in German): 45 minutes prior to each performance

recommended from 13 years
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Our thanks to our partners

The Children’s Chorus is sponsored by Dobolino e.V.

Cast
About the performance

About the work
As in all operas by Puccini, TOSCA is an illustration of how human attentiveness and pleasures of the palate can be mutually dependent if the composer’s artistic intentions become a benchmark for directorial interpretation. Puccini’s humane attentiveness is essentially dependent on an outcry and/or a sense of resignation. The pity inherent in his music does not content itself with abstract gestures; it wants to unsettle, to bring about change. Out of the “small things” named by Puccini as the source of his inspiration and the focus of his music “big things” grow – as long as we want them. Puccini’s choice of material owes something, directly or indirectly, to the spirit of Zola, Gorki and Hauptmann, and the link between that material and his compositional style places him likewise as a direct descendant of Verdi and an exponent of verismo. He was also known as an admirer of Wagner, although a Wagner imitator he assuredly was not.

It was more a case of a personal connection based on selected achievements of both composers. Grappling with the bundled subtleties of harmony and nuances of instrumentation, he still uncovered a voice from the orchestral cross-hatching and gave it an accompagnato that was considerably more fractured and refined than the radical and laconic Verdi was wonted to do. This is also a reflection of the aesthetic themes of TOSCA. The music exudes brutality, intelligence and exactitude but also tenderness, sentimentality and a dream-like quality. Puccini set great store on musical precision, social awareness, a tactical heroism, the poetics of the seemingly hum-drum, the contrast between aloofness and passionate involvement, and following his true north.

Scarpia, the police chief, Floria Tosca, a singer, and Cavaradossi, a painter, are all bent on achieving their own personal forms of liberty. Scarpia’s is all about asserting his idea of power; Cavaradossi’s is that of the freedom fighter seeking systemic change; Tosca’s is the release that comes with private, straightforward, unbounded love. At a pivotal time of major upheaval these urges assume a heightened significance. Depending on the stance that we see ourselves and Puccini in at that moment in time, TOSCA either remains a grisly love story or ends up as a portent of “freedom”. In any event, each of the three very different protagonists pay for their part in this triangular clinch with their lives. There is nothing redemptive about their deaths, which are grim, violent and definitive.

About the production
In 1987 Götz Friedrich addressed Boleslaw Barlog’s straight production from 1969 with its stark, undemanding sets and delivered a version that took Puccini’s declared intentions literally: the mutual dependence of human attentiveness and pleasures of the palate is inspired by the music and becomes a springboard into the stage interpretation of the work.

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14
DEC

Advents-Verlosung: Das 14. Fensterchen

This much can be revealed today: This third weekend of Advent belongs to jazz. Since 2005, the BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin has been a permanent fixture in the programme: be it at big concerts with Katharine Mehrling, Madeline Bell, Lyambiko, Jocelyn B. Smith, Pe Werner, Bill Ramsey, Paul Kuhn, Georgie Fame, Jiggs Whigham, Jeff Cascaro, Till Brönner or Richard Galliano as soloists. But concerts also regularly take place in the Tischlerei with smaller formations, and audio books for children are also created here. The most recent release – following on from ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘The Ballad of Robin Hood’ – is the audio book ‘The Canterville Ghost’.

Today we are giving away 5 CDs of ‘The Canterville Ghost’ based on Oscar Wilde's fairy tale. If you would like to be one of the winners, please send an email to advent@deutscheoperberlin.de today with the subject ‘The 14th little window’.

For generations, Canterville Castle has been haunted, but that doesn't stop the American ambassador Hiram B. Otis from acquiring the old building and moving in with his family. As modern, enlightened Americans, they don't believe British ghost stories. And so hard times begin for the old castle ghost, who has never experienced such disrespect in all his centuries.

Musicians Martin Auer and Rüdiger Ruppert have created an impressive narrative concert for the Deutsche Oper Berlin. While Christian Brückner tells the story of the disaffected castle ghost, the wild jazz orchestra creates an atmospheric backdrop of horror. A sound work of art for the whole family!



Closing date: 14 December 2024. The winners will be informed by email on 16 December 2024. The CDs will be sent by post. The judges' decision is final.