![]() The battlements of Castel Sant’Angelo, high above the Tiber River, near dawn. Tosca agrees, and as Scarpia prepares to collect his reward, she offers him a deadly surprise. But, for political reasons, he must first hold a mock execution. Scarpia proposes a bargain to Tosca: If she will yield to him, he will spare Cavaradossi and give them both safe conduct out of Rome. She also knows the hiding place of Angelotti, which she reveals when Mario screams under torture. Tosca, having been to the villa as well, knows that Scarpia was lying about Mario’s infidelity. He has, however, arrested Cavaradossi, and brings him before Scarpia. Spoletta arrives from Cavaradossi’s villa, having failed to find the escaped Angelotti. As he dines in his room, he hears Tosca’s voice rising from the celebrations below. Scarpia desires Tosca, and hopes to use the arrest of her lover to force her to his will. Scarpia’s apartments at the Farnese Palace, that evening. Scarpia uses her jealousy to sow seeds of doubt about her lover and the Marchesa as Iago used a handkerchief to manipulate Othello, he will trap Tosca with the Marchesa’s fan. Scarpia finds a fan with the Attavanti crest, part of a disguise left for Angelotti, as Tosca returns to tell Mario that she will sing for the Queen that night at the Palazzo Farnese. Their jubilation is interrupted by Scarpia, the feared chief of police, who arrives with his men to search for Angelotti. The Sacristan tells the choir of the reported defeat of Napoleon at Marengo, to be celebrated with a High Mass. Soon after, a cannon shot from the prison announces Angelotti’s escape and Cavaradossi hurries him away to hide in his country villa. Tosca jealously insists that the figure be made to look more like her dark-eyed self, and leaves the church. ![]() When the singer Floria Tosca, Cavaradossi’s lover, arrives, she recognizes the blue-eyed Magdalen as none other than the Marchesa herself. ![]() His portrait of Mary Magdalen is inspired by the Marchesa, whom he has observed in prayer. ![]() He is discovered by the painter Mario Cavaradossi, a liberal sympathizer, who is painting an altarpiece. Angelotti, a political prisoner, has escaped from Castel Sant’Angelo and takes cover in the church where his sister, the Marchesa Attavanti, has left him the key to the family chapel. The Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome, 1800, noon.
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