In 1889, the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini attended the premiere of La Tosca — the drama which Victorien Sardou had written specially for the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt: to emphasise whom he had envisioned as “that very Tosca”, Sardou even used the definite article in the title of the play (La Tosca). Puccini was so astounded by Bernhardt’s brilliant performance that he immediately wanted to compose an opera based on this drama. However, being a little known, emerging author, the composer did not dare approach the eminent and renowned Sardou. It was only several years later, when his success in the field of opera had established his reputation that Puccini, through his publisher, persuaded the playwright to entrust to him the plot that he liked so much.
Having been inspired by Bernhardt passionate expressivity, the composer dreamt of an equally talented performer for his opera Tosca and sought an “ultra-dramatic singer” for the part of the jealous primadonna. After a cool reception of the opera premiere in Rome, where the main part had been performed by the coldish blonde Hariclea Darclee, Puccini desperately wrote: “La Tosca appeared at a sad time! Nowadays, there are no singers anymore! The ones that sing now do not produce even 30 per cent of what the author had in mind! There are no such dramatic temperaments as there used to be! I’ve made a mistake by composing the opera which will never be performed as it should be!”
However, the composer’s dreams of the ideal Tosca were destined to come true! At the Mariinsky Theatre Puccini found “the very Tosca” in the person of the exceptionally gifted singer Media Figner who reigned on stage from the end of the 1890s. What is more, together with the ideal heroine, Puccini found the ideal hero — impersonated by Medea’s husband — Nikolay Finger, who brilliantly played the part of the singer’s lover — Mario Cavaradossi.
Attaching great importance to La Tosca production, Puccini emphasized that “it was an opera of bright colours and, if one wishes so, a flamboyant performance”. The international team which staged La Tosca on the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre has fully taken into consideration the composer’s wishes. In fact, apart from human roles, there is one more extremely important character — the eternal city of Rome, with its atmosphere setting mood to the whole performance. It also determines the Primorsky production of La Tosca arranged in the solemn and ceremonial Empire style with the dominating purple-red colour as the symbol of the Roman optimates as well as the colour of blood and passion.
Nadezhda Koulygina
