Seattle Opera Weblog: When in Rome

In Sardou’s play, Cesare Angelotti comes with a
colourful backstory involving a number of nonfictional figures. In 1799, the Kingdom
of Naples crushed the year-old “Roman Republic” and re-established the Papal
States. Because the opera begins, Angelotti, Consul of the short-lived Roman
Republic, has escaped from jail, the place he was being stored till he might be
despatched again to Naples to be hanged, largely for the gratification of the British
Admiral Horatio Nelson’s mistress, Woman Emma Hamilton. Angelotti had recognized (in
the biblical sense) the longer term Woman Hamilton when she was a London prostitute
named Emma Lyons, and had the dangerous style to announce that truth at a proper State
dinner. Woman Emma and her shut good friend, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, needed
revenge, so the Queen despatched Scarpia to Rome not solely to “restore order,” however
additionally to be sure that Angelotti hangs.

Julia, Marchesa Attavanti: Angelotti’s sister seems
solely as a portrait, however she is the all-important peg on which the motion hangs.
She organized Angelotti’s escape and informed him the place within the church he would discover
the important thing to her husband’s household chapel, writing one thing seemingly innocuous,
corresponding to “the important thing to our hope lies on the ft of the Madonna.” Locked personal
chapels, unknown in trendy American church buildings, have been frequent: noble households would
pay for his or her building and had management of the keys that might open them.
Mario’s simply recognizable portray of the beautiful Ms. Attavanti as Mary
Magdalene sparks Tosca’s jealousy, which leads on to tragedy.

“The Sacristan”: In all probability not a sacristan in any respect
(that was a prestigious job). He’s extra of a janitor, expressing the
lower-class contempt for foreigners and for wealthy, liberal younger males who costume
effectively, have costly mistresses, and don’t associate with the native level of
view. Nobody resented French liberals greater than the poor of Rome.

Mario Cavaradossi: In Sardou’s play, we study he’s
the French-born son of an exiled Roman father and a Parisian mom, and inheritor
to a titled Roman grandfather (thus his title of “Cavaliere,” or Sir). A
pupil of the well-known Jacques Louis David, Cavaradossi would have put in some
time within the French revolutionary military as a teen—each able-bodied male over
14 in France both volunteered or was drafted within the wars of the early 1790s
(this helps clarify his intransigence, or braveness, in Act Two). His first
phrases—“What are you doing?”—point out he’s thus far exterior the Roman mainstream
that he doesn’t acknowledge the commonest of Roman Catholic devotions, the
mid-day Angelus (until, in fact, he’s simply tweaking the Sacristan so as
to get pleasure from his response).

Floria Tosca: Adored star of the Roman stage,
conducting an inappropriate affair with the French-born liberal Cavaradossi. A
foundling, she has risen from the underside of society to its pinnacle fairly
all of a sudden, and it exhibits. She is one robust woman, and able to homicide if pushed
too far. However her veneer of sophistication appears to be laid over a deep
insecurity. God is her adopted father and the Virgin Mary her indulgent mama.
She assumes that they are going to overlook the sulfurously passionate affair she is
having with an overtly irreligious enemy alien. She adores Cavaradossi, however
doesn’t belief him.

Baron Vitellio Scarpia: A Sicilian courtier on the
courtroom of Naples. Sardou compares him to Neapolitan bandit-patriots (on the
Royalist facet) like Fra Diavolo. Scarpia appears to dabble in rape and sadism,
however solely as hobbies: his foremost focus is getting and retaining energy. He’s completely
justified in condemning Cavaradossi, who is clearly responsible of treason in
wartime.

Spoletta: A totally disreputable sbirro (pejorative
slang for cop), a toady by nature and a bully when he can get away with it. The
Roman sbirri have been a scruffy bunch even by eighteenth-century requirements,
and Spoletta appears to be a first-class instance. He’s most likely Neapolitan or
Sicilian, introduced alongside to Rome by his boss Scarpia, who treats him with utter
contempt and overt threats of informal violence—he threatens to have him strung
up for not discovering Angelotti as ordered. When Spoletta is in a decent spot, he
turns to the Saint, whom he appears to treat because the patron saint of police
spies.

Sciarrone: In Sardou’s play, a good Neapolitan
military captain, Sciarrone is decreased to a flunky within the opera. His foremost jobs appear
to be serving dinner, bringing mash notes to unwilling women, and transmitting
orders from his boss to torturers and others too lowly to be addressed immediately
by the Baron.

A Shepherd Boy: The one actually Roman character within the
complete opera. Whereas herding sheep underneath the partitions of the Castel Sant’Angelo, he
sings a easy little music within the Roman dialect (which bore, and nonetheless bears,
solely a slight resemblance to Italian).

Choose, Jailer, and Executioners: Torture was authorized in
Rome in 1800 (a later pope would outlaw it) and would have required the
presence of an officer of the courtroom. However in 1800, the one authorized method was
a type of sleep deprivation—hardly dreadful sufficient for Scarpia. Roberti in Tosca
is just not a really expert torturer; his paziente is just not alleged to move
out. The Jailer retains observe of prisoners (and delivers ultimate messages for an
applicable tip). The firing squad would have been abnormal troopers, most likely
Neapolitan draftees. To Puccini’s credit score, we don’t should be historians in
order to understand Tosca. The music and drama are crystal clear. However
Puccini’s work precisely displays an advanced historic actuality—one which
provides vitality and which means to the opera.