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| Thursday, January 14
Puccini's "shocker" On today's date in 1900, "Tosca," a new opera by Giacomo Puccini had its premiere performance at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Rome was, in fact, the opera's fictional setting, and those in the audience would have instantly recognized the real-life Roman settings of the three acts depicted on stage. Puccini composed "Tosca" at the height of the "verismo" or the "realism" craze in opera. It might seem downright silly that a theatrical form as unreal and stylized as opera could ever be described as "realistic" -- but the idea was to depict "a slice of real life" -- even if that slice dealt with a highly melodramatic cast of characters set in the past, including a sadistic, lecherous police chief, a handsome young painter, and a very beautiful opera diva. To be as realistic as possible, Puccini visited Rome to listen to the early morning church bells from the ramparts of the Castel Sant' Angelo, the setting of his opera's third act and to consult with a Roman priest on the details of the liturgy for the "Te Deum" that concludes Act I. Some early audiences for "Tosca" thought Puccini had taken this realism thing way too far: One proper British reviewer wrote: "Those who were present were little prepared for the revolting effects produced by musically illustrating the torture and murder scenes . . . What has music to do with a lustful man chasing a defenseless woman, or the dying kicks of a murdered scoundrel?" |  | Music Played on Today's Program: Additional Information:
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