Anna Netrebko takes on the soaring title diva, with tenor Brian Jagde and baritone Michael Volle completing the love triangle. Bertrand de Billy conducts.
Puccini’s sweeping melodrama about a volatile diva, a sadistic police chief, and an idealistic artist has offended and thrilled audiences for more than a century. Critics, for their part, have often had problems with Tosca’s rather grungy subject matter (worth re-examining in the context of the #MeToo movement), the directness and intensity of its score, and the crowd-pleasing dramatic opportunities it provides for its lead roles. But these same aspects, along with a driving score of abundant melody and theatrical shrewdness, have made Tosca an iconic work that seems to represent opera in the public imagination.
