Tosca's Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective

by Susan Vandiver Nicassio

A timeless tale of love, lust, and politics, Tosca is one of the most popular operas ever written. In Tosca's Rome, Susan Vandiver Nicassio explores the surprising historical realities that lie behind Giacomo Puccini's opera and the play by Victorien Sardou on which it is based.

By far the most "historical" opera in the active repertoire, Tosca is set in a very specific time and place: Rome, from June 17 to 18, 1800. But as Nicassio demonstrates, history in Tosca is distorted by nationalism and by the vehement anticlerical perceptions of papal Rome shared by Sardou, Puccini, and the librettists. To provide the historical background necessary for understanding Tosca, Nicassio takes a detailed look at Rome in 1800 as each of Tosca 's main characters would have seen it—the painter Cavaradossi, the singer Tosca, and the policeman Scarpia. Finally, she provides a scene-by-scene musical and dramatic analysis of the opera.

"[Nicassio] must be the only living historian who can boast that she once sang the role of Tosca. Her deep knowledge of Puccini's score is only to be expected, but her understanding of daily and political life in Rome at the close of the 18th century is an unanticipated pleasure. She has steeped herself in the period and its prevailing culture-literary, artistic, and musical-and has come up with an unusual, and unusually entertaining, history."—Paul Bailey, Daily Telegraph

"In Tosca's Rome, Susan Vandiver Nicassio . . . orchestrates a wealth of detail without losing view of the opera and its pleasures. . . . Nicassio aims for opera fans and for historians: she may well enthrall both."— Publishers Weekly

"This is the book that ranks highest in my estimation as the most in-depth, and yet highly entertaining, journey into the story of the making of Tosca."—Catherine Malfitano

"Nicassio's prose . . . is lively and approachable. There is plenty here to intrigue everyone-seasoned opera lovers, musical novices, history buffs, and Italophiles."— Library Journal

Genres: History, Italy

356 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 2000

About the author

Professor of History, University of Louisiana

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an engaging companion to Tosca which uses the opera as the guide to a tour of Rome c 1800. The author offers an account of customs (e.g. the ban on women on the Roman stage was only lifted in 1798, three years before the action) and locations (e.g. there really is a secret hiding place in a chapel in San Andrea della Valle), etc.. Beyond such details directly elaborating the drama, she sketches the political context of Italian Republicanism confronting the European alliance of reaction. She narrates the major threads of the relevant history -- Southern Italy's Jacobin Revolutions (Naples 1799; Rome 1800), their reversal by Church and Monarchs, and Napoleon's reconquest/liberation in the early 19th century - in a way that illuminates Sardou's and Puccini's themes of art, tyranny, liberation, and the formation of a national unified Italy.

[Beth Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful book -- great for reading before or during a Roman vacation. She compares Puccini's opera to the French play by Sardou on which it was based, and both with the real Rome of 1800, when the opera takes place. Lively writing, fascinating research. When he was working on Tosca, Puccini spent a night sleeping on the upper level of Castel Sant'Angelo so he could accurately incorporate the Roman churchbells at dawn into the opening of the final act. The great bell of St. Peter's rings an E natural!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for deep-dive dramaturgy nerds, but I can't imagine reading it for fun. It is very helpful, though, to put the opera in context.

[Irus · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found the narrative choppy and confusing.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't finish, saw the opera instead and found it wonderful!