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

The average rating for Tosca's Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-10-24 00:00:00 Phillip Sabbagh 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.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-05-29 00:00:00 Lynn Ringeisen 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!