I especially liked the look of the first act with its bright crimson walls and Tosca clothed in shades of red and pink that complemented the background beautifully (the set was modeled after the Duomo di San Giorgio in Ragusa, Sicily, not after the church where it said to be set).

This Tosca still has the traditional classic look, though the sets are brighter and more filled with light than past efforts. The popularity of the opera is understandable and it resonates as well in 2018 as it did when it was written-liberty, politics, corruption, the power of men over women and the ultimate tragedy of so many situations. And this year marks the 39th time the company has mounted this classic, with another new production, this one directed by Shawna Lucey with sets and costumes by Robert Innes Hopkins and lighting by Michael James Clark.

The company’s original Tosca was re-created in 1997 for the reopening of the Opera House after it was closed for two years for retro-fitting. For the Company’s fiftieth anniversary in 1972, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle staged a new production. The next cast stars Patricia Racette, who 'tapped into Tosca's combination of regal and all-too-human traits and backed up her vibrant characterization with singing of considerable expressive fire' ( Opera News) tenor Brian Jagde, lauded for his 'beautiful singing, now nuanced, now ringing and forceful' ( Washington Post) and Mark Delavan (Wotan in the Ring cycle, 2011), a singer of 'ferocious power' ( San Francisco Chronicle).Way back in 1932, the brand new beaux-arts War Memorial Opera House opened in San Francisco with a production of Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca”. One stars Angela Gheorghiu, 'in a part she seems to have been born to play' ( Opera Today) and 'who, like Tosca, is a born diva' ( The Independent, London) Massimo Giordano, praised by The New York Times for his 'ardent, expressive singing ' and veteran baritone Roberto Frontali, who brought 'vocal brass and weight' ( The Dallas Morning News) to San Francisco Opera's The Girl of the Golden West (2010). Music director Nicola Luisotti, 'one of his generation's most accomplished Puccini conductors' ( Opera News), leads two astonishing casts. Puccini's masterful melodrama is a sexually charged, edge-of-your-seat thriller, in which a great singer, a rebellious painter and a corrupt police chief engage in a deadly test of wills.

Tosca opera sf