The Stars of Tosca from 2 August at the 101 Arena di Verona Opera Festival 2024
Opera Stars in the Arena for Tosca
On 2, 9 and 16 August, Anna Netrebko is the protagonist in the classic show by Hugo De Ana with Yusif Eyvazov and Luca Salsi. 30 August, last evening with Elena Stikhina, Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tézier
Conductor Daniel Oren, 40 years after his debut in the Arena with Puccini's masterpiece
The 101st Arena di Verona Opera Festival completes its tribute to Puccini. After the sell-outs of Turandot and La Bohème, it is time for a major production. On 2-30 August, at 9:00 pm, four Tosca evenings will feature Hugo De Ana's elegant and noir staging. On stage, a cast of stars led by Anna Netrebko and conducted by Daniel Oren, 40 years after his debut at the Arena.
An intense and dramatic love triangle, a manhunt in a city shaken by the revolution, a rich and compelling music for an opera that flows like a thriller movie in Rome in the 1800s. With an urgent theatrical rhythm and famous arias (Recondita armonia, Vissi d 'arte, E lucevan le stelle... [Hidden harmony, I lived of art, And the stars were shining...]), Tosca is among the most loved and represented titles in the world. It ranks sixth in the long list of the most popular works at the Arena di Verona from 1913 to today, always with internationally prestigious performers, as confirmed by the cast of stars of the 2024 Festival.
As the protagonist Floria Tosca, a devout and loving singer, a diva of her time thrown into a life-threatening political intrigue, Anna Netrebko returns to the Arena for the first time in this role. A deep bond with the Arena and the city of Verona: her debut in Verona dates back to 2019 as Leonora in Il Trovatore. Since then, even in the summers marked by the pandemic, the opera star has never missed the Arena Festival, proposing a different character every year. After starring in the 2020 Gala, she played Turandot in 2021, Aida and Turandot in 2022, to open and close the 100th Festival 2023 with sold-out performances such as Aida and La Traviata, respectively.
For the first three performances, alongside her, we find tenor Yusif Eyvazov (Mario Cavaradossi) and baritone Luca Salsi (Baron Scarpia), in the appreciated staging curated for direction, scenes, costumes and lights by Hugo De Ana. The production combines powerful symbols, sumptuous traditional costumes, rapid scene changes and breathtaking effects. The cast is completed by the fugitive Angelotti played by Gabriele Sagona, the Sacristan by Giulio Mastrototaro, the henchmen Spoletta, played by Carlo Bosi, and Sciarrone, by Nicolò Ceriani. Carlo Striuli returns as the jailer, a well-known voice at the Arena, and three very young treble voices take it in turns to play the shepherd boy: Erika Zaha (2 and 9 August), Lorenzo Pigozzo (16 August) and Mattia Lucatti (30 August).
On the podium for all performances, maestro Daniel Oren will lead the Orchestra of the Fondazione Arena, the Chorus prepared by Roberto Gabbiani, and the treble voices of A.Li.Ve. trained by Paolo Facincani. The conductor celebrates exactly forty years since his debut in the Arena, which took place with Tosca at the 1984 Festival.
Stars also for the last evening of Tosca scheduled for Friday, 30 August. The protagonist will be soprano Elena Stikhina, one of the most appreciated today, back from her recent successes at the Arena. Jonas Kaufmann will play the role of Mario Cavaradossi, painter and revolutionary, passionate lover of Tosca, for the first time in Verona. The baritone Ludovic Tézier will play Baron Scarpia, a ruthless police chief, persecutor of revolutionaries such as Cavaradossi, and passionately in love with the diva Tosca. He is one of the most iconic antagonists of the entire operatic repertoire.
The story of Floria Tosca, created by the playwright Victorien Sardou for Sarah Bernhardt in 1887, immediately fascinated Giacomo Puccini who, after long negotiations, entrusted the libretto to Giacosa and Illica, almost challenging the dramatic excesses of contemporary colleagues today united by the adjective “veristi”. The Roman premiere in 1900 was a resounding and uninterrupted success, making the protagonist the diva par excellence of the operatic repertoire.
Puccini still charms the audience with unforgettable melodies, highly refined orchestration, powerful characters and, above all, an engaging, unstoppable theatrical narrative, resembling a thriller movie, underpinned by the brilliant theme that is impressed in the mind of the audience from the three initial chords.
