TOSCA

A prima donna must be respected. Because there are years of sacrifice, study, a life spent in a small dark room with a score […] It is a very hard profession. And this is why I am proud to be a prima donna.

Last interview with Maria Callas, April 1976

Tosca – the name snaps and blares. It refers to the opera of operas, and the role of roles: the greatest opera singers are consumed by it. Because the work makes theatre out of an opera singer. She will lose her revolutionary lover and her own life because she is sick with jealousy, and movingly pious. Programmed for the first time at the Festival d’Aix, Puccini’s master work will be staged by Christophe Honoré as a melancholic reminder of the fascinating theatrical creature of stage and sound that is this diva, this woman who lives “on art and on love” and on whom time and death have no hold.

Video images displaying Catherine Malfitano in Tosca's role and Placido Domingo in Cavaradossi's role are extracted from the Live Film Tosca dans les lieux et aux heures de Tosca (1992), conceived and et produced by Andrea Andermann.

Christophe Honoré would like to thank: Andrea Andermann, Sarah Bernhardt, Maria Callas, Régine Crespin, Jean-Louis Fernandez, Stephan Holowid, Raina Kabaivanska, Brian Large, Catherine Malfitano, Marcel Proust, Daniel Schmid, Gérard Titus-Marcel, Renata Tebaldi, Shirley Verrett.

Copyrights of the video archives:
1 —Tosca nei luoghi e nelle ore di Tosca, 1992, un film en direct conçu et produit par Andrea Andermann
2 —Street Scene, New York City Opera, 1979, Footage courtesy of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Live From Lincoln Center
3 —Madame Butterfly, Opéra de Marseille, 1991
4 —Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Festival de Salzbourg, 1998, © DIGITAL CLASSICS DISTRIBUTION LTD — 1998
5 —Maria by Callas, par Tom Volf, 2017, Maria By Callas — Réal. : Tom Wolf — Elephant Doc & Petit Dragon — ITV Archive
6 —Tosca, avec Raina Kabaivanska, dirigé par Bruno Bartoletti, film TV, 1976, A production of UNITEL
7 —Tosca, avec Renata Tebaldi, émission TV Bell Telephone Hour, 1965
8 —Tosca, avec Shirley Verrett, dirigé par James Conlon, Metropolitan Opera, 1978
9 —Tosca, avec Regine Crespin, Opéra de Stuttgart, 1961
10 —Tosca nei luoghi e nelle ore di Tosca, 1992, un film en direct conçu et produit par Andrea Andermann

• LE FIGARO

  The filmmaker Christophe Honoré takes a new look - with mastery and intelligence - at Puccini's work. 

• LES ÉCHOS

  More mise en abyme than representation, Christophe Honoré's staging explores the myth of the diva based on Puccini's operas.
  The elaborate scenic design and the meticulously regulated stage guarantees a memorable production.

• LE MONDE

  Puccini's opera was a triumph in Aix-en-Provence under the baton of Daniele Rustioni, principal conductor of the Opéra national de Lyon.
  A glorious orchestra of the Opéra de Lyon, led with inspiration by the extremely talented Italian conductor Daniele Rustioni.  

• LA CROIX 

  Puccini’s Tosca has inspired Christophe Honoré and Daniele Rustioni to create a somewhat “offbeat” production, which was performed at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence on Thursday, July 4. Their finished work strikes at the core of the celebrated opera.