Gustav Mahler despised it. Its publisher predicted commercial disaster. Critics dismissed it as mere noise, forecasting a quick oblivion. Yet more than 125 years after its January 1900 premiere, Giacomo Puccini's Tosca remains one of opera's most bankable works. This summer, Glyndebourne Festival will stage its first-ever production of the opera, directed by Ted Huffman.
Early detractors took issue with Puccini's integration of real-world sounds—bells, screams, cannonfire, religious chant—into the score. Mahler sneered at its 'papal pageantry with continual chiming of bells.' While other initially reviled works like Beethoven's symphonies or Stravinsky's Rite of Spring eventually shed controversy, Tosca still faces suspicion. In the 1950s, musicologist Joseph Kerman branded it a 'shabby little shocker'; critic Rupert Christiansen later called it a 'tawdry but irresistible melodrama.'
Huffman, known for bold new opera, sees the work as 'a study of evil' that is 'really entertaining in a horrible way.' His Glyndebourne production will be more intimate than typical stagings at large houses like the Royal Opera House or the Met. 'People will experience it as a slightly different piece,' he says, with focus on 'little conversations and asides and minuscule plot points.' The smaller theatre means details need not be 'telegraphed' to the audience.
Tosca is set in three real Roman locations in 1800: Sant'Andrea della Valle, Palazzo Farnese, and Castel Sant'Angelo. While modern productions rarely follow historical stage directions literally, most retain a monumentally realistic Rome. Huffman acknowledges the work seems 'more rooted in its setting than most,' but highlights its themes of 'state violence and resistance and heroism' as highly relevant today. He is cautious about radical reimaginings, noting the opera's strong ties to its place and time.
