Puccini's 'Tosca' to play at Cairo Opera House

Ahram Online, Thursday 1 Mar 2012

Giacomo Puccini's celebrated opera 'Tosca' will be performed at the Cairo Opera House for five nights in mid-March, with Nayer Nagui conducting

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Photo from Opera Tosca performed at the Cairo Opera House in November 2009. Cairo Opera Company, Cairo Opera Orchestra, Cairo Opera Choir, conductor: Nader Abbassi, choir master: Aldo Magnato, director: Abdalla Saad. (Photo: Sherif Sonbol)

The Cairo Opera Company, Cairo Opera Choir and Cairo Opera Orchestra will perform Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca," conducted by Nayer Nagui. Director: Abdalla Saad.

The story of Tosca revolves around two protagonists in love: Mario Cavaradossi, a Volterian Christian painter, and Floria Tosca, a soprano diva. Mario vows to save Angelott, an escaped political prisoner hiding in the church where Mario is painting. When Scarpia, the police chief, arrives to the church, he is suspicious, arrests Cavaradossi and sends him to the torture chamber. Tosca only obtains her lover's freedom by agreeing to give herself to Scarpia.

Before this happens, however, Scarpia signs a deed granting free passage to the two lovers, promising to put Cavaradossi through a mock execution. But Tosca, unable to accept the price set by Scarpia, ends up killing the police chief. The final scene is at the execution, when Tosca and Cavaradossi expect to be reunited once it is over. When the smoke clears, Tosca hurries to her lover's body and finds – to her horror – that she has been tricked: Cavaradossi is dead, prompting her to leap from the parapet to her death.

Programme:

8, 9, 11, 12 and 13 March (no performance on 10 March)

All performances begin at 8pm

Cairo Opera House, Main Hall

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