With a staging that maintains a perfect balance between the “classic and breakthrough” the stage director Paco Azorín returns to the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and the maestro John Fiore debuts at the Theater conducting the Liceu Symphony Orchestra, which will be accompanied by the Liceu Choir and the VEUS ensemble – Cor Infantil Amics de la Unió

One of the most famous Italian operas, Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, returns from 9 to 28 June at the Gran Teatre del Liceu with the production of Paco Azorín that delighted the public for the 2013/14 season. An imposing staging, faithful to the original, which will feature the baton of John Fiore and the magnificent voices of the sopranos Liudmyla Monastyrska and Tatiana Serjan as Tosca, the tenors Jonathan Tetelman and Roberto Aronica in the role of Mario Cavaradossi, and the baritones Erwin Schrott and Lucio Gallo as Baron Scarpia.

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Precisely the voices take great part of the protagonism in this production that Azorín projected: “I do not choose to provide an epic monumentality, but to give prominence to the singers, always bringing them closer to the public”. A staging that has been said to maintain a perfect balance between the “classic and breakthrough” (Javier Blánquez, El Mundo) or that “stands out for its daring and conceptual complexity” (Fernando Sans Rivière, La Razón).
The current director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, John Fiore, directs for the first time in the Liceu a title that has passed to posterity for being one of the most represented operas in the world and for memorable musical moments such as the aria of the second act “Vissi d’arte”, where Tosca sings desperate as a result of the sexual blackmail of the Baron, or as the aria for tenor “E lucevan le stelle”, where Cavaradossi assumes his fateful destiny.   

© A. Bofill

Tosca it places us in Rome in the year 1800, in the midst of political chaos. The Republican Cesare Angelotti flees from prison to take refuge in the basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle, where the artist Mario Cavaradossi helps her to hide. Baron Scarpia, chief of police, suspects that Mario has helped Angelotti escape and convinces Floria Tosca, whom he secretly wants, that his beloved Mario has betrayed her. When she goes to meet him, Scarpia pursues her, captures the painter and condemns him to death. Only if Tosca agrees to the baron’s sexual claims, can Mario be saved. Even so, the fate of the two beloved will be fateful. Neither Cavaradossi can avoid the execution, nor she the sadness and its consequent suicide.       

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Tosca is a melodrama in three acts and libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa that premiered on January 14, 1900 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. A Barcelona would arrive two years later, on March 30, 1902. The last time it was made in the Liceu was on March 25, 2014, where it has been represented 176 times.
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Success of the Liceu under 35
In just 30 minutes the Gran Teatre del Liceu sold out more than 1,800 tickets for the second edition of the ‘Liceu under 35’, the project aimed exclusively at young people under 35, who will attend on June 8 at Preview of theshow Tosca by Giacomo Puccini at a single price of 15 euros. It will be an integral musical experience that after the show will hold a post-opera party with a DJ session and food stands. This initiative is added to the new pricing policy of the Liceu to attract young people, which allows those under 35 to attend any season title for only 30 euros and in its start with the opera Les pêcheurs de perles has sold about 300 tickets.
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The merit partners in the Cavaradossi workshop
From June 9 to 28, the Foyer Balcony will host the exhibition around Tosca, where the assistants to the functions will be able to visit the “workshop of Cavaradossi” before the beginning and during the intermission. For once it will be the artist and not the theme of the opera the axis of the show. In this case, Mario Cavaradossi, revolutionary painter, idealist and lover of the singer Floria Tosca, one of the protagonists of this magnificent Puccini opera. It will be through a chosen selection of paintings by some of the so-called Members of Merit of the Reial Cercle Artístic de Barcelona.