Music by Giacomo Puccini, Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
January 20 - 22, 2023 at Symphony Hall
January 28 & 29, 2023 at Tucson Music Hall
One of the most passionate and popular works in the operatic repertoire, Puccini’s Tosca makes its way back to the Arizona Opera stage in its first performances in five years. This political thriller is set in Rome in June 1800 and tells a story of love, jealousy, betrayal, lust, and self-sacrifice. Tosca’s action takes place over a span of less than 24 hours during the Napoleonic wars and amidst great political unrest, making it one of the most exhilarating rides in opera.
The plot centers around three main characters: Rome’s diva Floria Tosca, her lover Mario Cavaradossi, and the corrupt Chief of Police, Baron Scarpia. Scarpia has long lusted after Tosca, and when he suspects Cavaradossi of assisting an escaped political prisoner, he seizes the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. He will manipulate Tosca into revealing the prisoner’s hiding place and Cavaradossi’s involvement, so he can have Tosca for himself.
When Cavaradossi is captured, Scarpia offers Tosca a horrific bargain – she must give herself to Scarpia, or her lover will be killed. What will she choose, and who will survive?
Bringing to life the role of Floria Tosca is American soprano and Marion Roose Pullin Studio alumna Laura Wilde, a Richard Tucker Foundation career grant recipient, who’s been praised by Opera News for having “a ravishingly beautiful sound, [and] a fine sense of style and character.” In the 2021/22 Season, Wilde’s ever-expanding career includes debuts at Washington National Opera and Opéra National de Paris, as well covering the role of Eva in Die Meistersinger at the Metropolitan Opera.
Sharing the role of Tosca and praised by Opera News for her "full, focused soprano," is soprano Caitlin Gotimer. Originally from Malverne, NY, Ms. Gotimer is also a recent graduate of the Pullin Opera Studio. Arizona Opera audiences heard Gotimer on multiple occasions, including as Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen and Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte. In addition to multiple awards and honors, Gotimer is an alumna of several celebrated programs, including the Glimmerglass Festival and Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist Program.
South Korean tenor SeokJong Baek and American tenor John Matthew Myers will make their Arizona Opera debuts in the role of Cavaradossi. San Francisco Classical Voice hailed SeokJong Baek for his “warm, beautifully modulated voice.” Baek is the winner of numerous awards, including First Place winner of the Loren L. Zachary Society National Vocal Competition and First Prize/Audience Award and Enrico Caruso Award winner of the Vincero World Singing Competition. This season, Baek’s credits include his debut in the title role in Samson et Dalila at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, while joining the roster of the Metropolitan Opera.
Tenor John Matthew Myers, declared as an “artist to watch” by Opera News, has collaborated with companies such as the New York Philharmonic, Verbier Festival, Santa Fe Opera, and LA Opera, and made his surprise Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in 2017 as Mao in John Adams’s Nixon in China conducted by the composer. Myers’s breakout performance was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “brightly lighted to match his declaiming voice.”
Reprising the role of Baron Scarpia from Arizona Opera’s 2017 production, Ukrainian-born American baritone Aleksey Bogdanov continues to establish himself as one of the most compelling performers of his generation. The 2021/22 Season kicked off with his Metropolitan Opera debut as Shchelkalov in Boris Godunov, broadcast on PBS and in movie theaters worldwide. Bogdanov will also appear as Rigoletto with Nashville Opera, Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West with the Royal Swedish Opera, and in a Rachmaninoff triple bill with Odyssey Opera.
Sharing the role of Baron Scarpia, baritone Weston Hurt’s recent engagements have included Count di Luna in Il Trovatore with Portland Opera, a virtual performance of Madison Opera’s annual Opera in the Park concert, and a recital with Austin Opera as part of the Live from Indy Terrace Series. A graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center, Mr. Hurt has received many awards, including first place and the People’s Choice Award from the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition, the Vienna Prize from the George London Foundation, and first Place in the Oratorio Society of New York Competition.
Arizona Opera welcomes back stage director and winner of the Adelaide Bishop Award, Stephanie Havey, for this production of Tosca, following her recent successes in the company’s productions of Carmen and La Traviata. Havey has staged productions for Seattle Opera, Opera de Montreal, Philadelphia Orchestra, Hawai'i Opera Theatre, Detroit Opera, Atlanta Opera, Opera Omaha, New York City Opera; and her new productions have been featured at Boston Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Tulsa Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Lyrique-en-mer Festival International de Belle-Ile, Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Carnegie Mellon University.
Praised for her “confidence and apparently inexhaustible verve” (The New York Times), conductor Daniela Candillari, continues to be recognized for her dynamic and compelling performances at opera houses and concert stages throughout North America and Europe. Candillari made her Met debut in the 2021/22 Season conducting Aucoin’s Eurydice. She also leads a new production of Jeanine Tesori’s Blue with Detroit Opera and workshops the composer’s Grounded with Washington National Opera and the Met, conducts Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Carmen at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and leads Eugene Onegin with Music Academy of the West. Ms. Candillari’s most recent Arizona Opera appearance was the world premiere of the company’s first feature film, The Copper Queen, released in late 2021.
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa
Conductor: Daniela Candillari
Stage Director: Stephanie Havey
Assistant Stage Director: Mario Pacheco
Tosca: Laura Wilde and Caitlin Gotimer
Cavaradossi: SeokJong Baek and John Matthew Myers
Scarpia: Aleksey Bogdanov and Weston Hurt
Angelotti: Jeremy Aye
Sacristan: Brandon Morales
Spoletta: Brad Bickhardt
Production made possible, in part, by a gift from Marlys A. Beider
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