Editing Tosca (section)

== Music ==
[[File:Tosca 8074-michelides.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The setting for [[Robert Dornhelm]]'s production of ''Tosca'' at the opera festival of St. Margarethen, 2015]]

=== General style ===
By the end of the 19th century the classic form of opera structure, in which [[aria]]s, [[duet]]s and other set-piece vocal numbers are interspersed with passages of [[recitative]] or dialogue, had been largely abandoned, even in Italy. Operas were "[[through-composed]]", with a continuous stream of music which in some cases eliminated all identifiable set-pieces. In what critic [[Edward Greenfield]] calls the "Grand Tune" concept, Puccini retains a limited number of set-pieces, distinguished from their musical surroundings by their memorable melodies. Even in the passages linking these "Grand Tunes", Puccini maintains a strong degree of lyricism and only rarely resorts to recitative.<ref>Greenfield, pp. 148–150</ref>

Budden describes ''Tosca'' as the most [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]] of Puccini's scores, in its use of musical [[leitmotif]]s. Unlike Wagner, Puccini does not develop or modify his motifs, nor weave them into the music symphonically, but uses them to refer to characters, objects and ideas, and as reminders within the narrative.<ref name="Fisher27">Fisher, pp. 27–28</ref> The most potent of these motifs is the sequence of three very loud and strident chords which open the opera and which represent the evil character of Scarpia—or perhaps, Charles Osborne proposes, the violent atmosphere that pervades the entire opera.<ref name="Os137">Osborne, pp. 137–138</ref> Budden has suggested that Scarpia's tyranny, lechery and lust form "the dynamic engine that ignites the drama".<ref name="BuddenOMO">{{cite dictionary | author-link = Julian Budden | last = Budden | first = Julian | title = Tosca | url = http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O005948?q=Tosca&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1 | dictionary = Oxford Music Online | access-date = 28 June 2010 }} {{subscription required}}</ref> Other motifs identify Tosca herself, the love of Tosca and Cavaradossi, the fugitive Angelotti, the semi-comical character of the sacristan in act 1 and the theme of torture in act 2.<ref name="BuddenOMO" /><ref name="Fisher33">Fisher, pp. 33–35</ref>

=== Act 1 ===
The opera begins without any prelude; the opening chords of the Scarpia motif lead immediately to the agitated appearance of Angelotti and the enunciation of the "fugitive" motif. The sacristan's entry, accompanied by his sprightly [[Opera buffa|buffo]] theme, lifts the mood, as does the generally light-hearted colloquy with Cavaradossi which follows after the latter's entrance. This leads to the first of the "Grand Tunes", Cavaradossi's "[[Recondita armonia]]" with its sustained high [[B♭ (musical note)|B flat]], accompanied by the sacristan's grumbling [[counter-melody]].<ref name="Os137" /> The domination, in that aria, of themes which will be repeated in the love duet make it clear that though the painting may incorporate the Marchesa's features, Tosca is the ultimate inspiration of his work.<ref>Burton et al., p. 201</ref> Cavaradossi's dialogue with Angelotti is interrupted by Tosca's arrival, signalled by her motif which incorporates, in Newman's words, "the feline, caressing cadence so characteristic of her."<ref>Newman. p. 114</ref> Though Tosca enters violently and suspiciously, the music paints her devotion and serenity. According to Budden, there is no contradiction: Tosca's jealousy is largely a matter of habit, which her lover does not take too seriously.<ref>Budden, p. 203</ref>

After Tosca's "Non la sospiri" and the subsequent argument inspired by her jealousy, the sensuous character of the love duet "Qual'occhio" provides what opera writer Burton Fisher describes as "an almost erotic lyricism that has been called pornophony".<ref name="Fisher20">Fisher, p. 20</ref> The brief scene in which the sacristan returns with the choristers to celebrate Napoleon's supposed defeat provides almost the last carefree moments in the opera; after the entrance of Scarpia to his menacing theme, the mood becomes sombre, then steadily darker.<ref name="Os139" /> As the police chief interrogates the sacristan, the "fugitive" motif recurs three more times, each time more emphatically, signalling Scarpia's success in his investigation.<ref>Budden, p. 207</ref> In Scarpia's exchanges with Tosca the sound of tolling bells, interwoven with the orchestra, creates an almost religious atmosphere,<ref name="Os139" /> for which Puccini draws on music from his then unpublished [[Messa (Puccini)|Mass of 1880]].<ref>Newman, p. 191</ref> The final scene in the act is a juxtaposition of the sacred and the profane,<ref name="Fisher33" /> as Scarpia's lustful reverie is sung alongside the swelling Te Deum chorus. He joins with the chorus in the final statement "Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur" ("Everlasting Father, all the earth worships thee"), before the act ends with a thunderous restatement of the Scarpia motif.<ref name="Fisher33" /><ref>Newman, p. 221</ref>

=== Act 2 ===
[[File:Destinn as Tosca Victrola Book of Opera.jpg|thumb|upright|alt= Woman standing in a dramatic pose, right arm raised, left arm holding a large bouquet. She is wearing a long formal gown and a wide-brimmed hat.|Emmy Destinn in the role of Tosca, c. 1910]]
In the second act of ''Tosca'', according to Newman, Puccini rises to his greatest height as a master of the musical macabre.<ref>Newman, p. 235</ref> The act begins quietly, with Scarpia musing on the forthcoming downfall of Angelotti and Cavaradossi, while in the background a [[gavotte]] is played in a distant quarter of the Farnese Palace. For this music Puccini adapted a fifteen-year-old student exercise by his late brother, Michele, stating that in this way his brother could live again through him.<ref name="Burton130">Burton et al., pp. 130–131</ref> In the dialogue with Spoletta, the "torture" motif—an "ideogram of suffering", according to Budden—is heard for the first time as a foretaste of what is to come.<ref name="Os139" /><ref>Budden, p. 212</ref> As Cavaradossi is brought in for interrogation, Tosca's voice is heard with the offstage chorus singing a cantata, "[its] suave strains contrast[ing] dramatically with the increasing tension and ever-darkening colour of the stage action".<ref>Newman, pp. 233–234</ref> The cantata is most likely the ''Cantata a Giove'', in the literature referred to as a lost work of Puccini's from 1897.<ref name="Burton130" />

Osborne describes the scenes that follow—Cavaradossi's interrogation, his torture, Scarpia's sadistic tormenting of Tosca—as Puccini's musical equivalent of ''[[Grand Guignol|grand guignol]]'' to which Cavaradossi's brief "Vittoria! Vittoria!" on the news of Napoleon's victory gives only partial relief.<ref name="Os140">Osborne, pp. 140–143</ref> Scarpia's aria "Già, mi dicon venal" ("Yes, they say I am venal") is closely followed by Tosca's "[[Vissi d'arte]]". A lyrical [[Andante (tempo)|andante]] based on Tosca's act 1 motif, this is perhaps the opera's best-known aria, yet was regarded by Puccini as a mistake;<ref>Greenfield, p. 136</ref> he considered eliminating it since it held up the action.<ref>Budden, p. 216</ref> Fisher calls it "a [[Job (biblical figure)|Job]]-like prayer questioning God for punishing a woman who has lived unselfishly and righteously".<ref name="Fisher33" /> In the act's finale, Newman likens the orchestral turmoil which follows Tosca's stabbing of Scarpia to the sudden outburst after the slow movement of [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Beethoven's Ninth Symphony]].<ref>Newman, p. 244</ref> After Tosca's contemptuous "E avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma!" ("All Rome trembled before him"), sung on a [[C♯ (musical note)|middle C{{sharp}}]] monotone <ref>In the first edition the line was recited later, on the D{{Music|#}} before rehearsal 65. See Appendix 2g (Ricordi 1995, p. LXIV){{incomplete short citation|date=June 2022}}</ref> (sometimes spoken),<ref name="Os140" /> the music gradually fades, ending what Newman calls "the most impressively macabre scene in all opera."<ref>Newman, p. 245</ref> The final notes in the act are those of the Scarpia motif, softly, in a minor key.<ref>Budden, p. 217</ref>

=== Act 3 ===
[[File:Mario cavaradossi, Opera Tosca, Giacomo Puccini. Inspired by the tenor Giancarlo Monsalve..png|thumb|Mario Cavaradossi (modelled on tenor [[Giancarlo Monsalve]]) singing "E lucevan le stelle" in a painting by Riccardo Manci]]
The third act's tranquil beginning provides a brief respite from the drama. An introductory 16-bar theme for the [[French horn|horns]] will later be sung by Cavaradossi and Tosca in their final duet. The orchestral prelude which follows portrays the Roman dawn; the pastoral aura is accentuated by the shepherd boy's song, and the sounds of sheep bells and church bells, the authenticity of the latter validated by Puccini's early morning visits to Rome.<ref name="Fisher20" /><ref name="Os140" /> Themes reminiscent of Scarpia, Tosca and Cavaradossi emerge in the music, which changes tone as the drama resumes with Cavaradossi's entrance, to an orchestral statement of what becomes the melody of his aria "[[E lucevan le stelle]]".<ref name="Os140" />

This is a farewell to love and life, "an anguished lament and grief built around the words 'muoio disperato' (I die in despair)".<ref>Fisher, p. 26</ref> Puccini insisted on the inclusion of these words, and later stated that admirers of the aria had treble cause to be grateful to him: for composing the music, for having the lyrics written, and "for declining expert advice to throw the result in the waste-paper basket".<ref>Ashbrook, p. 82</ref> The lovers' final duet "Amaro sol per te", which concludes with the act's opening horn music, did not equate with [[Giulio Ricordi|Ricordi]]'s idea of a transcendental love duet which would be a fitting climax to the opera. Puccini justified his musical treatment by citing Tosca's preoccupation with teaching Cavaradossi to feign death.<ref name="Fisher27" />

[[File:Puccini - Tosca - The execution of Cavaradossi - The Victrola book of the opera.jpg|thumb|left|240px|alt= A row of soldiers, left, aim their rifles at a lone figure, right, while (centre) an officer raises his sword as a signal. An agitated woman, extreme left, turns her face from the scene.|The execution of Cavaradossi. Soldiers fire, as Tosca looks away. Metropolitan Opera before 1914.]]
In the execution scene which follows, a theme emerges, the incessant repetition of which reminded Newman of the Transformation Music which separates the two parts of act&nbsp;1 in Wagner's ''[[Parsifal]]''.<ref>Newman, p. 150</ref> In the final bars, as Tosca evades Spoletta and leaps to her death, the theme of "E lucevan le stelle" is played ''tutta forze'' (as loudly as possible). This choice of ending has been strongly criticised by analysts, mainly because of its specific association with Cavaradossi rather than Tosca.<ref name="bud222" /> [[Joseph Kerman|Kerman]] mocked the final music, "Tosca leaps, and the orchestra screams the first thing that comes into its head."<ref name="scream">Nicassio, pp. 253–254</ref> [[Julian Budden|Budden]], however, argues that it is entirely logical to end this dark opera on its blackest theme.<ref name="bud222">Budden, p. 222</ref> According to historian and former opera singer Susan Vandiver Nicassio: "The conflict between the verbal and the musical clues gives the end of the opera a twist of controversy that, barring some unexpected discovery among Puccini's papers, can never truly be resolved."<ref name="scream" />