#devilishlyoperatic

On the technical side ideally my staging would require a turning circle stage thingy but I can come up with a couple of ways to do it differently from a technical standpoint if need be!

Floria Tosca, a celebrated jazz singer - soprano Mario Cavaradossi, a photographer - tenor Baron Scarpia, chief of police - baritone Cesare Angelotti, Civil Rights movement activist - bass A ‘Sacristan’ – a photography shop employee/janitor - baritone Spoletta, a police officer - tenor Sciarrone, another police officer - bass A Prison guard - bass A Car Wash ‘boy’ - alto Police officers, worshipers, various townsfolk

Ok, so while the public is gathering I want there to be the sun rise over the sea shore with beautiful cliffs projected onto the curtain… When the orchestra and the conductor’s in and we see a faded sign saying ‘Rome, IT’ with an impossible to read number of residents, like it’s smudged or something – it can be swiftly erected or simply projected onto the curtain. Three famous Scarpia accords and a disheveled man is running across the avant scene… The curtain goes up.

Act I 

In front of the audience there’s a square. A very recognizable Back to the Future/Gilmore Girls American screen town main square, but the coloring of everything is not bright… It’s like sepia-pastel. There’s a church (white with columns), a barber shop, a town hall with a tall clock tower and some other businesses including a photographer’s studio. As the scene rotates, we see the insides – the studio is divided into two parts – a public one with a lot of smiling families’ photos and a platform for staged photo shoots and a private one, where the photographs are developed. There’s a huge pink Cadillac golden-era-of-American-middle-class style parked in the square. 

The disheveled man (Angelotti) enters the square from the corner opposite to the parked car nursing an injured arm in a makeshift sling. He searches the base of one of the church’s columns, finds a key, wants to run to the car but sees a cop, who is putting a piece of paper with a fine on the windshield. The man freezes and hides in the photo shop instead.

An elderly black guy wearing his best church clothes with a paper bag full of food enters the stage, he sees that the photographer’s door is ajar, enters the shop, takes off his hat and jacket, puts on an apron and starts straightening the shop up. Then the photographer himself enters and the action shifts to the back room where he looks through the negatives and photos – these are photos of demonstrations and civil rights movement unrest and not of smiling families. Finally he comes across a very artistic photo of a woman – we can’t see her full face but she’s blond and beautiful, she’s covering herself with a big feathery fan. ‘Recondita armonia’. The black man sweeps the floor disapprovingly and finally makes the photographer go to the front part of the shop while he cleans the dark room.

The disheveled man appears from behind the folding screen. Their exchange ensues. They keep looking out of the window but there are more and more people and what’s more important cops in the square – the shops are opening. The photographer hears his lover approaching and hides the man again, having given him the bag of food. Photographer’s lover – a jazz singer appears in a magnificent white dress with flowers clearly given to her by her fans. She’s a gorgeous black woman. He goes outside to talk to her – she’s suspicious and unhappy to talk to him in the street where everybody can see them, they come inside, the scene continues until she sees the blond woman’s photo left on the counter. She’s jealous and furious. He finally rips the photo to pieces and she leaves. Photographer sends the man in the apron out to give the flowers his lover left back to her and while he’s gone leaves with the man through the back door.

The police enter the square. The police chief sees the pink car then the photo shop – the only shop with the sign ‘closed’ on the door and goes straight to it with his men. They search the shop, then the black man comes back, then the singer. The policemen show the chief, who is playing with a fan used in the blond woman’s photo, the paper bag and some bloody rags – the man’s sling is among them – it definitely was a woman’s pink neckerchief once. They break the door and go into the back room and find the photos and negatives. When the singer comes the police chief shows her more photos and negatives with the blond woman on them. She leaves to confront her lover. 

There are more and more people coming into the square – children are running around, playing and mocking the old black man at times. The police chief comes and everyone’s apprehensive when it becomes apparent that people are here to see the travelling preacher – a scene of American protestant fundamentalist rampant religious devotion ensues – with people shaking, speaking in tongues, falling to the ground maybe… Some are instantly cured by the preacher’s touch. Finally he’s lifted on the people’s shoulders and brought into the church. ‘Ta Deum’ – the police chief stands in front of the whole scene and during the final accords he slashes the tires of the pink Cadillac.

Act II

The objects in the square are rearranged like we look at them from a different angle, and a temporary scene is near the end of being finished – carpenters are collecting their tools, some other people are putting patriotic decorations around, some musicians are already here rehearsing or taking their instruments out of their cases behind the drawn curtain – in front of the curtain there’s a lot of public walking in the square. It’s getting late.

As the stage piece turns we see the insides of the police chief’s office: every inch of the walls is covered with the hunting trophies. There’s a massive – totalitarian dictator style table and a window into the square. The whole scene goes in this room without turning back into the square. There are plenty of steal arms and firearms in the room but Tosca kills Scarpia with the knife he leaves on the table recklessly and she takes the knife with her afterwards. (I want her to wear the red dress. Her dress should be the brightest spot in the whole performance and I want her to stick the knife into his neck. I want blood!)

I also want her to leave him in a natural pose – like she definitely wanted to cover the killing. She was going to at least try to save her lover and get away for as long as possible. I want to see (and hear) that determination!

Act III 

In this part, the scene is again divided into three segments. One is a brick wall with a police car standing in front of it. A car wash boy (it’s really a girl dressed as a boy in the overalls, a white sleeveless top and a peaked cap brings a bucket of foamy water and starts washing the police car. A couple of cops are smoking and ogling… And I really want the cops to look repulsive – don’t give me a bunch of cute mimans guys – give me older, overweight and bold with sweaty armpits…

Then the stage turns and reveals two segments separated by a brick wall – I want it to divide the scene in two equal parts at this point – one is a back room of a police station where Mario is held in a cage. While the other is the street/yard next to it. In the background of the street segment we can see the night sky – the same one we saw over the see before the start so we get the sense that there’s a precipice there. (Maybe even put a danger sign on the brink or something!) The sky’s getting lighter as the act progresses.

The jailer lets Mario out of his cage to write the letter, but never leaves him alone – stands in the corner and smokes instead. The condemned talks to Tosca through the bars, then she’s escorted into the street rather unceremoniously. Next, the cops beat him senseless and finally shoot him in the back through a pillow to muffle the sound, then they stage a break-out attempt and finally push his body into the street. Tosca runs to him and discovers he’s dead.  

Next, all hell breaks loose, but I want her to fight using the knife, not just run away, and then jump. Oh, and she’s wearing male clothes, very similar to her lover’s clothes, like she’s wearing his clothes (but they magically kind of fit her, you know like it happens in movies).