Robert Clements:

>Puccini set it to music in the tradition of verisimo; which was a pulp
>opera style which was frankly much closer in spirit to the Theatre du Grand
>Guignol in Paris than the current operatic museums in which the scores
>are performed.  Like aIt the best verisimo operas (Pagliacci; M.Butterfly;
>etc).

It has been much discussed whether Puccini belongs or not to verismo,
but that discussion is mainly literary, not musical.  Concerning Tosca,
the drama written by Victorien Sardou and set into a libretto by Illica
and Giacosa is very far from the literary roots of verismo (Zola, G.Verga,
etc.).  Verismo is not a "pulp" opera style, and does not consists simply
of "shocking" scenes.  As a highly literary product (a son of french
naturalism), it had some other purposes than just entertaining.  So, Tosca
does not belongs to verismo just for having a torture scene.  Besides, I
find that scene particularly beautiful: it's just the expression of the
inmense love that Scarpia feels for Tosca.  Of course, we can admit some
stylistic objections (ie.  writing a poem for her would be better than
torturing her boyfriend to death), but who can judge a man in love?.

Pablo Massa
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