Date: |
Sun, 27 Aug 2000 15:32:43 +0200 |
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
This week I am listening to Tosca. I have got a few questions (or
thoughts) about the opera. For a few years I worked as a volunteer for
Amnesty International. So I consider myself still very sensitive towards
the subject of torture. The heart of Tosca is the torture scene. The
scene is a masterpiece and works brilliantly. But I could never get over
the feeling that the whole scene is - well, tasteless. Sung screams by
a torture victim? I have never seen Tosca on stage. I have seen a few
photographs of the scene: Cavaradossi usually is blood-stained - but not
very blood-stained. What are the experiences of the list members? Is there
a way of producing the opera that makes the torture more realistic - and
is this something to be desired? And then: Scarpia. A fantastic role,
a villian to the bone. But I have to think about Beethoven's Rocco, the
torturer. Rocco is a good soul but he helps starve Florestan to death -
because it is a command. This does not cease to astonish me in its truth.
And so - for me - Rocco is the far more interesting figure because Scarpia
is so one-dimensional but Rocco could be you and me. Comments?
Robert Peters
[log in to unmask]
PS The torturer in Tosca is called Robert. Well, that is NO name for a
torturer...
|
|
|