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
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PS The torturer in Tosca is called Robert. Well, that is NO name for a
torturer...