Tosca: Opening night

Opera Australia’s new season of Tosca runs from 12 November – 13 December at the Arts Centre. For full details go to www.opera.org.au

“Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore,” Tosca bemoans her fate. “I lived for art; I lived for love.”

John Bell, the Australian doyen of Shakespeare, has transplanted Tosca’s story to 1943, when Mussolini’s successors abandoned Rome to the invading German armies.  Michael Scott-Mitchell’s sets recreate the radiant, baroque interior of  Sant’Andrea della Valle church and, in cruel contrast, the grim, fascist architecture of Scarpia’s headquarters.