Welcome to our 2024-25 season! We are thrilled to welcome you to the Mahalia Jackson Theater, our home for presenting large-scale operas with our partners at the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.
My favorite thing about opera is its shapeshifting, collaborative quality. Opera can be satisfying in a warehouse, a small museum exhibit, outdoors in an amphitheater, or here in the proscenium arch. The scale matters less than the quality of the work and the commitment to the lyric voice—the unamplified sound of a human voice telling a story through music.
This season marks my first as your general and artistic director, with a series of productions planned by my wonderful predecessor celebrating the 130th anniversary of Samson & Delilah’s American debut as well as honoring local excellence.
New Orleans Opera has long been a platform for rising and major stars of the opera galaxy. We are excited to present our new concert series, Ma Maison, hosting New Orleanian singers who are making an impression on national and international stages. We are lucky to live in a hotbed of musical talent.
In that vein I am beyond delighted that we will welcome my dear colleague, the illustrious Raehann Bryce-Davis, in a company role debut with us in Samson & Delilah in November; it’s going to be a remarkable performance. Not only that, but our partnership with the Mayor’s Office to present a masterclass with our friends at Dillard, Xavier, and Southeastern LA Universities will share her expertise with a new generation of future stars. Those curious for a foretaste of Ms. Bryce-Davis’ artistry can catch her in concert on the lawn at the Guild Home on October 22nd.
There is simply too much excitement to share with you here about the upcoming season. So, please do make sure you’re following us through our newsletter or social media channels. You’ll not want to miss what’s coming. It remains only to thank all of you for a stupendous welcome to New Orleans. Thank you –and welcome to the opera!
Lila Palmer, General and Artistic Director
Denise Villeré Schimek Fund for Women Artists
Denise Villeré Schimek
July 24, 1950 – August 29, 2024
In memory of beloved musician, guild member, and opera lover, the Denise Villeré Schimek Fund for Women Artists has been established.
Please consider making a donation in her memory.
WELCOME
Welcome to the New Orleans Opera’s 2024-2025 season. We are excited to open this season here on the stage of the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts with Puccini’s Tosca. A perennial favorite, Tosca sweeps us into a world of passionate love affairs and deadly politics, the drama fueled by Puccini’s magnificent score. We will meet again here for the sumptuous lyricism of Samson and Delilah and the delightful and touching comedy of The Elixir of Love, and on other stages for chamber opera, concerts and recitals. It will be a season of great opera you will love.
I am thrilled to welcome our new General and Artistic Director, Lila Palmer, whose appointment was announced earlier this year. Her tenure with us began in May, and she has brought a contagious energy and enthusiasm. Lila has exciting plans for us, and we look forward to great things from her and her team.
We are gratified to have you all in the audience today, and we hope to see you at our upcoming productions as well. As always, we want to offer you beautiful and exciting productions that you’ll find entertaining and enlightening. I truly believe that the arts make us better people – that they’re worthwhile because of the joy and humanity they impart. I hope you leave the theater today thinking so as well. Thank you for being here and for supporting us in our mission to share the joy of opera.
Lastly, I want to say thank you to everyone who plays a part in getting our operas onto the stage – our soloists, chorus, orchestra musicians, set designers and builders, lighting designers and technicians, costumers and wigmakers, makeup artists, stage directors and managers, and our own office staff and Scenic Studio crew who work tirelessly throughout the year. There are so many talented people who contribute to the shows you see on the stage. New Orleans Opera simply could not exist without their talent and hard work. Please join me in a resounding “Bravo!” for them all.
Emmet Geary, Jr., Board President
NOOA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mr. Emmet Geary, Jr. President
Mrs. Mary Chapman Albert Vice President
Dr. Nicolas Bazan
Mr. Peter Brigandi
Mr. Joseph Bruno
Mr. Arthur A. Crais Jr.
Miss Babs Deacon
Ms. Laura Donnaway
Dr. Patrick J. Dowling
Dr. Constance Gistand
Mr. Bruce A. Gordon
Mr. James C. Gulotta, Jr.
Ms. Pauline Hardin
Ms. Sonya K. Moore Treasurer
Prof. Ronald J. Scalise, Jr. Secretary
Mrs. Adrea Heebe
Mrs. Rania Khodr
Mrs. Elizabeth Mahorner Landis
Mrs. Christine LeBlanc
Ms. Joanne Mantis
Mr. Edward F. Martin
Mr. Jonathan C. McCall
Ms. Norma Jean McClain
Dr. R. Ranney Mize
Dr. David W. Robinson-Morris
Ms. Ann Owens
Dr. Everett Robert
Dr. Rand Voorhies Development Officer
Mr. Dwayne O. Littauer
Immediate Past President
Mr. Gregory St. Etienne
Prof. Cynthia Samuel
Mr. Leopold Z. Sher
Mr. Kevin Sloan
Mrs. Harry C. (Claire) Stahel
Mr. Philip Straub
Mrs. Charlotte Throop
Ms. Phyllis Treigle
Ms. Catherine Burns Tremaine
Ms. Jessica Williams
Mr. Joseph Young
NOOA ADVISORY BOARD
Mrs. Virgene Biggers
Mrs. Margie Breeden
Ms. Elizabeth “Liz” Glaser Broekman
Ms. Michelle Butler
Dr. Mark Caldwell
Mrs. Eileen Capritto
Mrs. Kathy Christian
Ms. Rebeccka Coe
Ms. Joan Coulter
Mr. Georges Daou
Mrs. Thomas S. Davidson
Mrs. Monique R. Gougisha Doucette
Mrs. Betsy Dowling
Mr. Brooke Duncan
Dr. Charles L. Dupin
Mrs. Diane Dupin
Ms. Marlene Duronslet
Mr. Elroy W. Eckhardt
Mrs. Melissa Mason Gordon
Ms. Amanda Green
Mr. Douglas Grundmeyer
Mr. Michael Harold
Ms. Melissa Hess
Hon. Bernette J. Johnson
Ms. Givonna Joseph
Ms. Rose LeBreton
Ms. Lisa Leone
Mr. Frank Maselli
Mrs. Gail McKenna
Dr. Jane Cagan Miller
Mrs. Susan Garic Mitchell
Mrs. Pat Murrell
Mr. Ernest L. O’Bannon
Prof. Amy Pfrimmer
Ms. Ashley Pradel
Dr. Alan E. Sheen
Mrs. Brittany Sloan
Mrs. Sonda Stacey
Ms. Diana Stieffel
Dr. Peter M. Tufton
Ms. Debby Hirsch Wood
presents
TOSCA
music by Giacomo Puccini
libretto by Luigi Illica • Giuseppe Giacosa based on the play La Tosca by Victorien Sardou
Friday, September 27, 7:30pm
Sunday, September 29, 2:30pm
Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts
Tosca Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Act I
Rome, June 1800
The Church of Sant’ Andrea della Valle INTERMISSION
Act II
That Evening
Baron Scarpia’s apartments in the Farnese Palace INTERMISSION
Act III
Dawn, the following morning
The rampart of the Castle Sant’Angelo
This evening’s performance will last approximately 2 hours 40 minutes.
Conductors for New Orleans Opera are generously sponsored by the Jerry W. Zachary and Henry Bernstein Fund for the New Orleans Opera Association.
Student Night Out Dress Rehearsals are made possible with generous support from The Louise Baehr Martin Memorial Fund.
TOSCA
Opera in three acts
FEATURING
in order of appearance
Floria Tosca Melody Moore
Mario Cavadarossi Dominick Chenes
Baron Scarpia Reginald Smith, Jr.
Cesare Angelotti Edwin Jhamal Davis
A Sacristan Ivan Griffin
Spoletta Orlando Montalvo
Sciarrone Spencer Reichman
A Jailer Kenneth Weber
A Shepherd Boy Friday - Susana Cuartas
Sunday - Sienna Sloss
ARTISTIC STAFF
Stage Director Christopher Mattaliano
Conductor George Manahan
Lighting Designer Don Darnutzer
Hair & Makeup Designer Laurin Hart
Chorus Master Carol Rausch
Fight Director Mike Yahn
Intimacy Director R'Myni Watson
Production Manager Sarah McCall
Technical Director Stephen Thurber
Costumer Lesly Davi
Stage Manager Johnny Motoc
Asst. Stage Manager Emma Kay Staunton
Asst. Stage Manager Emily Holter
Assistant Lighting Designer Brendon Mullenix
Property Master Lexi Mancuso
Scenic Artist Nathan Arthur
Rehearsal Pianist Sean Kelly
Supertitles Prompter Beth Rota
Supertitles by Brett Finley
Costumes provided by Sarasota Opera Association, Inc.
ADULT CHORUS
SOPRANO
Maureen Bellina
Margaret Branyon-Goodman
Kaylee Gonzalez
Alyssa Hernandez
Sofia Riggio
Gloria Singleton
Brigid Van Timmeren
Taylor Witherspoon
ALTO
Emily Adler Bode
Mirella Cavalcante
Rachel Davidson
Olivia Solloa Garcia
Juliana Starr
Jane Wear
TENOR
Justin Eifert
Alan Gandolfi
Frederick George
Thomas Lin
Charles Mukaida
Hugo Pinto
Michael Robillard
Juan Luis Williams
BARITONE/BASS
Andrew Aceves
David Hinton
Richard Hofler
Jake Jenkins
Johnny Missakian
Jeffrey Newell
Nathaniel Richard
Nicholas Yetter
SUPERNUMERARIES
Maria Loo-Weaver
Carla Pittari
Michael Nuwer
CHILDREN’S CHORUS
Lola Bolivar
Caroline Briscoe
Susana Cuartos
Clodomir Garside
Isabella Hall
Scarletta Jones
Delilah Noble
Elizabeth O’Connor
Lam Phan
Sienna Sloss
Malia Suggs
Sawyer Uhlman
PROGRAM NOTE
Tosca begins with a snarl; a snarl so villainous, so egregious, so diabolical that it isn’t equaled until Darth Vader smashes inexorably onto screen seventy-three years later. The owner of this hideous growl isn’t onstage, though, yet. Instead he lurks in the edges like an evil yellow vapour, infecting every moment with menace.
The snarl, for the record, begins on B-flat, but ends on a low e-natural. Remember this note. The journey from one of these to the other is what church musicians (yes, including Puccini) knew as “the devil in music” for centuries.
A snarl, then a quick sprinkle of music to lighten the mood, and Puccini has us in the action. And action is the keyword of this music-drama. When I was your age,* television shows and most movies took their sweet time to get to the action. We had a theme tune, and at least a scene if not two of nothing much happening. Light laughs and character establishment luxuriated the time until a tiny bit of dramatic development just before the first commercial.
Likewise, there is a tradition in opera of what one might generously call time and space for beauty and reflection; for all the disciplines to have their moment to shine. Anywhere from one to four overtures for the orchestra to whip the crowd up; recitative (musical speech) moves the action like slow-motion chess; arias reflect each character’s inner drama, choruses reflect on the larger drama, and small ensembles excel at the comic presentation of dilemmas. Add a few moments for the ballet to do their thing, some small plays between acts as mental sorbet, and you have the entertainment for a full evening from cocktail hour to midnight. The experience, rather than the drama, reigns.
Puccini and his librettists, whose ruthless pruning took a five-act play and trimmed it to two, had neither time nor tolerance for this kind of luxury. Instead they grab us by the collar, pin us to the seat, and sweep us through the unfolding of inexorable tragedy with characters still relatable 220 years after the drama’s setting. We know these folks, or at least their types: Mario Cavaradossi, an artist whose passions are paint, politics and pretty women; Floria Tosca, the opera star released from religious vows to make music for the glory of God, nervously enamored of her Mario; Cesare Angelotti, an aristocratic political agitator recently escaped from prison; and snarling Baron Scarpia, whose obsessive lust for Floria drives his actions as head of the secret police. Mario’s quick idealism opens him to prosecution; the foolish sacristan (a church role somewhere between janitor, stage manager, and valet) rats him out from sheer irritation at his disrespect. Listen, by the way, for a little hitch in the Sacristan’s music, designed to make him look foolish. Oh, and there’s, inevitably, an evil henchman, Spoletta, and lackeys: Sciarrone and the Jailer
In
the play, Tosca was written for La divine, Sarah Bernhardt, whose pet lion was named – no joke – Scarpia.
Like all good drama, Tosca coincides with a party. The Royalist regime thinks it has won against Napoleon’s republican forces, and celebrates in true Godfather style; have a party, while rounding up and killing all your enemies. Scarpia is the blunt instrument, sniffing out traitors, growling at choirboys, demonic among the clanging bells and shouting trumpets singing a Catholic hymn of victory. With another team this would mean a simple crowd scene; but while the Te Deum roars away the drama gathers, Scarpia finding his evidence and making his plan. In short, it’s like life: the action never stops. And the snarl pervades the action, present wherever the machinations of Scarpia reign, even when he’s not there.
The loudest bell, and the lowest, is e-natural again. Do you sense a theme?
This is not the place to spoil the plot for you; but in the whole opera, which whips by in just two hours (excluding intermissions), there are only two real moments of reflection, and they are famous for good reason. One is from Mario, a glimmering memory of a night with Floria, thinking he will never see her again. In another, Floria reflects on what feels like abandonment despite dedicating her life to others in art. The latter was almost cut by Puccini despite its shimmering beauty because – you may have guessed it – it didn’t move the action.
But the momentum cannot be resisted. The big e-natural bell sounds again; the snarl rips out, and the tragedy unfolds. And if the sheer glory of the human voice, unamplified, at the height of emotion, overwhelms you: don’t worry. We have tissues, and this is why we come back to this again and again. Enjoy yourself.
*yes, you may roll your eyes, even if you’re older than I Want to know more?
There are movies from 1988 and 2001, the latter featuring real-life lovers Angela Gheorgiu and Roberto Alagna. That’s not all, though, the story is so cinematic that it has been filmed a half a dozen times since the advent of talkies; it has inspired a band, a peacekeeping mission, and weirdly, a not-very-exciting mid-level sedan. Check Youtube or Amazon or your favourite streaming service!
University of Louisiana musicologist Susan Vandiver Nicassio wrote the fascinating deep-dive Tosca’s Rome; The Play and Opera in Historical Perspective, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1999. Floria Tosca is That Role for the greatest sopranos: I can heartily recommend any recording with Leontyne Price, Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas, Monserrat Caballé, Renata Scotto, or any of a multitude of great stars. Tenors have the same attitude to Cavadarossi, so look under ‘albums’ in your audio streaming service of choice and listen to a few. It will be worth the time spent.
The podcast Aria Code has episodes for both E lucevan e stelle and Vissi d’arte interviewing performers and ordinary folk whose lives reflect the aria. Check the podcast option for your device or their website. Daniel Schmid’s Tosca’s Kiss is a beautiful and elegiac look at music and aging. Amazon again. Youtube has a 1983 documentary with interviews of some of the most famous Toscas entitled “I Live for Art.” They are interviewed by Robert Merrill who sang… Scarpia!!
Melody Moore
Soprano Melody Moore is enjoying a thriving career on the world’s leading stages, prompting Opera News to label her “a revelation,” and of her sold-out appearance at Carnegie Hall to rave, “As I left the auditorium, I could only think: more of Moore, please.”
Last season, Ms. Moore joined the Baltimore Symphony for Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony, the Los Angeles Master Chorale for Verdi’s Requiem, and headed back into the studio for two projects: a new recording with San Francisco Classical Recording Company, singing the title role in Norma; and a new recording of Gordon Getty’s opera Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Ms. Moore recently enjoyed a triumphant return to Los Angeles Opera, repeating her tremendous success in the role of Amneris in Aida. Concert highlights have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Mother in Hänsel und Gretel with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. We also saw the release of Moore’s interpretation of the title role in Madama Butterfly (available on Pentatone) and the recording of a critically acclaimed concert of Tosca, captured live in Berlin, Germany. Ms. Moore has continued to remain active in the recording studio, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary soprano Renata Tebaldi with the newly released Remembering Tebaldi.
Dominick Chenes
Reviewed in the Huffington Post as a “breakout star” and “powerhouse lyric tenor”, Dominick Chenes’ engagements in 2024-25 include his house debut as Pollione for Oper Leipzig, Turiddu with Opera Orlando, Erik in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer with Oper im Steinbruch, and a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Greenhorn in Moby-Dick (cover). His previous season included performances as Pollione in Norma with the Boston Youth Symphony, the title role of Hoffmann in Les contes d’Hoffmann for Palm Beach Opera, and Nicias in Thaïs for Utah Opera. Other recent engagements include Cavaradossi in Tosca for the Metropolitan Opera (cover), his role debut as Canio in I Pagliacci for the Sacramento Philharmonic, a return to Seattle Opera for Alfredo in La traviata, a return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the title role of Don Carlos (cover), Pollione in Norma for Musica Viva Hong Kong, the Verdi Requiem for the Reading Symphony, and Don José in Carmen for Palm Beach Opera. Mr. Chenes was awarded second prize from the Gerda Lissner Foundation, third prize from the Mario Lanza Competition and a grant from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation. He was also a finalist in the Meistersinger Competition in Graz, Austria.
Reginald Smith, Jr.
In the 2024-25 season, GRAMMY and Emmy Award-winning baritone Reginald Smith, Jr. takes on the roles of Scarpia in Tosca at the New Orleans Opera and Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana with the Sacramento Philharmonic, and returns to Washington National Opera as the title role in Porgy and Bess. He performs as a featured soloist in concerts with the New Jersey Symphony led by Xian Zhang, the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Memphis Symphony, and in a solo recital at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, South Carolina. In Spring 2025, Smith makes his Baltimore Symphony Orchestra debut as Amonasro in a staged version of Aida. Last season, Smith made his Santa Fe Opera debut as Scarpia in Tosca and returned to the Houston Grand Opera to take on the title role in Falstaff
He sang the role of Amonasro in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Aida immediately after jumping in for the company’s production of Terence Blanchard’s Champion. In concert, he returned as the featured baritone soloist for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Pops performances.
Edwin Jhamal Davis
Praised for his “room-filling bass”, basso profondo Edwin Jhamal Davis is an artist on the rise. Last season, Mr. Davis made house debuts in X: The Life & Times of Malcolm X with The Metropolitan Opera as Garvey Preacher and with Seattle Opera as Bass 2, a role he reprised from the previous season with Opera Omaha. He also joined First Coast Opera, Amelia Island Opera, Opera Montana, and Opera Memphis for Colline in La bohème. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in Mozart’s Requiem and sang the bass solo in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. This season, he returns to Seattle Opera as the Second Armored Man in Die Zauberflöte. He recently completed his tenure as a Glynn Studio Artist with The Atlanta Opera, where he sang roles such as Masetto in Don Giovanni. With San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola Opera Program, he performed Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, as well as excerpts from Macbeth as Banquo.
Ivan Griffin
Bass-baritone Ivan Griffin has delighted audiences in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Holland, and South Africa. Operatic engagements include Lawyer Frazier in Michigan Opera Theatre’s Porgy and Bess, a role that he was invited to reprise in Europe under the batons of maestros William Barkhymer and Kelly Kuo. He made his Spoleto Festival USA 2016 debut in Porgy and Bess, and as the King in the world premiere of Afram ou la Belle Swita by Edmund Thornton Jenkins. Additionally, he has appeared with the Detroit, New Orleans, Mobile, Buffalo Lyric, Western New York, and South Carolina Operas, and OperaCréole. Mr. Griffin has premiered several works written for his voice. They include Songs of Winter , a cycle for baritone and piano, and The Little Thieves of Bethlehem (Centaur Records), both by Rochester, New York composer Paul Stuart, and Requiem for the Innocent , an oratorio in five languages for baritone soloist, orchestra, and chorus written by Spanish composer Jorge Muñiz and premiered with the South Bend Symphony. Ivan’s 2018 debut album, Finding My Way Back To M e, is a tribute to his journey from the early years of growing up in Louisiana to the present day.
Orlando Montalvo Avalo
Tenor Orlando Montalvo Avalo has been acknowledged internationally as a skilled, versatile artist across a wide span of genres, including opera, musical theater, and oratorio. In May 2024, Orlando participated in Opera Company of Middlebury’s Young Artist Program, where he portrayed Dormont in G. Rossini's La scala di seta . In September 2023, he made his professional debut with New Orleans Opera as Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro . Additionally, he made his LSU Opera debut as Justice Antonin Scalia in Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg . For the past three seasons, he has been part of the College Light Opera Company in Falmouth, Massachusetts, appearing as Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance , Alexis in The Sorcerer , and Alfred in Die Fledermaus . He holds degrees from Louisiana State University and Rhode Island College.
Spencer Reichman
Spencer Reichman is a talented baritone from Austin, Texas, who has built an impressive career in opera and concert. In 2024, he joins the Florentine Opera as Biscroma Strappaviscere in Viva la Mamma, returns to New Orleans Opera as Sciarrone in Tosca, sings the title role in Zozobra: The Revenge at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, and is heard as Le Baron de Pictordu in Cendrillon at Knoxville Opera. In 2023, he covered Ophémon in The Anonymous Lover and Orpheus in Aucoin’s Eurydice at Boston Lyric Opera, sang the Huntsman in Rusalka and Sacristan in Tosca, both with the Santa Fe Opera, Germont in La traviata with Shreveport Opera, made a debut as Mr. Ford in Falstaff with Salt Marsh Opera and sang Paris in Roméo et Juliette with Opera San Antonio. Role highlights include Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Central City and Shreveport Operas, Sprecher in Magic Flute with Pensacola Opera, Schaunard in La bohème with New Orleans Opera Association, and the title role in Gianni Schicchi with Loyola Opera Theatre. Spencer has also sung with Opera Saratoga, Nashville Opera, Central City Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and the Crested Butte Music Festival.
Kenneth Weber
Kenneth Weber has performed frequently with New Orleans Opera, where his roles have included Masetto in Don Giovanni, Nourabad in The Pearl Fishers, the Speaker in The Magic Flute and dozens of comprimario roles. Ken has also performed leading roles with Mobile Opera (Conte di Luna, Sweeney Todd), Shreveport Opera (Germont), Opera Las Vegas (Tonio), Opera in the Ozarks (Olin Blitch), and the Loyola University Opera Theater (Pangloss/Volataire, Sarastro, Gianni Schicchi, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Dulcamara, Leporello). A native of Los Angeles, Mr. Weber now works full-time as a University Minister at Loyola University New Orleans.
Christopher Mattaliano
In his distinguished career, Christopher Mattaliano has directed opera productions for The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Minnesota Opera, and New York City Opera. His international credits include productions for L’Opéra de Nice, L’Opéra de Montréal, Canadian Opera Company, Spoleto’s Festival dei Due Mondi, and Den Norske Opera. Recent engagements include Die Zauberflöte with Washington National Opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia with Dallas Opera and Cincinnati Opera--a revival of an earlier production he directed for Portland Opera and Michigan Opera Theatre, a new production of Rigoletto at Opera Colorado, and Anna Bolena at AVA in Philadelphia. Future productions include Il trovatore at Opera Colorado. Christopher Mattaliano directed the world premieres of Hugo Weisgall’s Esther for New York City Opera, jazz composer Fred Ho’s Journey Beyond the West for Brooklyn Academy of Music, Peter Westergaard’s The Tempest for Opera Festival of New Jersey, and the American premiere of Veniamin Fleischman’s Rothschild’s Violin for Juilliard Opera.
Mr. Mattaliano served as General Director of Portland Opera from 2003 to 2019, and was responsible for all artistic, financial, and administrative aspects of the company. He directed several productions, including Pagliacci/Carmina Burana, Il viaggio a Reims, L’heure espagnole, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Albert Herring, Candide, Falstaff, and Die Zauberflöte.
Mr. Mattaliano recently founded a new opera company, OrpheusPDX, based in Portland, OR, to produce professional opera on an intimate scale with an ensemble company of artists in summer residence. Now in its third season, the company’s mission is to touch the soul of the community through the power of great music and singing.
George Manahan
The wide-ranging and versatile George Manahan has enjoyed an esteemed career embracing everything from opera to the concert stage, the traditional to the contemporary. In addition, he continues his commitment to working with young musicians as Director of Orchestral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music as well as guest conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music and Merola Opera Program.
Mr. Manahan was the 2012 winner of the Ditson Conductor’s Award, which recognises conductors for their support of American music. Mr. Manahan’s guest appearances include the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, as well as the symphonies of Atlanta, San Francisco, Hollywood Bowl, and New Jersey, where he served as acting Music Director for four seasons. His many appearances on television include productions of La bohème, Lizzie Borden, and Tosca on PBS. Live from Lincoln Center’s telecast of New York City Opera’s production of Madame Butterfly under his direction won a 2007 Emmy Award.
George’s wide-ranging recording activities include the premiere recording of Steve Reich’s Tehillim for ECM; recordings of Edward Thomas’s Desire Under the Elms, which was nominated for a Grammy; Joe Jackson’s Will Power; and Tobias Picker’s Emmeline. His enthusiasm for contemporary music continues today; he has conducted numerous world premieres, including Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, Charles Wuorinen’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, David Lang’s Modern Painters, Hans Werner Henze’s The English Cat, and Terence Blanchard’s Champion. As Music Director of the Richmond Symphony (VA) for twelve years, he was honored four times by the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) for his commitment to new music.
Don Darnutzer
Don Darnutzer returns to design Tosca having designed lighting for over 30 productions for New Orleans Opera Association.
His most recent lighting and projection designs were for Streetcar Named Desire at Florida Grand Opera, Dead Man Walking at the Israel Opera in Tel Aviv, Cosi fan tutte for Palm Beach Opera and Lucia di Lammermoor at New Orleans Opera.
He designed the lighting for Broadway’s production of It Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues and OffBroadway productions of Hank Williams: Lost Highway, The Immigrant, Almost Heaven: John Denver’s America. He has designed for Atlanta Opera, Portland Opera, New Orleans Opera, Florentine Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, Minnesota Opera, Guthrie Theatre, The Denver Center Theater Company, Arizona Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, South Coast Repertory, American Conservatory Theatre, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Mark Taper Forum.
LOUISIANA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
The GRAMMY® Award-winning Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is pleased to perform with and support the New Orleans Opera in recognition of their shared commitment to the arts and our community. Both organizations are dedicated to providing high-quality performances that enrich the lives of people in New Orleans and beyond. The LPO is the only full-time professional orchestra in Louisiana, as well as the oldest musician-owned and collaboratively operated orchestra in the country. It has a long and distinguished history of serving as the torchbearer of orchestral music in the region and performs a wide variety of music, from the traditional canon to original contemporary collaborations. The LPO also offers a variety of educational and community engagement programs.
2024-2025 LPO Roster
Matthew Kraemer
Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin Principal Conductor and Music Director
Violins
Vacant, Concertmaster
The Edward D. and Louise Levy Concertmaster Chair
Benjamin Hart, Associate Concertmaster
The LPO Volunteers Associate Concertmaster Chair
Hannah Yim, Assistant Concertmaster
The Ranney & Emel Songu Mize Assistant Concertmaster Chair
Byron Tauchi, Principal Second Violin
The Helen W. Burns Principal Second Violin Chair
Hayoung Cho*, Assistant Principal Second Violin
Kurt Munstedt+, Assistant Principal Second Violin
Zorica Dimova
Rebecca Edge
Judith Armistead Fitzpatrick
Cassidy Franzmeier
Janeta Mavrova
Elizabeth Overweg
Gabriel Platica
Yaroslav Rudnytsky
Milena Rusanova
Yuki Tanaka
Benjamin Thacher
Kate Walter
Sarah Yen
Guangnan Daniel Yue Violas
Richard Woehrle, Principal
The Abby Ray Catledge and Byrne
Lucas Ray Principal Viola Chair
Bruce Owen, Assistant Principal
Peter Ayuso
Amelia Clingman
Peter Dutilly
Sixto Franco
Rafael Gargate*
Catherine Matushek
Cellos
Jonathan Gerhardt, Principal
The Edward B. Benjamin Principal Cello Chair
Daniel Lelchuk, Assistant Principal
The Ellen and Stephen Manshel Assistant
Principal Cello Chair
Kyle Anderson
Geunseon Han*
Rachel Hsieh+
Jeanne Jaubert
Kent Jensen
The Paula L. Maher Section Cello Chair
David Rosen
Basses
David Anderson, Principal
William Schettler, Assistant Principal
Paul Macres
Russell Thompson
Benjamin Wheeler
Flutes
Ji Weon Ryu, Principal
The Mary Freeman Wisdom Principal
Flute Chair
Patti Adams, Assistant Principal
The Richard C. and Nancy Link Adkerson
Flute Chair
Sarah Schettler
The Edward F. and Louise B. Martin
Second Flute Chair
Piccolo
Patti Adams
The Richard C. and Nancy Link Adkerson
Flute Chair
Oboes
Virginia McDowell, Principal
Jane Gabka, Assistant Principal
Casey Kearney
English Horn
Casey Kearney
Clarinets
Shaquille Southwell, Principal
Roy Park, Assistant Principal
John Reeks
E-flat Clarinet
Roy Park
Bass Clarinet
John Reeks
Bassoons
Michael Matushek, Assistant Principal
Hunter Gordon*
Contrabassoon
Hunter Gordon*
French Horns
Mollie Pate, Principal
The Jerry W. Zachary and Henry
Bernstein Principal Horn Chair
Josiah Bullach, Assistant Principal
The J. Robert Pope Assistant Principal
Horn Chair
Max Paulus
Jonathan Gannon
Kevin Winter
Trumpets
Alex Mayon, Principal
The Gauthier Family Foundation
Principal Trumpet Chair
Adrian Speyrer, Assistant Principal
Patrick Smithers
The Pete Wolbrette Section Trumpet Chair
Trombones
Austin Richardson, Principal
Matt Wright+
Jonathan McNeer*
Evan Conroy, Bass Trombone
Tuba
Robert Nuñez, Principal
Timpani
Meagan Gillis, Principal
Percussion
Aaron Smith, Principal
Michael Metz
Harp
Rachel Van Voorhees Kirschman, Principal
The string section of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is listed alphabetically and participates in revolving seating.
+denotes musicians that are on leave for the 2024-2025 season
* Acting Member
TOSCA SYNOPSIS
Plot summary by Christof Loy, courtesy of English National Opera
These are turbulent times in Rome.
A newly-founded free republic, which had overthrown the aristocracy’s supremacy, has been dissolved – once again the royalists have prevailed. Queen Maria-Carolina now rules Rome, allowing her chief of police to mercilessly arrest and execute her opponents, often without a trial.
The famed opera singer Floria Tosca’s lover Mario Cavaradossi, a painter, is among the opponents.
ACT I
The Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome, 1800, noon. Angelotti, a political prisoner, has escaped from Castel Sant’Angelo and takes cover in the church where his sister, the Marchesa Attavanti, has left him the key to the family chapel. He is discovered by the painter Mario Cavaradossi, who is painting an altarpiece. His portrait of Mary Magdalen is inspired by the Marchesa, whom he has observed in prayer. When the singer Floria Tosca, Cavaradossi’s lover, arrives, she recognizes the blue-eyed Magdalen as none other than the Marchesa herself. Tosca jealously insists that the figure be made to look more like her dark-eyed self, and leaves the church. Soon after, a cannon shot from the prison announces Angelotti’s escape and Cavaradossi hurries him away to hide in his country villa.
The Sacristan tells the choir of the reported defeat of Napoleon at Marengo, to be celebrated with a High Mass. Their jubilation is interrupted by Scarpia, the feared chief of police, who arrives with his men to search for Angelotti. Scarpia finds a fan with the Attavanti crest, part of a disguise left for Angelotti, as Tosca returns to tell Mario that she will sing for the Queen that night at the Palazzo Farnese. Scarpia uses her jealousy to sow seeds of doubt about her lover and the Marchesa; as Iago used a handkerchief to manipulate Othello, he will trap Tosca
ACT II
A few hours later, we find Scarpia in his quarters at the Palazzo Farnese, where Tosca will celebrate the victory over Napoleon with a cantata. Bad news awaits him: his agent Spoletta has followed Tosca to the villa, but he has only found Cavaradossi. Cavaradossi is taken into custody on suspicion of helping the fugi tive escape, but denies the allegations made against him. When Tosca arrives after her performance at Scarpia’s request, Scarpia orders Cavaradossi to be interrogated. Tosca realises that Cavaradossi is about to be forced to testify under torture. Scarpia makes it clear to Tosca that she can shorten his torture by cooperating. Though she tries to resist, she can’t withstand listening to Cavaradossi’s cries of pain and tells Scarpia about the hiding place. Scarpia immediately halts the torture, and with relish he orders the arrest of Angelotti in front of the two lovers. Cavaradossi realises that Tosca has betrayed him and curses her.
At the same time, Scarpia receives bad news from his valet Sciarrone: the victory over Napoleon was a false report and the royal army has been beaten. Cavaradossi strikes up a revolutionary song and insults Scarpia, calling him a tyrant and a murderer. With this, he seals his death sentence and Scarpia orders him to be taken away. Tosca remains, knowing that only she can save her lover’s life. The wealthy singer attempts to negotiate a ransom, but Scarpia makes it clear that he is not interested in money – his price is Tosca herself. Impudent and desperate in his greed, Scarpia tries to seize her. Finally, Tosca accepts the deal. Scarpia then orders Spoletta to perform a fake execution of Cavaradossi the next morning. Tosca wants to hand the execution order to Cavaradossi herself and explain the situation to him, as well as be present at the execution. She also forces Scarpia to sign a letter of safe conduct for her and Cavaradossi, so they can leave the area the next day. Once she is alone with Scarpia, she stabs him with a knife as he embraces her, grabs the letter and leaves the room.
ACT III
Cavaradossi is awaiting his execution. He listens to the sounds of the awakening Rome, and memories and dreams stir within him. Then the bitter reality of observing the signing of his execution order hits him. He regrets cursing Tosca and writes her a farewell letter. As he begins to slip into another daydream, he is startled by Tosca standing in front of him with the pass to freedom, signed by Scarpia himself. Still shaken by the past few hours, she describes the murder of Scarpia to her lover. Now she only dreams of one thing: a future in freedom, united with her lover far away in another country. Like a director, she explains the fake execution to Cavaradossi, in which he must play along like an actor in a drama. The curtain rises to this melodrama staged by Tosca – but she realises too late that her dream was nothing but a dream. The execution is not fake, the blood is real, and Cavaradossi is dead. Scarpia has betrayed her. Tosca jumps to her death from atop Castel Sant’Angelo.
An excerpt from Tosca’s Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective
by Susan Vandiver Nicassio
(The University of Chicago Press, 1999). Reprinted with permission.
.. Che lavoro d'orchestra e de violini, che motiei gustosi e originali!
Però li mezzi mejo, li più fini so' stati proprio quelli crericali.
Puccini ch'è 'n artista, un bon'amico, pe' vede tutti quanti entusiasmati, ha dovuto ricorre ar tempo antico!
Li pezzi ch'anno fatto più impressione defatti, fijo mio, quali so' stati?!
Tre: Campane, Te-Deum, e Pricissione!!
What a job for the orchestra and the violins!
What delightful and original tunes!
But the best methods, the finest, were precisely the clerical ones.
Puccini, who is an artist and a good friend, In order to see everyone get enthusiastic had to go back to the old times!
The pieces that made the biggest impression, In fact, my boy, what were they?!
Three: Bells, Te Deum, and Procession!!
First impressions can be revealing. This dialect poem appeared in La vera Roma a few days after Tosca's January 1900 premiere in Rome. In it the anonymous poet has put his finger on three themes that lie at the core of the opera: music, the Old Times (that is, papal Rome), and the Roman Catholic Church. And these three themes–religion, history, and music–provide the scope of this interdisciplinary exploration of the times, places, and ideas of Tosca.
In his study of Puccini, Michele Girardi notes that religion gives both Sardou's play (on which the opera was based) and Puccini's opera their ideological framework. While Puccini made skillful use of "local color" or atmosphere in all of his operas, nowhere is that atmosphere so important as in Tosca , where local color–that is, the re-creation of papal Rome–“not only provides a background for the action but motivates [the characters'] choices and their ideologies." This ideological focus is not immediately obvious because almost all of the political detail that was so important in the play La Tosca has been cut from the opera.
But one result of this cutting has been that the operatic drama is tied not to any specific historical or political events, but rather to the overpowering image of Rome as the center of Christianity. Victorien Sardou, the author of the play, used religion as a contrast to political liberalism; Puccini, who put no more faith in political liberalism than he put in the Church, presents both Church and State as hostile, and ultimately fatal, to the individual's futile struggle for happiness. How could he have done otherwise? Puccini the old "church mouse”–church musician and heir to church musicians; Puccini, the free thinker and libertine, living with another man's wife, seasoning his long-term adultery with short-term infidelities; Puccini, the favorite child of a pious widow, never quite losing his respect–or fear?–for "the faith of my mother"; Puccini, son of a troubled new Italy that had been born in conflict with the papacy; Puccini, the artist in a civilization that had traded tradition for progress and looked to Art as the language of the human spirit.
Religion in Rome, of course, is deeply embedded in history. And Tosca is by far the most obviously "historical" opera in the active repertoire, despite the fact that dozens of operas have plots that depend on more or less historical events and contexts. Only Tosca is pinned, like a butterfly to a card, to a specific year, month, and day; it is even bracketed within a specific set of hours. The opera's libretto contents itself with setting the story in "June 1800" but the events (and the Sardou play on which the opera is based) narrow down the time of the action to just over sixteen hours from a few minutes before midday on 17 June (the bell for the Angelus rings shortly after the curtain rises on Act I) to a few minutes after dawn on 18 June (the firing squad arrives for the hero as the bells strike "the fourth hour" and Tosca , waiting, frets that "the sun is already rising" ( già sorge il sole ).
The calendar and the clock are not the only things that tie Tosca to history. The plot revolves around historical events, from the fall of the Parthenopean Republic in Naples (June 1799--Angelotti, whose escape from prison sets the plot in motion, is a refugee from this debacle) to the battle of Marengo (14 June 1800--the hero Cavaradossi is so excited by news of this Napoleonic victory that he signs his own death warrant by shouting about it when the news reaches Rome on the night of 17 June). Sardou stuffed his play with enough historical and quasi-historical characters to create an illusion of authenticity that still deceives most commentators. Puccini and his librettists excised most of the supernumeraries (who include the real queen of Naples and the real governor of Rome), but the commentator who does a bit of rudimentary digging in the historical record discovers a tempting array of "real" Tosca s, Scarpias, Cavaradossis, and Angelottis.
It seems obvious, then, that an examination of the historical and religious background of the events and ideas portrayed in this very historical and religious opera should provide useful insights into the work, its genesis, its meaning, and its impact. But real history, like real life, is rarely simple. The first thing the historian notices is that the opera, like the play, is only indirectly concerned with the late eighteenth century or with Napoleonic Italy. If the work can be seen as a historical document (and it can), that document tells us less about 1800 than about the perception of 1800 that was current in France in the late 1880s (Sardou's play was first produced in November 1887) and in Italy a decade later (the opera Tosca was premiered in Rome in January 1900).
However, if Sardou's (and Puccini's) (La) Tosca taken at face value is not very good history, we should note that in certain circumstances, "bad" history, distorted through the preoccupations and prejudices of its practitioners, can tell us as much as "good" history. And when this bad history is embedded in a work of art, it can tell us a great deal indeed. A work of art such as Tosca internalizes and expresses the images of history useful to the time in which the art is created. This is especially clear in works that are below the first rank in artistic terms--a category into which Sardou's play certainly falls, and one to which not a few music critics would also consign the opera. If we examine the realities of eighteenth-century Rome, and look at the ways that Sardou and then Puccini and his librettists used those realities, we will understand more about the creative process and about the relationship between the artist and the historical context within which she or he works. This concept has taken hold during the past decade or so in the field of literary criticism under the title of the New Historicism. The "new historicism" acknowledges this close relationship between the writer and the historical context within which the writer works."
On the purely dramatic level, history fulfills a number of functions in both the play and the opera: it provides a framework on which to display the sex, self-sacrifice, and violent death that account for the visceral appeal of the work; it offers a psychic distance that makes the horrors of the plot more bearable; it elevates the sordid to the tragic. In terms of the creative process, history gives both Sardou, and Puccini and his librettists, a shorthand way of "plugging in" to powerful political, social, and cultural currents, allowing them to connect directly with a set of assumptions and emotional responses common to most members of their audience. This is true because both the play and the opera are built around one of the nodal points of Western self-definition: the myth of the French Revolution and Napoleon, a myth about liberty, individualism, and a militantly secular vision of the nature of the State. By attaching their plot(s) to this myth the creative artists have made connection with a set of ideas that remain sensitive in the popular subconscious. Sardou, a politicized Frenchman of the mid-nineteenth century, battered his audience with quasi-historical detail in order to make this connection. Puccini, appropriately for a turn-of-the-century Italian disillusioned with politics, savagely cut all the Sardovian verbiage, but the emotional punch that derives from the historical situation not only remains but is amplified: in the Te Deum, where the villain Scarpia’s power and lust blend with the power of the Church; in the dark menace of state-sponsored torture and death; in the clarion heroism of Mario’s “Vittoria!” outburst in Act II. The story about Floria Tosca , her lover, and their nemesis was written at the time of the first centennial of the French Revolution and Napoleon; the opera had its premiere almost precisely one hundred year after the story was supposed to have taken place. Now, a century later, it is remarkable how resonant the events of that time remain. Hardly a freshman enters university without a heavy load of mental baggage about the French Revolution, most of it wildly inaccurate. The archetypical vision of the revolution is almost identical to that espoused by Sardou and Puccini at the end of the nineteenth century, seeing it as a struggle between Good (the revolution) and Evil (the old-regime states).
Nineteenth-century Liberalism found its roots in the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. The sort of history we find in Tosca is a fairly typical popular redefinition of the earlier period that reflects nineteenth-century political and intellectual fashion: that is, late eighteenth-century history was seen as a dramatic demonstration of the futility (if not the villainy) of trying to halt the inevitable rise of secular liberalism. The subject of this book lies in the creative interaction between this “redefinition” and the period as scholars are now coming to understand it. This is by no means an argument that Tosca should be reinterpreted to bring it closer to historical reality, as if Puccini had somehow made a mistake that should or could be corrected by more dispassionate research. It is rather an argument that we can better understand the work of art, and the artist, when we gain as clear as possible an understanding of the soil in which they grew.
The primary, but not the exclusive, focus of this study is historical. But the book is a venture into that most dangerous and yet potentially most fruitful field—interdisciplinary studies. As such it draws not only on classical historical resources such as archival documents, but also on a range of other tools. These include musical analysis, textual analysis of the libretto, theater and religious studies, and the graphic arts.
In this multilayered structure we will first examine the genesis of the play and the opera in the late nineteenth century, paying particular attention to the anti-clericalism that was such an important element in the political and intellectual worlds of both Sardou and Puccini. Only then can we turn to the time and place in which the playwright and composer set their story: Rome, where the struggle between the Church and the State took on flesh and blood as secular powers, revolutionary and counter-revolutionary, attempted to rule the city without a pope for the first time since the fourteenth century.
The next three sections of the book deal with the eighteenth-century realities in which the fictional characters act out their drama. Each of the three sections is centered around one of the three central characters. Each explores the historical reality, and looks at figures, both real and not so real, on which the characters could have been modeled. “The Painter’s Rome” was a center of world art rivaled only by Paris, and the culmination of the Grand Tour, which every European with pretensions of culture had to visit. “The Singer’s Rome” serves as a gateway to the musical institutions of eighteenthcentury Italy, in Rome and in Tosca ’s native Veneto. (She comes from Verona, a city that lies within the Veneto, that is, the territory ruled by Venice.) The chapter examines the Roman theatrical season of 1800 in some detail. “The Policeman’s Rome” deals with the politics and law of this troubled period, and looks south to Naples, where Scarpia is supposed to have learned his trade.
The last four chapters offer a scene-by-scene examination of the opera, including an “entr’acte” section which considers the events that are assumed to take place between the first and second acts. These chapters look at the opera in terms of plot and character development, and examine the historical realities behind the theatrical representations. the present author makes no representations as to musical expertise, these chapters also include analysis of the musical content of key scenes of the opera.
Music, the Old Times, and the Church, then, give us the multifaceted lens with which to examine Tosca , and Tosca ’s Rome.
The reader may find it useful, before plunging into this account, to refresh his or her familiarity with the story of the opera… (see the Synopsis pg. 22-24).
…The basic plot devices of the opera and the play are the same—political and religious repression as a background for the jealous singer, her lover, and the sadistic police chief; the portrait in the painting; the impulsive decision to help an escaped political prisoner; the arrest and torture of one of the lovers in order to force the other to betray the secret; the false offer of clemency in exchange for sex; and the culminating deaths of all the main characters by murder, execution, and suicide. Most of the differences between the play and the opera can be traced to Victorien Sardou’s obsession with quasi-historical detail, to his French chauvinism, and to the shift in interest by Puccini and his librettists from the political to the personal. Sardou’s “well-made play” is a cunningly detailed dramatic machine peopled with more or less cardboard characters. In Puccini’s opera Tosca , Mario, and Scarpia are not much more convincing as individuals, but they have a profound emotional reality; they have sometimes been seen as images of the composer himself, obsessed with guilty sexual passion, romantic love, art, jealousy, and death.
The first act of the play closely parallels the first half of Act I of the opera, but in the play we are given massive amounts of biographical detail about Cavaradossi, Tosca , and Angelotti. We learn that Mario is Roman only through his father, having been born and raised in Paris, where he studied painting with Jacques-Louis David; he is in Rome on family business and intends to stay only until his new lover can leave for an engagement in Venice. We learn that Tosca is an orphan raised and trained in a convent in Verona, discovered by Cimarosa, and set free to sing in the theater by Pius VI. Angelotti recites a mini-novella on his own background in which he has a brief sexual encounter with Emma Hamilton, participates in the disastrous Parthenopean Republic, and flees to Rome only to be pursued by the menacing Sicilian baron Scarpia, who plans to send him back to Naples to hang for the entertainment of Angelotti’s former whore, now Lady Hamilton, wife of the British ambassador and mistress of Lord Nelson.
In the play Tosca takes only a perfunctory interest in the portrait of the marchesa Attavanti, and instead establishes her character as kittenish, feather-headed, superstitious, and, above all, passionate, under the indulgent but controlling eye of her French lover. (Mario declines to tell her about Angelotti on the theory that “the only truly discrete woman is the one who knows nothing.”) Both first acts close with a Te Deum sung in honor of the Austrian victory at the siege of Genoa, though of course in the opera the ceremony is much more effective.
The second half of Act I of the opera contains plot developments taken from Sardou’s second act, which is set in the apartments of the queen of Naples at the Farnese Palace during a gala celebration attended by the court and nobility. This act is packed with minor characters and quaint Italian customs designed to show the charming decadence of the Romans in contrast to the bestial cruelty of the Neapolitans and the stalwart, forward-
looking courage of the French (it ends with a French royalist émigré crying out, on hearing the news of Bonaparte’s victory, “I am defeated but we are victorious: Vive la France!” to the sound of confused cheers offstage). The major plot advance of this act is the way in which Scarpia uses the fan he found in the Attavanti chapel to convince Tosca that her lover has taken the marchesa to the secret hideaway he usually shares with Tosca . The police have already searched for Cavaradossi and failed to find him, thus giving Scarpia the motive for his deception. Puccini’s librettists rather unconvincingly moved this scene to the first act of the opera, where it sends the jealous singer t the villa, covertly pursued by police agents, long before anyone has even looked for the painter. In Sardou’s Act II we see Scarpia as a courtier, afraid for his own safety. In an effectively dramatic closing scene, Queen Maria Carolina reads out that she thinks will be additional news from the victory at Marengo only to discover that it is news of Bonaparte’s stunning surprise victory. This episode, moved to the second act of the opera (though without the presence of the queen), provokes Cavaradossi’s “Vittoria!” outburst and serves as an all-too-visible patch to connect the two halves of that act.
Most of the material in the first half of Act II of the opera comes from the third act of the play, set at Cavaradossi’s villa, where Angelotti takes refuge in the well (after we are treated to an extensive description and history of the hiding place). Floria arrives and discovers her mistake too late. She has been followed by Scarpia and his agents, and as in the opera she gives away the secret after a long and sadistically graphic (though offstage) torture scene. The third act of the play ends as Mario, bitterly disappointed by Floria’s betrayal, pushes her aside and is dragged away to prison. There is no sudden message from Marengo, and no treasonable outburst. Tosca , having fainted, is also brought along to prison.
The events of the second half of the opera’s second act take place in the play’s Act IV, set in Scarpia’s offices at the Castel Sant’Angelo. There is little difference between the action of the play and the opera here, except that the villain’s sexual sadism is more graphic in the play.
The fifth and last act of the play consists of two very short scenes, which in terms of plot development are almost identical to the opera, but which are very different in tone and character. Where the operatic hero reviews his life in terms of sensory impressions and passions, and is overwhelmed by a yearning sense of loss, the stoic hero of the play brushes aside spiritual comfort of any sort, romantic or religious, in order to take a nap. The operatic heroine relives the trauma of the near rape and murder, and swings from hysterical distress to hysterical joy at their prospective liberation; Sardou’s Floria is more business-like, instructing her Mario in his role. While Puccini’s score is full of foreboding, hinting that Cavaradossi knows or at least suspects that he is about to die, there is no such suggestion in the play. The last scene of the play, which contains only twenty-six lines of dialogue, is there simply to allow Tosca to leap to her death. Perhaps most revealing of all, the last word of the opera is “God” (“Oh Scarpia, before God!,” Oh Scarpia, avanti a Dio! ), while the last word of the play is “scum” (“I’m going there [to join Mario], you scum!,” J’y vais, canailles! ).
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Dr. Natalie Bzowej
Mr. Ralph Cadow
Dr. William Mark Caldwell
Mrs. Dianne L. Caverly
Mr. Kerry Cuccia
Ms. Robin and Mr. Gary Chapman
Mrs. Ann Duffy and Mr. John Skinner
Ms. Joan Hooper and Mr. Julien Feibelman Jr.
Ms. Ann Fishman
Ms. Joanna Giorlando
Michael Greene
Ms. Jessica Hack
Dr. Robert Hammer
Ms. Sharon Hayes-Roth
Dr. Bernard Jaffe
Dr. William Long
Ms. Kathleen Manning
Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Mayer
Dr. And Mrs. Christopher Merritt - Founding Sustainer
Mrs. Anna Maria Mitchell
Ms. Nell Nolan
Mr. Ernest L. O’Bannon
Mr. Anthony Rotolo
Consul Rodolphe Sambou
Mrs. Ann C. Scharfenberg
Ms. Mary Scully – Founding Sustainer
Ms. Betty and Mr. Greg Speyrer
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred E. Stacey IV - Founding Sustainer
Mrs. Diana Stieffel
Ms. Ann Marie Thurber
Mr. Bernard Van der Linden
Ms. Kathleen Van Horn
Hon. Janis Van Meerveld
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Ward
Mr. Norton Wisdom
Mr. John Wettermark
Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Weil III
Ms. Dina Zeevi
Mr. Adam Zuckerman
Patrons: $500- $999
Dr. and Mrs. Robert Arensman
Ms. Nicole Bellefeuille
Mr. Anthony Bentley
Dr. Martha J. Beveridge
Ms. Margie Breeden
Ms. Natalia Cascante and Mr. Harry Hardin
Mr.* and Mrs. Edgar L. “Dooky” Chase III
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Christian
Mr. Donald M. Clement
Dr. Gerald Cohen
Mr. Anthony Currera
- Founding Sustainer
Mr. Brooke Duncan
Ms. Marlene Duronslet
Ms. Deborah Fallis
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Folse
Dr. and Mrs. J.M. Fortino
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Giaimo
- Founding Sustainer
Ms. Linda Green
Hancock Whitney Bank
Ms. Sharon Hayes-Roth
Mr. Seth Harris and Ms. Julie Schwam Harris
Mr. Stuart Johnson
Ms. Sonia Kenwood
Mr. Travis Koerner
Mr. and Mrs. Edward F. LeBreton III
Marrero Land and Trust
Ms. Lisa McWhorter
Dr. Jane Cagan Miller and Mr. Bruce Miller
- Founding Sustainer
Ms. Rebecca Moseley
- Founding Sustainer
Nathan Family Supporting Foundation
Ms. Julie Pfeffer
Hon. and Mrs. Steven R. Plotkin
Ms. Carol Rausch
Mr. Michael Grumich
- Founding Sustainer
Mr. Anthony Rotolo
Mr. Eric Simon and Ms. Cathy Lazarus
Mr. and Mrs. I. William Sizeler
Mr. Jay Smith
Ms. Bianca Spears
Ms. Diana Stieffel
Dr. Nia Terezakis
Mr. David S. Thomas Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. Peter M. Tufton
Mr. Thomas Turnbull and Mr. Darrell Smith
Mrs. Katherine Vaughan
Mr. Raymond Washington
Mrs. Claire L. Whitehurst
Mr. Adam Zuckerman
Patrons: $250-499
Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bonner
Ms. Cherry Bordelon
Ms. Georgia M. Bryant
Dr. Gerald Cohen
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Edmiston
Dr. Maria Falco
Ms. Jill B. Fatzer
Mr. and Mrs. Alan Gandolfi
- Founding Sustainer
Dr. Mary Frances Gardner
Mr. Ernest Green
Mr. Seth Harris
Ms. Ellen Kellner
Ms. Rose Lebreton
Mr. Michael Mancuso
Ms. Sophia Pappas
Dr. and Mrs. John T. Patterson
Ms. Francisca Sabadie
Mrs. Esther Shefsky
Mr. and Mrs. Terrence Sims
- Founding Sustainers
Mrs. Alma Slatten
Mrs. Dauphine Sloan
Mr. Joseph C. Smith
Mrs. Diana Stieffel
Mrs. Mihoko Strong
Ms. Yvonnne Vonderhaar
- Founding Sustainer
Dr. Robert Weilbaecher
Mrs. Rosemary Zuppardo
Patrons: $100-249
Ms. Amanda Gordon
Dr. and Mrs. David Simmons
Dr. Klaus Kallman
Dr. Lynn Neitzschman
Dr. Peter Tufton
Dr. Sarah Carter
Mr. Jonathan Starch
Mr. Alan Smason
- Founding Sustainer
Mr. and Mrs. John Ariail
Ms. Joyce Dugais
- Founding Sustainer
Mr. Chris Daigle
Mr. Donald Messer
Mr. Eric Nye
Mr. James Brown
Mr. James McCarty
Mr. James Wesner
Mr. Jeffrey Guy
Mr. Jeffrey Philabaum
Mr. John Arail
Mr. John Lombardo
Mr. Kim Navarre
Mr. Ravi Rau
Mr. Ron Domin
Mr. Wendell Eatherly
Mr. William and Dr. C. Murray
Mrs. Carol Marx
Mrs. Diane Fee
Mrs. Donna Howland
Mrs. Ellen McGlinchey
Mrs. Florence Brown
Mrs. Mary Costa
Mrs. Melissa Gordon
Mrs. Michele Beelman
- Founding Sustainer
Mrs. Michelle Schlafly
Mrs. Olivier Thelin
Mrs. Patricia Dunbar Murrell
Mrs. Rita Satawa
Mrs. Sandra Robert
Mrs. Thomas Davidson
Mrs. Tricia Lincoln
Mrs. Xiomara Brewster
- Founding Sustainer
Ms. Annie Glover
- Founding Sustainer
Ms. Barbara Heard
Ms. Bethlehem Andrews
Ms. Camille Durkin
Ms. Clara Green
Ms. Clare Burovac
- Founding Sustainer
Ms. Claudia Baumgarten
Ms. Deniz Ucar
- Founding Sustainer
Ms. Dolores Shank-Sam
Ms. Elizabeth Liu
Ms. Emily Stewart
Ms. Ina Davis
Ms. Jane Caruso
Ms. Janet Burch
Ms. Jean Loupe
Ms. Joan Oppenheim
Ms. Judith Doughty
Ms. Judith Wilks
Ms. Lisa Beyer
Ms. Lynn Kirby
Ms. Mary Penn
- Founding Sustainer
Ms. Michelle Goldfarb
Ms. Patricia Denechaud
Ms. Phyllis Treigle
Ms. Sally Schuermann
Ms. Sonya David
Ms. Stephanie Sheridan
Ms. Sylvia Johnson
- Founding Sustainer
Mr. Rhett Majoria
* deceased
ORGANIZATIONAL & INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT
New Orleans Opera Association thanks our business, foundation and government partners for their recent support! New Orleans Opera works with each business and community partner to create a sponsorship package that suits your company’s particular needs. Whether you seek opportunities to entertain your clients, corporate visibility at performances, marketing partnerships, or all of the above, New Orleans Opera can assist you. Your sponsorship supports the Opera while providing exclusive benefits and visibility for your company.
GOLD CIRCLE - $100,000+
Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation
Louisiana Economic Development
New Orleans Opera Endowment Fund
SILVER CIRCLE
- $50,000 +
Erik F. Johnsen Family Foundation
Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Grand Opera Foundation
The Theresa Bittenbring Marque & John Henry Marque Fund
The Ranney and Emel Songu
Mize Chamber Opera Series
Edward F. and Louise B. Martin
Family Fund
New Orleans Opera Association
Women’s Guild
New Orleans Theatre Association (NOTA)
BRONZE CIRCLE -
$25,000+
City of New Orleans/Arts New Orleans
Freeport-McMoRan Foundation Arts Fund
OPERA America/Next Stage
National Endowment for the Arts
New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund (NOTCF)
Priddy Family Foundation
The Selley Foundation Fund
INTERMEZZO CIRCLE $10,000+
Ella West Freeman Foundation
Entergy Charitable Foundation
V. Price LeBlanc Jr. Fund
Lexus of New Orleans
Louisiana State Arts Council/ Louisiana Division of the Arts
McCall Fund
New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund
Louise H. Moffett Family Foundation
Wisdom-Benjamin Foundation
BENEFACTOR CIRCLE
- $5,000+
An Anonymous Foundation in support of Opera on Tap-New Orleans
Carol B. & Kenneth J. Boudreaux Foundation
Gauthier Murphy & Houghtaling, LLC
New Orleans Recreation and Culture Fund
Ruth U. Fertel Foundation
The Greater New Orleans Foundation’s Hansen Fund for Arts Technical Assistance
WWOZ
AMBASSADOR CIRCLE -
$1,000+
City of New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy
Consul General of France
Fidelity Bank
Louisiana Society of Hearing Aid Specialists
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage
Festival and Foundation
Peoples Health
Renaissance Publishing
Van der Linden Family Foundation
WWNO
We gratefully acknowledge matching and in-kind(*) gifts from the following institutions:
Applied Materials Foundation
Booth Bricker Fund
City of New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy*
ExxonMobil Foundation
French Market Coffee*
Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Foundation
Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra*
Luzianne Iced Tea
Merck Foundation
New Orleans Museum of Art*
New Orleans Jazz Market*
Peoples Health
Shell Oil Company Foundation
Windsor Court Hotel*
UBS Financial Services
PLANNED GIVING WITH NEW ORLEANS OPERA
Help build the future of opera in New Orleans through your planned gift.
When you include the New Orleans Opera Association in your estate plans, you play a significant role in the continued success of top-quality opera and opera education for generations to come. We are happy to assist you in identifying gift options that suit your financial and philanthropic goals – from a simple bequest in your will to a charitable trust or endowed fund.
Planned giving makes great art possible and helps sustain the activities of the Opera Association now and into the future. We thank the current Legacy Society members and invite you to join their ranks by notifying the Development Office that you have provided for the Opera Association in your estate plans. You can also request more information about the many kinds of gift options and underwriting opportunities you may choose to support.
Planned giving instruments can include:
· Outright charitable gifts
· Gifts of appreciated property
· Bequests
· Revocable trusts
· Life insurance
· Retirement benefits
· Charitable remainder trusts
JOIN US! Please consider joining the Legacy Society to help ensure the continued tradition of producing grand opera in America’s first city of opera.
Legacy Society Members as of November 2023
Anonymous (2)
Drs. Stephen J. & Miriam R. Bensman
Mr. Henry Bernstein
Dr. Patricia Cook
Dr. Maria J. Falco
Prof. Robert Force
Mr. Emmet Geary Jr.
Ms. Jacqueline Mae Goldberg
Mr. Dwayne O. Littauer
Robert Lyall
Louise* and Ted Martin
Drs. Emel Songu and Ranney Mize
Dr. Andrew Orestano
Ms. Meredith Hathorn Penick
Ms. Nina & Mr. Lawrence Pugh
Ms. Xenia Krinitzky Roff
Ms. Alma A. Slatten
Mr. Philip & Eleanor Straub
Mrs. Norton L. Wisdom (Susan)
Ms. Debby Hirsch Wood
MAJOR PLANNED GIFTS
2008-2023
Bequests & Endowed Funds
Garic K. Barranger
The Estate of Abby Ray Catledge, in memory of her father Bryne Lucas Ray
Rose Annette Chisesi
Norma Jean Gross
Lois and H. Lloyd Hawkins Jr.
Albert and Rea Hendler
Gerald Kendal
Victor Leglise
The Estate of Guillermo
Náñez-Falcón
Mary Nell Porter Nolan
The Theresa Bittenbring Marque & John Henry Marque Fund
The Estate of James Robert Pope
Rachel Sainton
William M. Sholes
Lynette Askin Stillwell
James G. Viavant
Jerry Walker Zachary
For more information, or to add your name to this list, contact the Development Department at nooagiving@neworleansopera,org . All inquiries are confidential.
COMMEMORATIVE GIFTS
IN LOVING MEMORY
John Armbruster
Ms. Paula Armbruster
Dale C. Biggers
Mrs. Virgene Biggers
Mercedes Vulliet Bonner
Thomas and Judith Bonner
Mrs. Jeanne Bruno
Mr. Edward F. Martin
Elaine Calamia
Ms. Judith Clay
Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson
Mr. Edward F. Martin
Kathryn Lear Dorman
Cynthia M. Molyneux
Phil Frohnmayer
Ellen Frohnmayer
Diane Bennett Hammer
Dr. Robert Hammer
IN HONOR OF
Deborah Green
Ms. Clara Green
Anne Heard
Mrs. Alma Dunlap
Rachel Looney
Ms. Janet Whittington
Ted Martin
Stephanie November and Brenda Stephens
Gladys Gay LeBreton
Mr. and Mrs. Edward F. LeBreton III
Deirdre P. Long
Dr. William Long
Maestro Robert Lyall
Dr. William Cotton
Ms. Margaret Shields
Dr. Ricardo Martinez
Dr. and Mrs. Juan Gershanik
Josie Sacco Mather
Cynthia Molyneux
Dr. Carmen Pepper
Dr. Kristi Soileau
Mark Rausch
Carol Rausch
Alfonso Sabadie
Ms. Francisca Sabadie
Susan C. Wisdom
Mr. Norton L. Wisdom
Lindsey Reynolds
Mrs. Mary Wilkins
Stephanie Sheridan
Ms. Mary Scully
Sonda Stacey
Ms. Elizabeth Liu
Joanna Sternberg
Ms. Mary Ann Sternberg
NEW ORLEANS OPERA SEASON CALENDAR 2024-25
OCTOBER
2024
Tuesday, October 22nd: Ma Maison: Raehann Bryce-Davis Concert –New Orleans Opera Guild Home
Wednesday, October 23rd: Opera on Tap – 7pm, The Domino
Sunday, October 27th: Opera 101: Samson and Delilah – 4pm, Guild Home
Wednesday, October 30th: Opera on Tap – 7pm, Abita Brew Pub
NOVEMBER
2024
Friday, November 8th: Samson and Delilah – 7:30pm, Mahalia Jackson Theater
Sunday, November 10th: Samson and Delilah – 2:30pm, Mahalia Jackson Theater
Friday, November 15th: Bingo, Bourbon, and Bubbles – Guild Home
DECEMBER
2024
Friday, December 6th: Eggnog Party – 2pm, Guild Home
Sunday, December 8th: The Cookoff by Shawn E. Okpebholo and Mark Campbell – Southern Food and Beverage Museum
Saturday-Sunday, December 14th-15th: Preservation Resource Center Guild Home Tours
Sunday, December 15th: Ma Maison: Christmas Concert featuring Mark-Anthony Thomas and friends – Guild Home
JANUARY 2025
Saturday, January 11th: Murder Mystery Party – Guild Home
FEBRUARY
2025
Tuesday, February 13th: Ma Maison: Valentine’s Day Concert featuring Chauncey Packer – Guild Home
MARCH 2025
Friday, March 14th: Mad Hatters Luncheon – Guild Home
Wednesday, March 19th: Opera on Tap – 7pm, Abita Brew Pub
Sunday, March 23rd: Opera 101: Elixir of Love – 4pm, Guild Home
Wednesday, March 26th: Opera on Tap – 7pm, The Domino
APRIL 2025
Friday, April 4th: Elixir of Love – 7:30pm, Mahalia Jackson Theater
Sunday, April 6th: Elixir of Love – 2:30pm, Mahalia Jackson Theater
Friday, April 11th: Lafayette Party – Guild Home
Sunday, April 13th: Ma Maison: Garden Concert – Guild Home
Wednesday, April 23rd: Opera on Tap – 7pm, The Domino
Wednesday, April 30th: Opera on Tap – 7pm, Abita Brew Pub
MAY 2025
Saturday, May 11th: Ma Maison: Mother’s Day Concert – Guild Home featuring Ivan Griffin and Ashley Milanese
