Les Arts premieres ‘Tosca’ in a single take, directed by Davide Livemore and Nicola Luisotti

The Palau de les Arts premieres Puccini's 'Tosca' on Sunday, May 6th, in a single-take production by Davide Livermore for the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, with Nicola Luisotti conducting. The opera has broken box office records, selling out since the end of February.

The main cast consists of soprano Lianna Haroutounian (Tosca), tenor Alfred Kim (Cavaradossi), and baritones Claudio Sgura and Gevorg Hakobyan, who alternate the role of Scarpia in the six performances.

Nicola Luisotti, musical director of the San Francisco Opera and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, reunites with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, which he has previously conducted in 'Mefistofele' by Arrigo Boito and 'Nabucco' by Verdi.

According to the maestro from Viareggio, the success of Puccini and 'Tosca' lies "in the fact that Puccini's musical language has always been very close to the public, because of his writing, his harmonies and the melodies he uses."

'Tosca' is one of the best-known and most frequently performed works in the repertoire. The composer from Lucca combines politics, passion, revolution, and jealousy in the tragic story of the singer Floria Tosca and the painter Mario Cavaradossi—with Baron Scarpia as the fatal mediator.

In his adaptation, Davide Livermore, who also designed the set and lighting for the show, reflects on the temporal power of the Church in a production set in the year 1800.

“The set design creates a dynamic relationship with the audience, like a long, continuous shot, with a rotating platform on which I have drawn my representation of the distortion of the Church’s temporal power. A large, dangerously inclined marble surface, as dangerous as this triangle of passion, love, and sex.”

“Thanks also to the costumes by Gianluca Falaschi – the Turin-born director continues – we will be in the three locations of this work of art: the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, the Palazzo Farnese and the roof of the Castel Sant'Angelo prison.”

With an ending inspired by Wim Wenders' 'Der Himmel über Berlin (1987)', Livermore explains the references to the language of the seventh art by the cinematic nature of the opera itself, which confirms Puccini as a "master of suspense".

Lianna Haroutounian makes her debut at Les Arts in the role of Floria Tosca. Critics have hailed the Armenian diva as one of the most promising Verdi sopranos of her generation. “For me, Tosca, in her life,” she explains, “decides everything: the hour of her love and the hour of her death.”

Alfred Kim embodies Mario Cavaradossi. The Korean tenor makes his debut in Valencia in this role, which he has sung in Rome, Frankfurt, Barcelona, and Seoul, and has performed at London's Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

The baritones Claudio Sgura (6, 12, 18) and Gevorg Hakobyan (9, 15, 21), who alternate the role of Scarpia in the six scheduled performances, complete the main cast.

The cast is completed with the voices of Alejandro López (Cesare Angelotti), Moisés Marín (Spoletta), César Méndez (Sciarrone), Alfonso Antoniozzi (Sagrestano), Andrea Pellegrini (Carceriere) and Alejandro Navarro (Pastorello), along with the Escola Coral Veus Juntes de Quart de Poblet and the Cor de la Generalitat.

Les Arts reminds the public that there are six performances of 'Tosca' scheduled for May 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 21. Tickets for all performances are sold out, except for the five percent reserved for the day of each performance.