Tosca

She lived for art. She died for love.

Lol. That was pretty much the advertising campaign for Seattle Opera's production of Tosca.


Anyway, spoilers and melodramatic advertising aside, Tosca is actually quite a fantastic opera.  Composed by Puccini, the tenor aria (E lucevan le stelle) in the third act is particularly famous.*

Tosca is the story of a singer (Floria Tosca) and her artist lover, (Mario Cavaradossi).  Set during a time of political uncertainty, Cavaradossi helps an escaped political prisoner hide from Scarpia, the sinister chief of police.  Cavaradossi is eventually caught, and Scarpia sets out on a campaign to find the prisoner, destroy Cavaradossi, and seduce (if you can call it that) Tosca.

It's quite dramatic, but there's a lot of humor in the show, as well.  The first two acts are each about 45 minutes, and the third is around 25 minutes, but people, it does not feel like it.  The curtain came down on that first act and I was like, "What?!"  I thought we still had at least 20 minutes left to go.  The second and third acts felt equally quick.  It's a good show.  With amazing sets.

The three main characters did a fabulous job, and hat's off to the soprano, who was filling in last-minute.


So Tosca was great.  Earlier that day, Dad and I had driven up to Seattle, met Ben for lunch, and went to Pike's.  After the opera, Ben took us out to Ten Mercer for a light (and very late) dinner.  Dad and I drove back the next day.


And that was pretty much my weekend!  We had a great time in Seattle, hanging out with Ben, and going to the opera.



*It also has an awesome clarinet part, which sounded fantastic played by Ben Lulich on his Backun MoBa Cocobolo clarinet.