Tosca Transmission Transcript
READ: Pérez Show Intro
AILYN PÉREZ: Hello, I'm Aileen Pérez, and I'm delighted to be your host for this performance of Tosca. Tosca was Puccini's first verismo opera, where his great sense of melody was galvanized by gritty realism. And what a timeless story, pitting the forces of early 19th century revolution against those of oppression.
Today, the Met has assembled a cast for the ages: Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen, so famous for her interpretations of Wagner, Strauss and Verdi, shows off a different side of her artistry as Puccini's ultimate diva, Floria Tosca. British Italian tenor Freddie de Tommaso, making a notable Met debut as Tosca's lover, the idealistic artist Mario Cavaradossi. Hawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey sings the role of Scarpia, the corrupt chief of police who is obsessed with power and his lust for Tosca. Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will preside over Puccini's thrilling score. He's ready to sweep us away to Rome in the year 1800. Here is Tosca.
STAGE MANAGER: Maestro to the pit, please. Maestro to the pit.
INTERVIEW: Pérez w/ Quinn Kelsey
AILYN PÉREZ: Quinn, bravo. Scarpia is here. Oh, I just get chills.
QUINN KELSEY: Here I am.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, baritones get to play some seriously unsavory characters. Is Scarpia the most evil villain you've ever portrayed?
QUINN KELSEY: For sure.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, the Te Deum, you know, it calls on the massive force of the Met Orchestra, the chorus, this massive bass drum behind us. How do you feel being in the midst of all that sound and power? And how do you—how do you—how do you sing?
QUINN KELSEY: That's a good question. I mean, there's so much going on. I've—I've been waiting for this moment since 1997 when I was in the chorus of Tosca in Hawaii, and—
AILYN PÉREZ: Wow.
QUINN KELSEY: I'm a little verklempt. I'm going to—I won't lie.
AILYN PÉREZ: It's absolutely, absolutely chilling. And I can see the excitement in you. It's such an honor to talk to you about this. Now, Puccini gives Scarpia some gorgeous music. How do you balance singing beautifully with behaving atrociously?
QUINN KELSEY: It's not easy. It's such an easy thing to let the voice go for—so that the character can come in. But, you know, like you say, you really have to pay attention. You have to come to the singing first, like what we know from all of our training, and then try and wrap the character around that—
AILYN PÉREZ: Oh, yeah.
QUINN KELSEY: so that the foundation is the good singing, and then hopefully the character is secondary.
AILYN PÉREZ: So that's your secret, because you just channel it. It's—
QUINN KELSEY: Don't tell anybody.
AILYN PÉREZ: Oh, I love it.
QUINN KELSEY: Don’t pay attention.
AILYN PÉREZ: I love it. Well, we're looking forward to your showdown with Tosca in the next act. Tell us about facing off against Lise Davidsen.
QUINN KELSEY: It's not such an easy thing to do. She has such presence vocally, dramatically, and I just have to think of it as I have a responsibility. I have a certain space to fill, and I trust her that she's going to fill her space. And when we do that, well, we'll let you guys decide.
AILYN PÉREZ: I love that. Trust is everything. Well, we've heard you in many Verdi operas here. Rigoletto, La traviata, Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera and Aida, which is also coming up in our new production. What does Puccini demand of you that's different from Verdi, if I may ask?
QUINN KELSEY: So, so the Verdi, I would say, requires more color, more strength in the voice than—than more of a lyric baritone. And except for Scarpia, for now, the roles, the Puccini roles that I sing are, I mean, for lack of a better phrase, lighter. So I would say Scarpia is closer to the rep that I'm usually comfortable with. And so it wasn't such a huge stretch like we talked about. It's just figuring out that specific character thing.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, we love your villain. We think you're so elegant. You just bring us into this story. Quinn, I can't wait to see you in Act II. Toi, toi, toi. And thank you for speaking with me.
QUINN KELSEY: Thanks, guys.
READ: Throw to roll-in
AILYN PÉREZ: The Te Deum we heard at the end of the previous act calls on the full forces of the chorus and orchestra and even some off-stage instruments that other opera companies are forced to do without. But the Met recently acquired a giant new bass drum and super-sized chimes, which, together with our recently restored pipe organ, would make Puccini proud. We spoke to the Met's head of music, Thomas Lausmann, about these instrumental improvements.
ROLL-IN B: Thomas Lausmann & Instruments
THOMAS LAUSMANN: At the end of Act I of Tosca, we find ourselves in a church that is about to have a religious service, a Te Deum, a celebration thanking God. At the same time, prisoners have escaped from a prison, from the Castel Sant'Angelo. And the cannon of the prison is used to signal that somebody has escaped. So it's quite complex. And Puccini managed to create a soundscape by using unusual musical instruments that will draw the audience into this scene. We have an organ, we have big chimes and we also have a cannon, a drum. Most of the time, these sound effects are produced by sound cues nowadays. And I have to say that as a musician, using real musical instruments is always preferable. They sound much better. And so we were on a quest in the past years to actually find and procure for the Met those musical instruments.
The Met has a wonderful pipe organ, an Aeolian Skinner organ, that was custom built for the Met Opera house in the '60s when this house was built. Very unusual instrument that has been restored a couple of years ago. It is very tall. It is 15 feet tall and originally was designed to be on wheels so it could be wheeled to wherever we wanted to hear it. Unfortunately, right away, it turned out that it was too heavy to be moved on the stage floor. So since the '60s, it has been in the same position backstage. The player of the organ actually has a seat in the orchestra, at the edge of the orchestra pitch. We have an organ console, and we now have a fiber cable connection between the organ console and the instrument itself. The player actually sits in the orchestra and can, you know, hear quite well what the colleagues are playing and can then coordinate with the conductor.
Then we also have the large tower bells that then at this time are rung to signal the entire neighborhood that a religious service is going on. And those large bells are quite tricky to bring into a live performance because in order to get the right pitch, they need to be extremely large. Or you can create a sound by having a chime, which is basically a metal tube. And in order to produce the right pitch, it needs to be extremely long.
The chimes were also something that I felt the Met should have, which involved quite difficult logistics, getting them from Houston, Texas, to the Met on a flatbed truck. And the largest chime is 15 feet high, weighs, I think, about 500 pounds. They are cumbersome, they're heavy and they're hard to handle. You know, we had to find a way how those could be rigged up in a building, then could be played. And—but all of that happened, and it is very, very different than hearing something, you know, through a speaker.
The third one is the cannon from the castle that we hear from the distance. To make that sound really impressive and have, like, the right kind of boomy sound that a cannon would have, it also requires quite a large bass drum. So I started looking around and trying to find a company that possibly sells bass drums of extraordinary size. And I indeed ended up finding a company in Germany that produces what they call the Bass Drum XXL. The bass drum is so loud that anybody playing it or anybody near to it actually needs hearing protection as to not damage your hearing. And really, you feel everything around it vibrating because the instrument is just so large.
All those three instruments, the organ, the chimes, and the bass drum, they're in the same area of the stage, on the stage left. And it's quite the experience to be around there during the Te Deum because it is quite extraordinary how visceral the experience is that also carries into the auditorium because it creates a soundscape that is quite singular.
READ: Pérez Funding / Throw to break
AILYN PÉREZ: Now we know what helps to make the Te Deum so powerful on the Met stage. The Met's Live in HD series is made possible thanks to its founding sponsor, the Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met Live in HD series is supported by Rolex. Today's performance of Tosca will be heard later this season over the Robert K. Johnson Foundation Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. We'll be back after a break.
READ: Throw to roll-in
AILYN PÉREZ: Welcome back. Tosca is one of many operas in the Met repertory that feature the company's remarkable Children's Chorus and we'll be hearing one of our children in the solo role of the off-stage shepherd at the beginning of Act III. We recently spoke with the Met's Children's Chorus director, Anthony Piccolo and a few of his charges about preparing for Tosca and the operatic big time.
ROLL-IN C: Children's Chorus with Anthony Piccolo
ANTHONY PICCOLO: The Met Children's Chorus has about 50 children, ages from 7 to about 14. I'm listening for a core in the voice, a sound that says there's a voice here. Children learn the basics of how to sing on our stage, and then they move on to the advanced class. And there they continue gaining skill and they practice the repertoire of the forthcoming productions.
ABIGAIL SANDLER: You can stay still, sing forward, okay, with, interacting with the Sacristano, right? So if he's in the middle, you close on him. Close, close, close, close, close, close, close, close, close. You want to listen to what he's saying.
ANTHONY PICCOLO: The first time the children appear on stage in Tosca, they are called together by the Sacristan who wants to give them the news that the king's army has defeated Napoleon's army. They are thrilled and they are over the top. They're misbehaving badly in church.
ABIGAIL SANDLER: Smile, you're having fun.
ANTHONY PICCOLO: It's a very brief scene. It's really dangerous musically because the rhythm of it changes from three beats in a measure to two beats in a measure, back and forth, and it moves pretty fast.
CLEMENT: When we started the learning process, it did take some etching into it to get the correct sounds for the words and for the music. It's a lot of staccato.
UMAYMA: We do a lot with also, like, how to pronounce every single sound and not to, like, fall back into the American English and like to stay Italian basically.
ANTHONY PICCOLO: Everybody has to be really secure musically to make it work. We do it sometimes as a play back and forth between the Sacristan and the children. Not singing, just saying the words. Can we speak it in rhythm? Now they turn that into a game here while they're waiting to go on. They stand around in a circle and pass the words along. Puccini liked in some of his operas to include an off-stage voice as a kind of decoration to the scene. And in Tosca, at the beginning of Act III, there's a shepherd boy singing off stage as from a distance. And he's singing a heartbreak song, but with such enthusiasm that you have to wonder what's really going on in his mind.
The boy sings not in a key, major or minor, but he sings in a mode where one of the notes in the scale is made sharper than in a key. So it has a very rustic quality to it. The boy who sings the shepherd in these first two runs of Tosca this year is Luka Zylik. And he brings a really deep musicality to his performances. He also plays the violin and he's a very spirited kid. Very enthusiastic and also very serious.
LUKA ZYLIK: What I love the most is how connected I am with the orchestra because it's kind of like the orchestra is like an echo of me and I just find it really cool. Mr. Piccolo helps a lot because like when he's conducting there, it kind of gives me like a sense of security and I just find it a lot easier. Like I kind of just focus on his hands and then kind of like try to draw out all of the noise.
ANTHONY PICCOLO: The singing here is rather unique when you consider the size of the stage, the size and power of the orchestra and the size of the auditorium. It's a special training. Some of the rehearsals are during school time. But a New York State approved tutors come in and teach the children for three hours anytime they miss even a little bit of school time. And in between, if they have homework, they do the homework.
LUKA ZYLIK: Sometimes I even—in the break between Act I and Act III, I even do my homework like I'm going to do today.
ANTHONY PICCOLO: We take up a fair amount of their time, but they love it here, otherwise they wouldn't keep coming back.
UMAYMA: Tosca is like the best opera because it's like very energetic.
ANTHONY PICCOLO: It's an outlet for musical expression. They sing with a lot of enthusiasm and it shows on their faces. Some of them say that this room, Studio 210, is their second home, which is very touching.
UMAYMA: This is like the place where Mr. Piccolo tells us stories, where we laugh. It's our safe space.
INTERVIEW: Pérez w/ Patrick Carfizzi
AILYN PÉREZ: Oh, such talented kids. The Children's Chorus shares the stage in Act I with baritone Patrick Carfizzi, who today is singing his 61st Met performance of the Sacristan. He's with me now.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: Hi.
AILYN PÉREZ: Hi, Patrick.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: Hi.
AILYN PÉREZ: I just immediately bubble up with happiness when I see you.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: The same.
AILYN PÉREZ: You know, 61 sacristans. That's a lot of sacristans. What keeps you coming back to this role?
PATRICK CARFIZZI: Oh, I just love this role so much. And I love that there's just so much to mine from this role. So much to continue to learn, as with any part that you have the opportunity to repeat time and time and time again, you just keep discovering new things and then interactions with colleagues always make it extra fun. So, yeah, the energy of that just keeps me enjoying it time and time again.
AILYN PÉREZ: I love it. I love it. We feel it. You're so in the moment. The sets for this David McVicar production are just spectacular, especially your church in Act I. What's it like to perform amid these extraordinary recreations of the 19th century Rome?
PATRICK CARFIZZI: It's pretty incredible, especially because I have had the luxury of visiting Sant'Andrea della Valle on multiple occasions. And so to go to Sant'Andrea and to see how glorious that church is for real, but then to see what we've done to recreate it here is absolutely magical. And it takes on that magic every single time we do a production.
AILYN PÉREZ: That's thrilling. Well, today marks your 468th performance at the Met since your debut as Count Ceprano in Rigoletto 25 years ago.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: That's correct, yeah.
AILYN PÉREZ: That was the first of 37 roles you've sung here as one of the company's great comprimario singers. For our audience who may not know that term, what is a comprimario?
PATRICK CARFIZZI: A comprimario is a supporting character. It's a character that is very key to the plot, very key to the storytelling. And the roll may last three minutes, it may last three measures, it may last 30 minutes. It just depends.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, your performance lasts a lifetime.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: Thank you for that.
AILYN PÉREZ: Besides the Sacristan, you've had memorable turns here at Schaunard in La bohème.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: Yes.
AILYN PÉREZ: Antonio the gardener in Le nozze di Figaro.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: Indeed.
AILYN PÉREZ: Swallow in Peter Grimes and Brother Melitone in La forza del destino, among many other roles. Which stand out the most to you?
PATRICK CARFIZZI: So many do. Having the honor and the joy of being on this stage at any moment is really a dream come true. For sure, Swallow in Peter Grimes stands out. Magnificent production. As well, Schaunard, the first Puccini that I sang in this theater back in 2004. And then, of course, Sacristan. And as well, Peter Quince in Midsummer Night's Dream.
AILYN PÉREZ: Oh, that's magical.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: And most recently, Fra Melitone, which was just a really phenomenal journey.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, since your Met debut in 1999, you've only missed two seasons. So I guess you really must love it here.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: I do.
AILYN PÉREZ: Do you consider the Met your artistic home?
PATRICK CARFIZZI: I do. I feel so fortunate that I can call the Met my artistic home.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, Patrick, congratulations on your epic Met career. And here's to another 25 years.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: Thank you so much.
AILYN PÉREZ: Thank you for speaking with me.
PATRICK CARFIZZI: Thanks a lot.
READ: Throw to Act II
AILYN PÉREZ: At the end of the previous act, Scarpia tricked Tosca into believing that Cavaradossi has betrayed her, all part of his plan to quell the rebellion and bend Tosca to his will. Here is Act II.
INTERVIEW: Pérez w/ Freddie de Tommaso
AILYN PÉREZ: I'm with the Met's new star tenor, Freddie de Tommaso. Hello, Freddie.
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Hello.
AILYN PÉREZ: Congratulations on your Met debut.
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Thank you.
AILYN PÉREZ: How have you found singing at the Met so far?
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: I've absolutely loved it. It's been fantastic. It's been so exciting. It's been a whirlwind experience, but, yeah, it's just been, yeah, just so exciting. Amazing.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, I think our HD audience, who may be hearing you for the first time, would love to know a little bit more about your background. So how did you become an opera singer?
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: So I'm from Italian father and English mother and I went to school in the UK and I was lucky enough to go to a school which had a very good musical department, and they nurtured a love of classical music from an early age, so, and it kind of grew from there.
AILYN PÉREZ: Wow. Well, you started out as a baritone as well?
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Yeah.
AILYN PÉREZ: What made you switch to tenor? Thank God you did, by the way.
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Yeah, yeah. Exactly. It was my teacher. My teacher when I was at the Royal Academy in London, we—after about a year and a half, almost two years of studying as a baritone, we explored some tenor repertoire and then decided to stay.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, the world is thankful.
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Yeah.
AILYN PÉREZ: The world is thankful. I know you have a new CD coming out on November 29th.
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: That's right.
AILYN PÉREZ: Puccini's death year date—
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Yeah.
AILYN PÉREZ: —Entitled Puccini. What are the vocal qualities that make a Puccini tenor, for example?
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Oh, how long have you got?
AILYN PÉREZ: We have time.
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: I think just the—the main thing is with—as with, you know, all verismo repertoire, the portraying of emotion, that—that's really what's making a Puccini—
AILYN PÉREZ: I also love you—you love to declaim text.
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Yes. Yeah. Declamatory singing. Yeah, absolutely.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, that's so beautiful. Do you have a favorite one on your album?
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Yes. I love the aria from La fanciulla del West, "Una parola sola!".
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, you've been singing, I know, Tosca opposite Lise Davidsen in opera houses around the world lately. How does it feel to be partners?
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Oh, it's just—it's so nice when you—when you work together with somebody and you become such good friends. You just develop such a bond and you know—you know what they're going to do in the stage, you know, if it's their best day or their worst day. You can help each other, support. It's great. And obviously Lise sung here so much. She was the most incredible support for me making my debut.
AILYN PÉREZ: Oh, well, Freddie—
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Yeah.
AILYN PÉREZ: Thank you so much for sharing that with us. And bravo on your debut.
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Thank you.
AILYN PÉREZ: Toi, toi, toi for Act III.
FREDDIE DE TOMMASO: Thank you very much.
READ: Pérez into Puccini at the Met feature
AILYN PÉREZ: This season marks the centenary of Puccini's death. In honor of the great composer, last week we presented a special Puccini gala which included the film you're going to see now.
ROLL-IN D: Puccini at the Met
PETER CLARK: Welcome to the Met Archives. I'm Peter Clark, Met historian. We have a treasure trove of material documenting Giacomo Puccini's deep history with the Met. Puccini's career blossomed at the end of the 19th century. His operas were introduced to the Met in 1900 and 1901, and audiences were enthralled. Building on the success of La bohème and Tosca, the Met's general manager decided to add two more of the composer's works to the Met repertory, the recently composed Madama Butterfly and Manon Lescaut.
He had the idea of inviting Puccini to New York to supervise these operas, which was a big event because by then Puccini was the world's most famous living opera composer. The Met offered him 20,000 lira and covered his travel expenses, including a hotel suite and a car. He loved automobiles. Puccini was supposed to oversee rehearsals of Manon Lescaut, but he was delayed by bad weather on the North Atlantic and only arrived the day of the premiere. His ship docked at 5 o'clock. He rushed to the Met, but didn't get there by curtain time. He arrived during the first act and when the lights came up, he was there in a box seat. The orchestra played a fanfare for him.
The audience went wild with applause, and on the stage was the world's most famous tenor, Enrico Caruso, who was Puccini's greatest vocal champion. Puccini wrote home to his publisher, "New York is extraordinary. Manon's first night was almost beyond description. Enthusiastic reception by a theater filled to overflowing. I've never seen anything like it."
Immediately after the premiere of Manon Lescaut, Puccini went into rehearsals for Madama Butterfly. Caruso was in the role of Pinkerton, and Butterfly was the young American soprano Geraldine Farrar. She was very attractive and had quite a following of young women who liked her style and wanted to be like her. She was sort of the Taylor Swift of her day.
Puccini, however, wasn't that impressed with her. He felt that she sang out of tune. He was even critical in private notes to people of Caruso, who he felt was lazy and didn't want to learn anything. While he was in New York, Puccini had a lot of invitations for social occasions. He hated them, partly because he couldn't speak English. He also avoided opera politics, like the battle between the Met and Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House. But he occasionally would go to an event that was really important, like with the Vanderbilts.
He also took advantage of some of these events to dance the night away with beautiful women, which drove his wife Elvira mad with jealousy. She knew her husband all too well. Puccini also spent time with his Italian friends, which were mainly Caruso and the baritone Antonio Scotti. The three of them would go to a restaurant on 34th Street called Del Pezos and hang out with other Italian expatriates, playing cards and pursuing other pastimes.
In just a few days, Puccini had become the toast of New York. Pursued by paparazzi. He was walking along Broadway one day when he saw an exhibition of motorboats and got excited, although he was daunted by the $500 price tag. Thinking fast, Puccini bargained with one of his affluent fans and sold him his autograph for $500. He had the boat shipped back to Italy.
Puccini went to a lot of theater and he particularly wanted to see the plays of David Belasco, one of which was The Girl of the Golden West. It takes place in California of the Gold Rush times and deals with typical Wild West subjects such as saloons and cowboys. So Puccini was in New York for about six weeks. He returned to Italy to his home at Torre del Lago, a small town on a lake which he loved and where he lived most of his life. And he began to work on his next opera.
He actually had in mind to do an opera on Marie Antoinette, but he put that aside and decided to go with The Girl of the Golden West, La fanciulla del West. During this same time in 1908, there was a new team at the Met, the head of La Scala, Giulio Gatti-Casazza and his chief conductor, Arturo Toscanini, probably the most famous conductor of the 20th century. Gatti‑Casazza and Toscanini had great plans to bring new works to the Met and world premieres by important artists. And the world's most important composer at that point was Puccini.
So when Puccini returned to New York in 1910, he was an even bigger celebrity than he had ever been before. And La fanciulla del West was the Met's first ever world premiere. It secured the Met's position as one of the world's leading opera houses. The box office proceeds from that night broke records. Tickets cost twice the normal prices and scalpers sold them for 30 times their stated value.
The opera house was full of both Italian and American flags for the star‑studded gala and headlines around the country declared it a resounding success. Before departing New York, Puccini gave a farewell speech. Because of the coming First World War, he was never to return. But his music will always be with us.
GIACOMO PUCCINI: (In Italian)
READ: Pérez Neubauer / Throw to break
AILYN PÉREZ: That was a beautiful tribute. The Met is grateful to the Puccini Foundation and Museum in Lucca for providing their exclusive original film footage of Puccini in Italy. The Met's Live in HD series is made possible thanks to its founding sponsor, the Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met Live in HD Series is supported by Rolex. We'll be back after a break.
READ: Pérez into profile
AILYN PÉREZ: Welcome back. A few months ago, the Met announced that our dynamo of a music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin had extended his contract until 2030. As we look forward to a future of more exceptional musicmaking, we sat down with the maestro to get his thoughts on sound, inspiration and what it means to lead the musical forces at the Met.
ROLL-IN E: Yannick Nézet-Séguin profile
YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN: For me, sound is emotion. There is no sound that doesn't create or trigger an emotion inside us. Music is a way of organizing sound to talk about an emotion that we cannot express in words. Music starts where words stop. Music is not just a profession. It's a dedication. It's a vocation. Music is there during the dreams, the nightmares, the morning coffee, the night cap. Embracing this and accepting it is accepting the millions of hours that I still do every week, every day. But I do it gladly because, yes, I love it, or I more than love it. It's my life.
To conduct at the Met is the dream of any conductor. To be the music director of the Met is not even a dream that's allowed to have. It's too wonderful. It's too big. There's this kind of sculpture that's very specific to the Met. Every performance I conduct, I try to look up just to remember, yes, you're here. Make the most out of it.
Passion is everything. Love is everything. Love for the people around you, love for life, and love for something that inspires you, that makes you want to be better at it. I'm an optimistic guy. That's who I am. So I have a lot of faith and hope that through art and music, there's going to be more love in the world.
READ: PSA / Fundraising / Throw to HD Season Preview
AILYN PÉREZ: I worked with Maestro Nézet-Séguin here at the Met last season when he conducted me in Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas. And I can tell you he's a magician with singers and the orchestra, as we're all hearing today. But to experience the full impact of his artistry, you have to be here at the Met. Nothing compares to opera in the opera house. So please come to the Met or visit your local opera company.
With Yannick in the pit, Lise, Freddie and Quinn on stage, and the great Met orchestra and the chorus delivering their customary musical brilliance, today's Tosca is a major operatic event. But as you can imagine, putting on a grand production like this one to showcase some of the world's greatest artists comes at great expense. Ticket sales cover only a fraction of the cost. So the Met relies on opera lovers like you to help make up the difference.
If you're able to make a donation, I invite you to please visit metopera.org/donate. You can also text HDLIVE to 44321 to make a contribution or call us at 212-362-0068. Thank you for your support of the Met. The Met has five more movie theater presentations coming up this season. Here's a preview.
INTERVIEW: Pérez w/ Lise Davidsen
AILYN PÉREZ: And now I'm joined by today's Tosca, Lise Davidsen. Hello, Lise.
LISE DAVIDSEN: Hello. It's lovely to see you.
AILYN PÉREZ: It's so great to see you, too. You know, Tosca is such an iconic role, and every soprano puts her own stamp on it. What aspects of this immortal character are you emphasizing in your interpretation?
LISE DAVIDSEN: Well, as you say, there's so many versions of this. We have seen millions. You have one, I have one, everyone has one. I think, for me, the fact that she's a bit fragile in the first act with Cavaradossi, that you see not just a powerful, strong Tosca, but that she is also very vulnerable, I think has been my—my sort of extra take on it. And then the rest just comes with the music. It's—it's not natural, but it's definitely written and it's there.
AILYN PÉREZ: We feel it poetic in you. In David McVicar's grand production, which is so true to the original libretto, do you find yourself doing anything differently?
LISE DAVIDSEN: No, not necessarily differently. It's, as you say, very close to the score. It's what you expect it to be. I still think the dialogue, the motions, is quite up to date. It is what it is today. We can still feel it. It feels quite natural. And I love that we can bring that, even in this traditional set and traditional production.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, compared to singing the most demanding and heroic roles of Wagner, is Puccini a vocal walk in the park for you?
LISE DAVIDSEN: I wish I could say yes. Yeah, no problem. But absolutely no. It's such a demanding role, second act, maybe the hardest. But it's—it's so different. And I find that with every composer I take on, there's different demands, and Tosca is no different at all.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, after such an intense second act, how do you approach the final act that's about to begin?
LISE DAVIDSEN: Well, it's sort of back to the positivity again. She's very positive or hopeful. Maybe not glad, but really, really hopeful because she believes she solved it. And, yes, now, now we can go back to Act I, what we talked about. We're free, we can leave, we can do whatever we want. And it's all about love. And then, of course—
AILYN PÉREZ: I believe in you.
LISE DAVIDSEN: —a big change.
AILYN PÉREZ: I believe. I think they're going to make it.
LISE DAVIDSEN: Me, too. I really believe in her.
AILYN PÉREZ: As we head into the holiday season, we wanted to share your holiday album, "Christmas from Norway". Can you tell us a little bit about it?
LISE DAVIDSEN: Oh, I love that. Thank you for mentioning that. Yeah, it's a Christmas album that came out last year. It's called "Christmas from Norway". It has a lot of Scandinavian songs. It has some songs in English and German as well. But, yeah, there's many songs I think people recognize and some songs that might be new that are then from Scandinavia. But I look forward to sharing it again because we've been holding on now for, what is it, 11 months.
AILYN PÉREZ: It'll be a perfect Christmas gift. Well, we just saw a preview of upcoming HD transmissions, and you'll be singing Beethoven's Fidelio in a few months. What are you most looking forward to with that production?
LISE DAVIDSEN: I'm really looking forward to returning with that role. It's my first Fidelio here. It's a long time since I've done Fidelio and it's beautiful music, completely different character, of course. But I really look forward to doing it. And it looks quite traditional from what I've seen and—and I look forward to that.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, Lise, brava and toi, toi, toi for the final act.
LISE DAVIDSEN: Thank you so much. I have to send a little hello to my family. Hi, Mama, Papa (in Norwegian).
READ: Throw to Act III
AILYN PÉREZ: With Scarpia dead, Tosca hopes for Cavaradossi's freedom and their escape together. But Puccini left no room for a fairy tale ending in his verismo masterpiece. Here is the dramatic conclusion of Tosca.