Tosca

The artist Cavaradossi, a young republican, loves Tosca. But so does Scarpia, the corrupted monarchist chief of police. He tortures Cavaradossi until Tosca gives away his political secrets. She tries to stop his execution by agreeing to give herself to Scarpia. In return, he orders a fake execution. He writes her and her lover a pass certificate, but she murders him with a knife she found on the dinner table. The execution is near, and Tosca comes to speak with her lover. She tells him about killing Scarpia, and he is stunned by what she did for him. Tosca tells him the execution is bogus, and that a carriage awaits for them to escape later. She reminds him to fall after the pretended shooting, and stays when the shooting squad enters and caries out the sentence, but to her dismay, she finds out after their regress that her lover was indeed slain. From a distance she hears calls about Scarpia's death and the searches for her, begun in order to punish her for the murder she committed. She runs to the prison wall and jumps to her death from the edge. As he faces death, Cavaradossi sings an aria of final tender memories of his beloved: "E lucevan le stelle" ("And shining were the stars").

In his opera, Puccini managed to moderate this harsh, cruel story. Treason, lies, envy and mad love - all of which fill this opera, creating a severe atmosphere, intensify with every additional death (four of the heroes die in the course of this piece), but the wonderful music succeeds in giving even this story, beauty and humanity.