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widely apparent in Puccini’s work.
This he handled with a greater
degree of flexibility and far more
technical variety and finesse than
most of his contemporaries. There
was also in Puccini’s scores a
persistent interest in new musical
developments from beyond Italy’s
(or even opera’s) borders, which
added heightened expressive color
and richness to his music. He made
use of the harmonies, rhythms, and
orchestral effects displayed in theworks of fellow composers, such as
Debussy, Strauss, Stravinsky, and
even Schoenberg, but also made
modernist musical initiatives of his
own, many of which came to the
fore in Tosca.Using music for menace
Puccini premiered Tosca, his fifth
opera, in Rome in 1900, a time of
great uncertainty and instability in
Italian politics. Though clothed in
the theatrical dress of a period 100
years prior to its opening, the opera
dealt with issues and characters
that seemed contemporary to its
first audience but would become
even more starkly relevant as the
20th century progressed. In
particular, the figure of Scarpia,
the sadistic police chief, who is a
presence in the opera musically
from its opening bars right through
to the final act (although deadVERISMO
At the premiere of Tosca, the lead
role was played by the Romanian-born
39-year-old soprano Hariclea Darclée,
seen here in Act II holding the knife
she will use to kill Scarpia.News of Napoleon’s victory at
Marengo, pictured here by the
French artist Louis-François Lejeune
(1775–1848), reaches Rome in Act II
of Tosca, three days after the battle.by this time), seems to prefigure
innumerable individuals who,
over the next century, served
cruel, dictatorial regimes,
including Fascist Italy.
Scarpia is introduced in the
concise motif of two chords on
lower woodwind, brass, and
strings, followed by an unrelated
and clashing third chord by the
higher strings and woodwind, and
a lurid gleam from the cymbals.
Every note in this chord sequence
is accented and marked “fff”
(“extremely loud”). Long before
we see him, here stands Scarpia
in all his power and brutality.
Musically, this tiny (yet
sonically huge) motif also throws
our expectations of standard
harmonic progression out of kilter
by landing not only in a key
(E major) unrelated to the first
chord (B-flat) but in a diminishedUS_194-197_Giacomo_puccini.indd 196 26/03/18 1:01 PM