La Tosca

Luigi Magni takes Sardou’s play back from Puccini and turns it into a musical comedy that speaks in Roman dialect. Rome, 1800: Napoleon threatens the power of the Church and Jacobins are being executed. The escaped Angelotti is sheltered by a painter whose lover is the celebrated singer Tosca, and the chief of police works on her jealousy to find the fugitive. Magni is not after tragedy. He wants the icon cut down to street level, the clergy needled, and the whole thing sung, with music by Armando Trovajoli and lyrics by the director himself. Vitti plays Tosca as a neighbourhood woman rather than a saint, and Gassman’s Scarpia is broad on purpose.