December 7 marks the opening of the 2019-2020 opera season at La Scala with a performance based on Roger Parker’s critical edition of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, conducted by Riccardo Chailly. The production, directed by Davide Livermore, features Anna Netrebko, Francesco Meli and Luca Salsi in the lead roles. Scenography by Giò Forma, costumes by Gianluca Falaschi.


Tosca, one of the most widely performed operas ever, will be presented at La Scala in its original form. It made its world premiere on January 14, 1900 at Teatro Costanzi in Rome, after which it underwent various revisions by Puccini.
After conducting Turandot, La Fanciulla del West, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Maestro Chailly continues his exploration of Puccini for audiences at La Scala, based on the most recent musicological research on the work of the famed Italian composer. 


What makes Parker’s study so special is the attention he has focused on the reconstruction of the changes made by Puccini, heretofore unknown to the general public, including those made solely for the work’s world premiere in Rome, which will be staged once again at La Scala. 
Parker based his work on Puccini’s original manuscript and the first published edition of the score for Tosca to reconstruct the opera’s very first version, which, by no coincidence, he calls 'Tosca 1900'. The reconstruction brings to light a host of surprising differences, the majority of which regard some of the opera’s most iconic and renowned moments, including the finale of the choral Te Deum in Act I and the finale of Vissi d’arte in Act II, as well as a revisitation of the original score for E lucevan le stelle in the grand finale.


This La Scala premiere serves up one of the versions proposed in Parker’s critical edition, which the author is still working on, and includes not a few new elements to add to the history of Puccini’s Tosca.


Vocal score of ‘Tosca 1900’ is already available on nkoda, the world’s greatest digital library of sheet music on subscription, along with the titles of 2019-2020 season of La Scala .

Image: GIÒ FORMA S.r.l.
Photo: credit Brescia/Amisano - Teatro alla Scala