Tosca and the Women: About

Tosca, seen only as the subject of gossip.

No depressing scenes or exaggerated theatrics: the libretto of Puccini's opera is instead an opportunity to fall enjoyably into a mixture of comedy and melodrama, seen through the eyes of a rustic and naive Rome.

The Year 1800. The porter's lodge of the Palazzo Farnese is dominated by Emilia, who is responsible for upholding both the house's decorum and the reputation of the powerful and wicked baron Scarpia.

Emilia is married to the jailer of the Castel Sant'Angelo. She is a strong housewife who doesn't get easily upset over the constant shouting and somewhat shady affairs of the palazzo.

One night Iride sneaks into the porter's lodge.

The woman is a former lower-class ""artiste". She comes to pick up her husband, the galley-sergeant Sciarrone who is, late that night, still at work. He is now busy at a very delicate job on the upper floor of Palazzo Borghese: he is trying to make Cavaradossi, Tosca's lover, talk. His techniques are considerably less than gentle, but Scarpia knows that this is an efficient way to shock poor Tosca, for whom he longs, into surrender.

Emilia and Iride patiently wait for the end of Sciarrone's shift. The two women keep each other company, and their conversations lead to a hilarious parody of common people's life.

Within their constant gossip they discuss bread and salami, their miserable daily life, and the moralism of the poor but ugly, while in the yard we can overhear Cavaradossi's tortured screams, Scarpia's warnings and the proud pity of Tosca.

Amongst the outspoken conversations between Emilia and Iride are inserts of the actual opera performance, from the stereotyped "art view" backdrops to the echoing of the firing squad spreading from the heights of the Castel Sant'Angelo. Tosca's drama has been fulfilled.

At daybreak, exhausted after a long night of tattle-tales, Emilia and Iride say good-bye. To each other...

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