The 90-minute concert, called “a powerful celebratory event” by Opera News, broke new ground for Opera Philadelphia in the company’s return to live audiences for the first time in 15 months. Three “high voltage singers” (Philadelphia Inquirer) make their company debuts in the concert: Grammy-winning Puerto Rican soprano Ana María Martínez stars in her title role debut as Puccini’s troubled heroine, opposite American tenor Brian Jagde as Tosca’s doomed lover, the painter Cavaradossi, and baritone Quinn Kelsey in his role debut as the treacherous Baron Scarpia.

Martínez received audience and critical acclaim in her title role debut, with Opera News raving “her rich upper voice and flaming high notes rang out handsomely.” Jagde is “a robust Cavaradossi” (Philadelphia Inquirer), while Kelsey is “a Scarpia for the ages” (Parterre Box). “The ninety-minute, intermissionless and narrated version of Puccini's classic achieved a high level musically, thanks to Corrado Rovaris's idiomatic, dynamic conducting” (Opera News).

Seen through the eyes of an omniscient narrator, this innovative version of Puccini’s beloved work bridges opera and storytelling, highlighting major themes from the original, and focuses on the three principal characters, joined by the spoken narrator (Charlotte Blake Alston). Jack Mulroney Music Director Corrado Rovaris leads 68 players from the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra, who appear on stage with the singers, and 40 singers from the Opera Philadelphia Chorus, who sing from the balcony level of the Mann.

The Drama of Tosca
Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Adapted by Francesco Micheli
Concert Performance
Performed in Italian with English narration and English closed-captioning
90 minutes
Underwritten, in part, by Judy and Peter Leone