A Walking Tour of Tosca's Rome

For the obsessive opera-lover, Puccini's Tosca offers a unique opportunity. The times and places of the action of the opera are very distinctly identified and correspond to real locations in the city of Rome. Happily for the opera tourist, the buildings where the tragic goings on of Tosca, Cavaradossi, and Baron Scarpia are played out not only still exist in essentially the same form as when the events in the opera supposedly took place, they can be visited by the enterprising visitor to the Eternal City.

The play upon which Puccini's opera is based, La Tosca by Victorien Sardou sets the first act in the Jesuit church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale (which still exists), but Puccini and his librettists moved the action the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle (A) near the Piazza Navona and in reasonable proximity to the Castel  Sant'Angelo, where Act III takes place and from which Angelotti is supposed to have escaped.  The church is also only a few blocks from the Teatro Argentina at which Floria Tosca is supposedly engaged and which coincidentally was the location of the famous fiasco premiere of Rossini's The Barber of Seville.

The church, which boasts the a dome that is second only in size to St. Peter's Basilica was begun around 1590 and finished in 1650 with a design primarily by Carlo Madero. The baroque façade of its exterior was added between 1655 and 1663 by Carlo Rainaldi. Popes Pius II and Pius III are buried within the church.  The dome of the church is decorated with a fresco by Giovanni Lanfranco and Domenichino, who completed it in 1627. In fact the fictional painter Cavaradossi wouldn't have found any real work at the Sant'Andrea della Valle since all of the paintings which currently adorn its walls were completed by the mid-17th century, long before the action of the opera takes place (June 17, 1800).

There is of course no Chapel of the Attavanti, which is supposed to be Angelotti's hiding place and the escape route for him and Cavaradossi. In fact there are eight chapels off the nave of the church but none of them fit the description of the chapel in the opera. The closest approximation would be the Barberini Chapel, which is the first chapel on the left as you enter the church.  It is the only one in which the view might be partially obscured from the main church. Coincidentally it is the only one to continue an image of Mary Magdelene (which Cavaradossi is supposedly painting in the first act of the opera) but it is a statue and not a portrait.

When Scarpia leaves the church at the end of Act I he doesn't have far to go to return to his apartments in the Farnese Palace (B) where Act II takes place. In fact, if he exits through the rear of the church it is only a matter of a few blocks to what has been called “the most imposing Italian palace of the sixteenth century.” Commissioned by Alessandro Farnese, construction was begun in 1515 under architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. Work was delayed by the sack of Rome in 1527. After Farnese became Pope Paul III in 1534, he commissioned Michelangelo to work on various aspects of the building, taking over completely after Sangallo's death in 1546.

Ownership of the palace was assumed by the Bourbon kings of Naples at the demise of the last Farnese male heir. At the unification of Italy, the building became the French embassy as part of a trade which gave the Italian government an embassy in Paris. It still serves in that capacity today.

The libretto of Tosca specifies Scarpia's apartments are on an upper floor.  Many rooms would qualify although it was pretty unlikely that a police chief would be housed in such an elaborate venue. One of the most notable rooms in the building is the Sala d'Ercole, which is frescoed with an elaborate series on Hercules by Annibale Carracci and other artists, completed between 1597-1608 and also contained the Farnese family collection of classical sculpture.  For those operatic Tosca pilgrims who wish to visit the Palazzo Farnese, tours are now available on Wednesdays in English (pre-booking required.)

The final trip for Cavaradossi and Tosca (and the last act of the opera) take them across the Tiber to the Castel Sant'Angelo (C). One of Rome's greatest enduring monuments it remains an important stop for modern day tourists (operatic or not). Originally commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family, it has also served as a fortress (and safe haven for several popes), a castle and is now a museum. Construction began between 135 and 139 AD. It was converted into a military fortress in 401, but apparently it wasn't deterrent enough to prevent Alaric's sack of Rome in 410.

Legend has it that the archangel Michael appeared at the top of the Castel in 590, sheathing his sword as a sign of the end of the plague. This was the inspiration for the statue of Saint Michael which appears atop the structure (and which is the most recognizable icon of any traditional third act stage set for Tosca). The first such image was a marble image by Raffaello da Montelupo (which is now in an interior courtyard) in 1536. The current bronze statue on the top of the castle is by Peter Anton von Verschaffelt  which replaced Montelupo's  in 1753.

From the 14th century the building was a papal fortress and castle.  It was connected to Saint Peter's Basilica by a covered corridor by Pope Nicholas III, while Leo X built the chapel and Paul III a rich apartment. The building was also used as a papal prison and one of the interior squares was a frequent site of executions. Incidentally in Sardou's play Cavaradossi's interrogation and torture take place at the Castel Sant'Angelo rather than the Farnese Palace. The fortress was a more likely venue for that kind of activity, but Puccini and his librettists felt the need to condense the action.

No doubt part of the appeal of Tosca to its original audiences was the fact that the locations for each act of the opera weren't far from the Teatro Costanzi, which housed the premiere of the opera in 1900. Happily these monuments still exist whether their appeal is as part of an operatic “Tosca” pilgrimage or as representative of great Roman art and history.

 

 

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