Victorien Sardou (1831-1908) was a popular French dramatist during the later half of the 19th Century. He, along with EugËne Scribe, combined melodrama and realism to a produce a more serious form of drama that emphasized careful plot construction.
Year: 2005
PUCCINI: Tutti Libretti d’Opera
This is a collection of the original libretti to Puccini’s Le Villi, Edgar, Manon Lescaut, La BohËme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, La Fanciulla del West, La Rondine, Il Trittico (Gianni Schicchi, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica), and Turandot in nine booklets within a cardboard slipcase.
Opera Boston gives new life to ‘The Consul’
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2005/10/22/opera_boston_gives_new_life_to_the_consul/
Opera, singers shine despite distractions
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051022/COC22/TPEntertainment/Music
The twists and trysts of Tosca
A few years ago, I had the rare experience of attending a performance of Tosca in a small farm community where opera was a fairly new commodity. After the second act ended, with Scarpia’s corpse lying center stage, I happened to overhear a young, wide-eyed woman say to her companion, “I knew she was upset, but I didn’t think she’d KILL him!”