Under ideal circumstances, producing a full-scale opera is a mammoth task.
Now try doing that during a pandemic while outdoors on a wet spring night in Austin.
Envisioning an epic show that companies many times its size would not risk during the current health crisis, Austin Opera, surely the bravest of its kind in America, decided to stage Tosca, Puccini s masterpiece, at Circuit of the Americas, the city s Formula One racetrack.
Just to outfit the Germania Insurance Amphitheater stage for the job of handling an opera must have seemed overwhelming. Yet the COTA leadership graciously gave Austin Opera two full weeks to adapt to the space and the troupe ran with it.
Here are the top 5 things to do in Austin this weekend
Here are the top 5 things to do in Austin this weekend
Photo courtesy of Carolyn Wonderland The Blue Genie Art Bazaar presents its first-ever May Market for local shoppers starting this weekend.
Photo courtesy of Blue Genie See Ray Benson and more iconic Texas musicians perform live during the Live from the Stream virtual concert.
Photo by Shelley Neuman Welcome the month of May with outdoor festivals, family-friendly events, and live music all weekend long. Check out the top five things to do in Austin this weekend.
Thursday, April 29
Courtesy of Austin Opera
By the summer of 2020, Austin Opera knew that the first two productions of its 2020-21 season – Mozart s classic
The Marriage of Figaro and Mason Bates new American opera
The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs – would be artistic victims of the pandemic. (Not to worry, both will be produced in 2021-22.) But when it came to the third production, Puccini s powerhouse
Tosca, we were stubborn, says AO general director and CEO Annie Burridge. We were determined to find a way to do as much of the production as we could for as many people as we could.
Austin 360
When you think of Tosca, one of the world s most beloved operas, you might conjure up lofty melodies, virtuoso performances and dramatic action that includes murder, suicide and a good deal of associated suffering.
You might envision, too, elaborate scenery and costumes depicting 1800s Rome, as Napoleon s troops enter a city ruled by Scarpia, the sadistic chief of police who tortures the painter Cavaradossi in order to force the artist s beloved, opera singer Tosca, into his bed.
Did I say it was a melodrama? It is. But a surprisingly effective one.
Puccini s almost Wagnerian score ranks alongside his other operatic zeniths, such as La Boheme, Turandot and Madama Butterfly.