Toscatorio, a thirty five minute version for young people of the opera Tosca by Puccini, was commissioned by Interopera to accompany its professional production of Tosca, performed in the Durham Dales in Northern England in late September 2005. It was devised from scenarios developed through improvisation by the cast about scenes from the story of Tosca, and is very much the young peoples’ take on the Tosca story.

Toscatorio retains the dramatic and musical devices Puccini used in the original.   

• motifs for each of the principal characters.
• recitatives that contain short melodies.
• tone-pictures
• arias and choruses which, while many are in simple binary or ternary form in accessible styles, contain rhythmic and melodic elements of bel canto.

The harmonic language of the piece is generally simple but contains allusions to the chromaticism of the original.
Recitatives, tempo-changes and extended forms provide challenges for inexperienced singers, therefore we adopted the practice of writing themes into the accompaniment before being sung.
In order not to exclude weaker singers, recitatives for some characters (Angelotti, the church cleaner and two Guards for example) primarily use tonic and dominant in the singing parts with the melodic interest in the accompaniment

The three principal parts demand some singing ability, but the rest of the parts are designed for young people with little or no singing experience.

Cast

Non-singing parts

Angelotti’s sister

Various guards and policemen

Accompaniment

A piano accompaniment is provided in the vocal score but a full score and orchestral parts suitable for a school orchestra are available for hire or purchase, pleases contact us via the CONTACT FORM for further information about these. The scoring is:-

Strings

Flt, Oboe, Clar, Bassoon

Trumpet, Trombone, Horn in F

Percussion

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