This type of turnabout is strong stuff, and Tosca – custom-made for Bernhardtís provocative powers – provoked primal emotions in many members of the “premiere” audiences. The shocking aspects of Tosca ‘s plot do more than simply surprise, however the story plumbs profound currents of sex, power and violence After all, when Tosca stabs her would-be rapist, she penetrates him instead, turning the tables on her aggressor and reclaiming control (she thinks) of the situation. As remarkable as her comments seemed at the time, since Tosca has hardly left the stage in the hundred years since its premiere, it later dawned on me that the first audiences of Sardou’s play La Tosca (which opened in 1887, starring its dedicatÈe Sarah Bernhardt) and Puccini’s opera, were probably just as dumbfounded.
0 kommentar(er)
