Of course, Sardou denied all of these claims and insisted that the play's inspiration was an actual event from 16th-century French history. Furthermore, the American playwright Maurice Barrymore successfully litigated an injunction barring any English-language performances of the play in America based on his contention that Sardou had plagiarized the substance of Scarpia's betrayal of Tosca from his own play entitled Nadjezda. Perhaps adding insult to injury, Daudet had also written his play for Ms. The playwright Ernest Daudet charged that Sardou had stolen key facets of the plot from his La Sainte Aubin, which takes place, as does the action of Sardou's play, on the occasion of Napoleon's fateful battle at Marengo, and in which the female lead is, like Tosca, a renowned singer.
The play had been written as a vehicle for the great Sarah Bernhardt, who premiered the role in Paris in November 1887, and whom Puccini saw perform the role in Milan in 1890 and again in Florence in 1895.įrom the start, La Tosca was attacked on account not only of its brutality (both the play and the opera depict torture, attempted rape and murder) but also its originality (or lack thereof).
Tosca Goes Online: Historical Notes (Music Feature)ĪS EARLY AS THE SPRING OF 1889, Giacomo Puccini expressed to his publisher Ricordi his fervent desire to tackle the then-popular French play La Tosca by the then-popular (now largely forgotten) Victorien Sardou for his next opera.
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