TOSCA

Giacomo Puccini's opera TOSCA was based on a French melodramatic play La Tosca by Victorien SARDOU (1887). Puccini's libretto was by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The opera was premiered in the Teatro Costanzi (later Teatro Reale dell' Opera) in Rome in 1900. Only three years later it was first performed in Malta, in March 1903.

That same year a Maltese version of Sardou's work by Guglielmo ARENA was published by Ganni Muscat (48 Strada Mercanti, Valletta) and was dedicated to the Theatre Impresario, Michel Ang Borg. This made the story of Tosca available to the general Maltese public that could not read Italian or French. The stories of operatic works were therefore filtering down to those who would not normally be financially able to attend the theatre. Some of these, such as Lucia di Lammermoor and Pia de Tolomei were then also created in sung folk versions, in what is known as ghana tal-fatt.