When the late Daniel Toscan du Plantier suggested to Jacquot that he film an opera of his choosing, he selected Puccini’s perennial favourite because it was the only opera whose tunes he knew well. He wanted to film the singing live, as Straub and Huillet did with Von Heute auf Morgen, but when that proved unfeasible he settled on a form of presentation that retains the idea of live performance and the combined beauties of reality and artifice. Tosca moves with ease between black & white footage of the sound recording session in London, location shots grabbed as if on the run in Rome, and a presentation of the opera proper, shot on a sound-stage in Cologne. The result is glorious, a film made in true freedom that glories in the beauty of art. The great Romanian soprano Angela Gheorgiu is Tosca, her real-life husband Roberto Alagna is her lover, and Ruggero Raimondi is the evil Scarpia. Antonio Pappano conducts the orchestra and chorus of the Royal Opera House. (KJ)
