Have you ever seen a show and wondered about a character’s backstory and what brought them to the point at which the action starts? So have we. Hastings’ new opera theatre company present a prologue to Puccini’s famous opera, Tosca.Becoming Tosca is an innovative and unique piece of drama, illuminating the  earlier lives of the well-known characters and propelling the audience into their world. Every song and every word of dialogue in the Prologue brings us new insights into their backgrounds and choices.

Catholicism and the appeal of dictatorship are never far from the surface in Puccini’s Tosca. Can revolution or religion change human nature? Can art be the agent of either or does it merely passively record the process? Becoming Tosca relocates the action to an unspecific Latin American setting in the second half of the 20th century; a nation founded on Jesuit colonisation, where religion now jostles with the politics of capitalism and self-interest. It is a society dominated by the struggle to exchange poverty for influence, still seeking solutions to all-pervasive inequalities and oppressions. Does the church love repentance or does it prefer punishment? Is brutality a necessary weapon to control a turbulent population? Even now, we do not have answers and until we do, these questions must continue to be examined.

An evening of revolution, romance and tragedy, combining newly composed music with a tango flavour and an abridged version of Puccini’s sumptuous score,will entertain you from the opening chords to the dramatic finale, challenging your preconception of both the original piece and the art form of opera itself.

Cast & Creatives

Tosca – Anna Sideris 

Scarpia – Brendan Collins

Cavaradossi – Anthony Flaum

Spoletta – Jonathan Cooke

Angelotti – Harry Gentry

Director, Script & Translation – Christopher Cowell

Designer – Viva Halton Wright

Stage Management – Jane Richardson

Lighting Designer – Jon Richardson

Composer – Frank Moon