I have lived for art, I have lived for love.

The lively fire of Puccini's hotblooded political thriller will alight at the Mead Theatre in spring 2024 as Dayton Opera stages this production of the masterpiece by director Kathleen Clawson. Set in the boiling turmoil of Napoleonic Rome in 1800 just before the battle of Marengo, see everything of the drama, battles, and romance through the eyes of a desperate prima donna as she tries to save her lover from the ire of a villainous police chief.

What is the story?

Under the cloud of rebellion on all sides, Rome is in the middle of a tumultuous change as the Royalist regime is winning over the Republic. Whilst the merciless Baron Scarpia is rounding up rebels and jailing them, raven-haired singer Tosca rehearses in a church before meeting her lover, the painter Cavaradossi and his fugitive friend Angelotti. When the embittered Baron catches up with him he falls for Tosca, much to her anger, and tortures her lover in front of him. If she yields to him, she is promised his life under the guise of a false execution. But Scarpia's meanness knows no bounds and before the day is out, all life will be extinguished.