TOSCA FOR TOTS

Well, it’s not Cinderella. That’s for sure.

Giacomo Puccini’s great operatic masterpiece, Tosca, is not a children’s fairy tale. So I was a bit apprehensive about taking my seven-year old granddaughter Michelle to see Opera Pacific's Tosca – her first real opera at the Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa, CA. She’d been listening to a Puccini piano recording since baby days at my house. We’d play school or the Lewis and Clark game I made up to Puccini’s heart-wrenching melodies. I couldn’t wait for her to be old enough to come with me to a real opera. Finally, I thought this second-grader was ready. After all, I did promise her.
Just five minutes after Michelle Christine was born – the girl I’d ordered for myself from BabyHeaven decades ago – I whispered a litany of all the wonderful things we would do together. Whether it was my soothing sounds or the prospect of lots of fun in the years ahead, this little newborn stopped bawling and turned her eyes toward her newly minted grandmama. I joyfully told her how she and I would play tea party, go to museums, plays, and even the opera. Obviously, this was more my fantasy than hers.
You see, after three sons I had a ton of pent-up ruffles & organdy. I spent my young mother years at endless Little League games and was dying to go to just one ballet. No dice –with three sons born in three and one half years it was a burlap life. Now that Michelle had arrived it was going to be satin all the way.
Michelle has seen famous paintings such as Blue Boy and Pinky and had tea at the Huntington Library & Museum. She’s visited over a dozen museums,some she even liked a lot. She loved the Thorne doll house rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago. “They’re so cute”, said the then-three-year old. The trip to San Diego to see Degas’ “Little Ballerina” sculpture was a bit too much. (We could have gone to the Norton Simon Museum) Too long a car ride tired her out completely. Though digging for dinosaur bones at Chicago’s Field Museum with her brother, Andrew, was l fun. You have to try lots of cultural experiences with children, as some turn out better than others.
Years ago, a friend and I had taken our seven sons, aged three to nine to the Art Institute of Chicago, to see a fabulous Auguste Renoir exhibit. It was madness. The crowds. The errant boys.What were we thinking? On the way home in the proverbial station wagon, sans seatbelts, I asked of no one in particular: “Did you like the exhibit?”. “Yes,” came a small voice from the way-way back; “ We counted 47 nudes.” Nudes? We naïve mothers had not given that a thought.
Now Tosca is a classic verismo (realistic) opera –featuring an on-stage attempted rape, a stabbing murder by the heroine, and a bloody execution followed by a spectacular suicide jump from the top of Rome’s Castle Saint Angelo. Puccini’s music is known for its flowing melodies, melting harmonies and rich orchestration suited to the passions of the main characters of the opera. I didn’t want to be a naïve grandmama so I gave this cultural venture some serious thought. Alas, there are few happy endings in opera so waiting for one wasn’t an option. I decided it would be Tosca. Still I worried.
So the question was – would it be too shocking for my seven-year granddaughter Michelle and her friend Breanna to see this verismo opera? I fretted about this quite a lot. I didn’t know exactly how to explain the opera.


The opera takes place on June 17, 1800, immediately after the Battle of Marengo between Napoleon Bonaparte and the Royalists who control Italy. This passionate drama has strong political overtones with a beautiful heroine, Floria Tosca, the lustful Chief of Police, (think KGB) Baron Scarpia and Tosca’s lover, political prisoner Cavaradossi. It is set in three historical places in Rome, Italy: A church, a palace, and fortress. Mario Cavaradossi is part of the political movement which seeks to overturn royal control of Rome. He ends up Scarpia’s captive.
Baron Scarpia is the most powerful enforcer for the royals. Tosca, celebrated for her beauty and talent, entertains the Queen in the opera, but her heart is with her lover Cavaradossi. Political events overtake the lovers quickly.
Baron Scarpia wants Tosca. He promises her Letters of Release (think Casablanca and Letters of Transit) for herself & her lover if she will give herself to Scarpia. While with Scarpia she is emotionally torn listening to the painful cries of Cavaradossi being tortured in the dungeon of the palace. Scarpia grabs at her – the more she resists the more inflamed his desires. They struggle. Ultimately she cannot allow herself to be taken by the vile Scarpia. Against opera convention of the time the heroine stabs and kills Scarpia. It is a shocking, sensational scene even today.
Now keep in mind this is all background to the most gorgeous Puccini music which tells the story so perfectly words are hardly necessary. It is Puccini’s melodic genius which has made his operas the most popular in the repertoire.
Nonetheless, for audiences at the opera’s debut in Rome in 1900, it was a cultural outrage to see on stage bloodied tortured Cavaradossi Worse to witness a beautiful, devoutly religious heroine commit the violent murder of the villain.
So as a rational loving grandmother I had to weigh the cultural benefits for seven-year old Michelle to be introduced to Puccini’s operas and the world of opera against any untoward effects of so much violent verismo.
As I struggled with this dilemma of how to explain all this political and passionate violence I’m rescued by the thought of popular culture’s iconic serial opera, Star Wars. A modern fairy tale set in the mythical future, instead of the mythical past.
I realize Michelle and millions of children have already experienced a politically violent drama of operatic proportions featuring a loathsome villain– Darth Vadar; a brave heroine – Princess Laia, and a political freedom fighter– Hans Solo. Michelle and her younger brother, Andrew, and all their little friends have repeatedly watched – and more importantly understand – all six episodes of the mythic political fairy tale, Star Wars.
I’m saved. I know just what to tell Michelle about Puccini's Tosca.
It’s Star Wars in live action, with beautiful singing, more glorious music and far prettier costumes, but with no special effects.
At the intermission following the scene where Floria Tosca stabs and kills the lustful Baron Scarpia, Michelle and her friend, Breanna, assure me Tosca did the right thing.

What?
I’m terrified these little girls will be shocked and horrified.
They are not. Now I'm shocked at that.
“She should have done that, “ they calmly explain.
After all, they’ve already experienced the convoluted and sensational Star Wars story. They know the bad guys are supposed to be destroyed in the end. And the beautiful heroine makes sure they are. Floria Tosca or Princess Laia - both are strong brave women. Even a seven-year old can see there are all kinds of fairy tales.