What Tosca lands in at the Met
mainShe takes the great leap off the battlements.
And then…
It’s playtime.
Posted by the soprano Jennifer Rowley.
photo (c) Luc Bondy production, Metropolitan Opera
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So is the famous story actually apocryphal? Yeah, the one about the soprano who jumped onto a too-springy mattress that sprung her back onstage…
Poor beast!
I saw Montserrat Caballé a long time ago at the MET doing Tosca; after her brilliant performance when the time came following a great O scarpia avanti a Dio; the expectation in the Zefirelli production was that she would go the edge of Castel Sant’Angelo and jump; she turned to the audience, smiled and slowly walked off stage to immense applause. As I was writing this, I decided to see the review in the NY Times and I was delighted to see my memory confirmed with the Times saying this “The exit brought on barely muffled laughter and deserves to go down in ”Tosca” legend.” I remember tremendous applause though
At WNO(the original) Matthew Epstein insisted on using an American soprano we hadn’t heard if instead of the local Suzanne Murphy. At the dress she insisted on keeping her high heels on and broke both legs or ankles , I think. Suzanne appeared in the production!
I’m surprised a pit that shallow is enough to do it.
The old Met had not enough backstage space so that at the end of Tosca, the soprano had to jump out of the real window into 39th Street, being caught by a fire brigade blanket.