As we are currently presenting Puccini's Tosca, we wanted to share this Tosca-themed entry to our blog series. The Opera That Changed My Life explores the moments when people became opera lovers.

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Tom Shaw-Stiffel

While growing up, I was immersed in classical music but I hated opera! After a "graduation" trip to Rome in 1982 at the age of 24, I turned on the TV one Sunday afternoon and Tosca with [Plácido] Domingo and [Mirella] Freni was just starting. The fact that it was filmed on location in Rome caught my eye, so I got out my mom's old 1950s Guide to the Opera and followed along. Needless to say, that afternoon changed my life forever!!!

 

Above: Mirella Freni singing "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca in a 1985 concert in Lugano, Switzerland.

 

Above: Plácido Domingo and Raina Kabaivanska singing "Non la sospiri, la nostra casetta" and "Qual'occhio" from Tosca.

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Banner image: Adrianne Pieczonka (foreground) with (l-r, background) Mark Delavan and David Cangelosi in ​Tosca ​(COC, 2012), photo by Michael Cooper