The masterpiece returns

Tyranny and treachery intwine in Giacomo Puccini's menacing tragedy staged by the North Carolina Opera for the first time since their inaugural season. A signature piece of the repertoire, Puccini infuses a twisting story of love, sacrifice and revenge with soaring music that fills the auditorium and overpowers the senses.

Alexandra LoBianca steps up to star as the diva Tosca, alongside Scott Quinn as her beleaguered lover Cavaradossi and Malcolm MacKenzie as Baron Scarpia, the man who pursues them both.

What is the story of Tosca?

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, Tosca rehearses in a church before meeting her lover 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.