“Tosca”, by Giacomo Puccini, is one of the most important operas in history and one of the milestones of the genre at the time of its creation, at the end of the 19th century.
This work will arrive in Bogotá on March 24 at the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo with a libretto in Italian by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, under the musical direction of Andrés Orozco-Estrada and stage director Pedro Salazar, who gave details on how will be the presentation this year.
Salazar has a wide repertoire in opera, classical theater and contemporary theater. His most recent titles are: “Peter Grimes”, by Benjamin Britten (Amazon Opera Festival in Manaus, Brazil); “The Marriage of Figaro”, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; “Tosca”, by Giacomo Puccini, and “The Barber of Seville”, by Gioachino Rossini, premiered at the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo; “Dido y Aeneas”, by Henry Purcell, and “Florencia en el Amazonas”, by Daniel Catán, premiered at the Teatro Colón in Bogotá, among others.
He trained as a stage director at Columbia University in New York and at the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris. He is currently director of the area of Performing Arts at the Universidad de los Andes in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. He has taught acting and Theater History at Central University, Free Theatre, the National Theater House School, and Purchase College (New York). He has also been a visiting professor at Rutgers University (New Jersey) and Columbia University (New York).
EL NUEVO SIGLO: What will the performance of this version of “Tosca” be like at the Teatro Mayor?
PEDRO SALAZAR: It is the same production that we presented at the end of 2021, right in the post-pandemic period. The story of “Tosca” has a bit of similarity with the events of that year in Colombia, when the social mobilizations took place, so it is a kind of deep reflection, since the history of the opera dates back to the year 1800, during the war that between the armies, then there is a polarization, a division, a very strong social discontent. The opera begins with a fugitive, a revolutionary who escapes from prison and takes refuge in a church. Our “Tosca” travels from Rome to Latin America, so we staged that city on stage, but represented in a Latin American way. What they want to show is the similar history that happened in Rome in 1800 and the social protests in Colombia, such as the Bogotazo and also the recent social protests in this country. This is where the poetics of everything that is going to be shown on stage is born a bit. “Tosca” is one of the operas of action, suspense, love, war, like a crime novel, it is a show in which a whole set, costumes, the Symphony Orchestra and the entire cast that participate there are mixed .
ENS: How to captivate the public with a story that happened so many years ago?
PS: It is quite a challenge, because opera is a genre that for some is many years old, it is old, but for me it is very present, many people have the idea that it is linked to tradition, to the past, that it is foreign to us, but it seems to me that in this version we are going to give much more at the time, in Latin America and in Colombia at this specific moment, being such an impressive genre. It is like the greatest dream in which all the arts move and it is there where all the imagination of the creative team, the set designers, Julián Hoyos, Pablo Castillo, who dialogues a lot with the memory of the Heritage of Bogotá. So in the projections we are going to see the church of Santo Domingo, which was demolished and then became a mystery, as it happened with other monuments, and what we saw in the pandemic and post-pandemic, which was the resignification of symbols, which It is a bit of what was happening in 1800 and that it is a way of talking about our reality in a production, in a scene, in some characters.
ENS: How to set that imaginary landscape between Rome and Bogotá?
PS: We are working on a fabulous stage design, in charge of the maestro Julián Hoyos, the costume designer, the clothing workshop, the projections in which this theme of the imaginary landscape of Rome that could be Bogotá appears because finally we are heirs to that tradition and we Most important of all in this event is that there will be one of the great interpreters of Floria Tosca of the moment, Martina Serafin, a soprano from Austria, who has sung at the Paris opera and is performing for the second time in Bogotá; also the tenor Adam Smith, from the United Kingdom, in the role of Mario Cavaradossi; the baritone Fabián Veloz, from Argentina, in the skin of Scarpia. While in the national cast will be Jacobo Ochoa (Cesare Angelotti), Valeriano Lanchas (Sacristán), Manuel Franco (Spoletta), Camilo Mendoza, (Sciarrone) and Julián Usama (the jailer).
ENS: In total, how many artists will give meaning to the story of “Tosca”?
PS: There will be all the main soloists, which are nine; the entire Youth Philharmonic Choir, which is 40; also the Children’s Philharmonic Choir, which is about 20, plus the entire Orchestra led by maestro Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the actors and dancers. He would say that more than 200 people will be recreating that story.
ENS: You have directed great works on stage, such as “The Marriage of Figaro, “The Barber of Seville”, among others, what is the most representative thing to take on stage?
PS: There are many things that should be relevant. Everything is a mixture of various ingredients and points of view. On the one hand, knowing the whole story very well, knowing what is happening, who the actors are, understanding the plot to be able to articulate it, and even more so when working with opera, because music is also very important, because it is what It drives the action, allowing you to immerse yourself in the events and bring it to a great show. The integration of all the elements is of great relevance: the video, the set design, the costumes, the dialogue with the designers and all these points are important in the creation of an opera and a large-scale play.
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The Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo and La Compañía Estable, together with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and the Children’s and Youth Choirs of the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra, will present this famous opera in two performances: on Friday, February 24 at 8 pm and on Sunday, February 26 at 5 pm The production will be conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada, an outstanding conductor worldwide, and stage direction by Pedro Salazar, founder of La Compañía Estable.