VISSI D'ARTE... VISSI D'AMORE...

The beautiful diva, Floria Tosca has lived for her art, and lived for love, but must make the ultimate choice: whether to give herself to another, in order to save her lover.

Puccini’s political operatic thriller is set in Rome in June 1800 (during the Napoleonic wars and a time of great political unrest). Unlike many operas, with the action takes place over less than 24 hours, the events in the opera occur in almost real-time. The plot centers around three main characters – Rome’s favorite diva Floria Tosca, the painter and political activist Mario Cavaradossi (Tosca’s lover), and the corrupt Chief of Police, Baron Scarpia. Scarpia has long lusted after Tosca, and when he suspects Cavaradossi of assisting Angelotti, an escaped political prisoner, he seizes the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. He will manipulate Tosca into revealing the prisoner’s hiding place thus proving Cavaradossi’s treason, and with him out of the way, he will have her for himself.

Cast:

Andrea Chinedu Nwoke - Floria Tosca

Joshua Collier - Mario Cavaradossi

Cailin Marcel Manson - Baron Scarpia

Nicholas Tocci - Sacristan

Miguel Angel Vasquez - Angelotti

Felix Jarrar - Piano

For more information on the cast & production, visit www.barnopera.com

**NB: As with all performances of the First: Earth Concert Series at the Isham Family Farm, Immediately preceding this performance at 7:00pm, local poet and environmentalist, Julie Cadwallader Staub will be giving a talk. This talk is, of course, part of the evening, and included in your ticket. Information about Julie Cadwallader Staub can be found below. 

Julie Cadwallader Staub lives near Burlington, Vermont. Her poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac, published in journals, and included in anthologies. She was awarded a Vermont Council on the Arts grant for poetry in 2001. Her poem Reverence was anthologized in Garrison Keillor’s book Good Poems: American Places. Her poem Milk won the 2015 Ruth Stone prize from Hunger Mountain Review. Julie’s poem Turning has been nominated for the 2020 Pushcart Prize by the Potomac Review. You can read the poem below.

Julie’s first collection of poems, Face to Face, was published by Cascadia Publishing House in June 2010. Read reviews at Amazon.com and add your own! You can purchase Face to Face on either Cascadia’s website or Amazon. In Burlington, VT you can find it at Phoenix Bookstore. Joy and Guinea Pig –along with sixty other poems– are in this collection. You can hear Garrison Keillor read them on The Writer’s Almanac, by clicking on “listen” on the right, under Navigation