View source for La Tosca

''[[ La Tosca]]'' is a French melodramatic play in five acts by Victorien Sardou (1831-1908) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorien_Sardou]. 

The play is sometimes referred to simply as '''''[[Tosca]]''''', but ''that'' title is more famously used for the opera by Giacomo Puccini (1900), based on the play. 

'''This entry refers specifically to Sardou's play. For information on the opera, see the entry on ''[[Tosca]]'''''

== The original text ==

Set in Rome in 1800 the play was first performed on 24 November 1887 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role and would become one of Sardou's most successful plays, toured by Bernhardt throughout the world. By the 1920s it had fallen into obscurity, but Giacomo Puccini's operatic version (''[[Tosca]]'') endures. 

==Translations and adaptations==

The libretto for Giacomo Puccini's famous opera '''''[[Tosca]]''''' (1900) is based on  Sardou's French play. '''(For more on the opera, see the entry on ''[[Tosca]]'')'''

Besides Puccini's version, several other adaptations have been done of the play, among them two for the Japanese theatre. 

''[[Tra-La-La Tosca, or The High-toned Soprano and the Villain Bass]]'' (a [[burlesque]] on Messrs. Grove and Hamilton's version of Sardou's play) was written by Francis Cowley Burnand, performed at the New Royalty Theatre, on the West End, London, in January, 1890, and  published by Bradbury, Agnew, & Company in the same year.[https://www.broadwayworld.com/shows/backstage.php?showid=7612]  

There have also been several film versions.

== Performance history in South Africa ==

1892: Performed in the [[Exhibition Theatre]], Cape Town, by the [[Potter-Bellew Company]] under the auspices of [[Luscombe Searelle]], starring [[Cora Brown-Potter]] and [[Kyrle Bellew]].  

1901: Produced (and billed simply as ''[[La Tosca|Tosca]]'') in the [[Good Hope Theatre]], Cape Town, during September by the [[Wheeler Theatre Company]] with American actress [[Nance O'Neill]] in the leading role.  

1902: Produced again in the [[Good Hope Theatre]] by the [[Wheeler Theatre Company]] during February, once more with [[Nance O'Neill]] in the lead.

1907: Performed in the [[Opera House]], Cape Town, by [[Cora Brown-Potter]] and a supporting company under the management  of [[Wheeler Brothers]],  featuring [[A.G Poulton]] as the male lead.  According to [[D.C. Boonzaier]] (1923), the supporting company was a rather inferior one and the season not a great success.

== Sources ==

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Tosca

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosca

https://www.broadwayworld.com/shows/backstage.php?showid=7612

[[D.C. Boonzaier]], 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage",  in ''SA Review'', 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in [[F.C.L. Bosman|Bosman]] 1980: pp. 374-439.)

[[F.C.L. Bosman]]. 1980. ''Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912''. Pretoria: [[J.L. van Schaik]]: pp.394, 410, 427

Go to [[ESAT Bibliography]]

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