BY KAIROS ITALY THEATER AT DICAPO OPERA
From March 20 to 30, Kairos Italy Theater (KIT) and Dicapo Opera will present “Tosca e le altre due” (Tosca and The Two Downstairs), a satirical, behind-the-scenes sister-story to Puccini’s “Tosca” as imagined by one of the wittiest and most admired Italian playwright and actresses, Franca Valeri. The piece is directed by Laura Caparrotti, Artistic Director of KIT, and its English translation is by Natasha Lardera. Supertitles are by the prestigious Prescott Studio in Italy. The piece will be staged at Dicapo Opera, 184 E. 76th Street, Manhattan.
The play will be acted by Laura Caparrotti and Marta Mondelli in Italian with English supertitles. KIT-Kairos Italy Theater is a rarity: a bilingual Italian-English theater company that presents Italian theatrical works of literary merit. It is named for Kairos, the Greek god of the fleeting moment. The prologue will be acted in voice over by Rocco Sisto. Set design is by Lucretia Moroni.
“Tosca” by Puccini is based on a drama by Sardou. In this well-known opera, Mario Cavaradossi, a painter who has concealed a dangerous political prisoner, is being protected by his lover, a celebrated singer named Tosca. Cavaradossi is tortured to reveal the whereabouts of the prisoner to Scarpia, the chief of police, who has promised to save the painter by a mock execution if Tosca will give herself to him. She ultimately agrees, but stabs Scarpia at the last moment. The execution is, however, a real one and in grief, Tosca leaps from a battlement to her death. The opera debuted on January 14, 1900.
“Tosca e le altre due” by Franca Valeri shares the 19th century setting and events of the opera, but refracts them through two memorable women characters who share them from the outside. The torture’s screams and scuffles are overheard from upstairs by the wife of the torturer and the female doorkeeper of Palazzo Farnese in Rome, where the interrogation is taking place. The play is a wry and humorous character study of these two women, outsiders, who are accidentally close to the passions and politics of the story.