When Giacomo Puccini saw Sarah Bernhardt in a production "of La Tosca "by French playwright Victorien Sardou, he knew immediately that its highly dramatic plot, turning on lust, revenge, and betrayal, was made for opera. When he heard that Verdi was interested in the play, his own interest in the property deepened. It was Puccini alone who ultimately brought the project to fruition and transformed Sardou's work into an operatic tour de force.
"Tosca, " with a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, was first presented in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi in January 1900. Since then,...

Next to Verdi's Aida, Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme is the most popular opera ever written. Performances of Aida, La Boheme, Carmen, and Don Giovanni -- the four operas most often performed -- constitute approximately 75 percent of the yearly schedule of operas throughout the world.
This volume contains everything the opera goer needs to derive full satisfaction from La Boheme except the musical score itself. Most important, it provides the complete text of the Italian libretto, just as it is actually sung; that is, where a singer repeats a phrase several...