Revolution, Romance, Reinvention: Becoming Tosca
Prologue Opera, an ambitious new opera-theatre company based in Hastings and committed to innovation and audience engagement, presents Becoming Tosca. Extending audiences’ relationship with Puccini’s Tosca, the show provides new context with an original dramatic ‘prequel’ before making a seamless transition into the principal action of the opera itself. With a bold musical reimagining and reframing of Puccini’s masterpiece, this adventurous production explores the hidden pasts of the opera’s iconic characters, deepens our understanding of their motives, and plunges audiences into a world of intrigue, faith, and rebellion.
Anna Sideris as Tosca with Anthony Flaum as Cavaradossi
THE PRODUCTION
Set against a backdrop of political unrest in 20th-century Latin America, Becoming Tosca draws not only on Puccini’s compelling score, but on tango, Argentinian folk melodies, and newly-composed music. It aims to provide audiences with a new point of access to opera as an art form. Themes of power, faith, love and justice jostle within a society driven by Jesuit colonisation and the ongoing tensions between capitalism, religion and revolution.
“What if we could see what shaped the protagonists before the curtain rises on Tosca?” asks Anthony Flaum, Founder and CEO of Prologue Opera. Becoming Tosca gives seasoned audiences a fresh perspective on characters they think they might know, but the reinvention also offers new audiences a stimulating and thought-provoking ‘way in’ to the art form … everyone has a backstory that shapes who they become.
With text, translation, original lyrics and staging by director Christopher Cowell, and newly composed music by acclaimed composer Frank Moon, Becoming Tosca makes a powerful impression. It could perhaps be seen as pioneering a new operatic genre – the becoming genre – as it challenges audiences to consider whether power corrupts or merely reveals the soul beneath, and whether Art can produce change, or is compelled merely to witness it.
THE CAST
International soprano Anna Sideris debuts her role as Tosca – her richly-layered soprano and crystalline diction allow audiences to see the character as never before. The laser-like focus of Irish baritone Brendan Collins brings a new level of menace to Puccini’s predatory Vitelio Scarpia. The meek yet deadly assassin Spoletta is given renewed gravitas by tenor Jonathan Cooke, and tenor Anthony Flaum (also Prologue’s CEO) teases as the romantic revolutionary Cavaradossi, until his heartbreaking fate is realised. Harry Gentry, a rising star from Hastings’ White Rock Youth Theatre, will make his professional debut as Angelotti, embodying Prologue Opera’s ongoing commitment to nurturing local talent at its base here – and broadening the audience for opera.
Hastings dates – Stables Theatre, Hastings – 26 & 27 August 2025 1 London dates – Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola Theatre – 2nd, 3rd, 5th & 6th September 2025 – arcolatheatre.com/whats-on/becoming-tosca
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply