2008-2009 Season

Overview
Tosca

Cast
Floria Tosca:
Kara Shay Thomson

Mario Cavaradossi:
Jon Burton

Baron Scarpia:
William Anthony Stuckey

A Sacristan:
Bill McMurray

Artistic Staff
Stage Director:
Craig Fields

Conductor:
Leonardo Vordoni

Synopsis
About Tosca
World Events during Puccini Life

*Director's Notes are 30mins.
before opening curtain

TOSCA
Resources

Time line of significant events during the life of
Giacomo Puccini – composer of Tosca

1859 The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch.
1861-1865   US Civil War
1865 General Robert E Lee and 26,765 troops, surrender at Appomattox Court House in Virginia to US Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant.
1867 African American men granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
1870 First motion picture shown to a theater audience, Philadelphia.
1871  Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" premieres in Cairo, at Suez canal opening.
1876  First telephone call made (Alexander Graham Bell to Thomas Watson)
1877  First sound recording made (Thomas Edison)
1878  Edison makes electricity available for household usage
1886  First successful gasoline-driven car patented, Karl Benz, Karlsruhe
1888  Frederick Douglass is 1st African-American nominated for president
1890  Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot
1892  "Nutcracker Suite," Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet, premieres
1893  Women vote in a national election for the first time: New Zealand.
1896   First movie theater in US opens, charging 10 cents for admission.
1901   Theodore Roosevelt renames "Executive Mansion," "The White House"
1902   Nathan Stubblefield makes first public demonstration of radio
1904   World's first subway opens in NYC, subway/bus fare is set at one nickel.
1905   Albert Einstein introduces the equation E=mc².
1906   "Census of the British Empire" shows England rules 1/5 of the world
1907   First radio broadcast of a musical composition aired
1908   Earthquake strikes Messina, Italy (nearly 80,000 died)
1910    First opera by an US composer (Converse) performed at the Met, NYC
1912    The Republic of China is established.
1913    Henry Ford institutes moving assembly line
1914    Germany declares war on Russia in WW I
1915    Earthquake in Avezzano Italy kills 29,800
1916    Italy declares war against Germany during WW I
1917    US declares war on Germany, enters World War I
1919    U.S. Senate passes Women's Suffrage bill.
1920   Panama Canal opens
1921    The Italian Communist Party was founded at Livorno.
1922   First facsimile photo send over city telephone lines, Washington, DC
1923   Union of Socialist Soviet Republics established
1925   Mussolini dissolves Italian parliament/becomes dictator
1926   First public demonstration of television, John L Baird, London
1927    First national opera broadcast from a US opera house (Faust, Chicago)
1929    Oct 29th - "Black Tuesday," Stock Market crash triggers "Great Depression"