{"id":27902,"date":"2026-02-24T10:49:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=27902"},"modified":"2026-02-25T11:33:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:33:25","slug":"tosca-inspiring-night-at-the-opera-even-for-the-uninitiated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2026\/02\/24\/tosca-inspiring-night-at-the-opera-even-for-the-uninitiated\/","title":{"rendered":"Tosca<\/em> inspiring night at the opera, even for the uninitiated"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love everything about live stage theatre, but I dislike musicals. I mean, why sing what can be more easily spoken? So, I was apprehensive when assigned this review of Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera’s take on Puccini\u2019s Tosca<\/em> at the Royal Theatre. And I was surprised by how much I loved it, despite the singing. I know it’s ridiculous: I\u2019d never been to an opera before and knew nothing of the art form except what I\u2019d researched beforehand. I happily discovered there\u2019s a whole lot to appreciate about opera.<\/p>\n

The storyline blew me away\u2014it’s a century old but still makes sense in the modern world. A famous opera singer\u2014Floria Tosca\u2014and her activist artist boyfriend Mario, living in a time of political upheaval and authoritarian control, are surveilled and stalked by an obsessed corrupt official and forced to make a terrible deal that ends in all their deaths.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tosca<\/em> proved that opera has life left in it yet (photo by David Cooper Photography).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was told with music that made me feel it, and with a message of survival in compromised times that resonated loudly. It navigated that familiar landscape of romantic promise, manipulated loyalties, abusive power, and lurking tragedy, and it revealed the grey area of \u201cby any means necessary\u201d in a world of the same unforgiving uncertainty that was raging outside the theatre that very night.<\/p>\n

The lyrics\u2014translated into English on a screen above the stage\u2014were thick with early 20th-century metaphor and symbolism that were hard for me to interpret and relate to. If I hadn\u2019t studied the storyline beforehand, I would have been lost… And bored, maybe. That being said, the orchestra anchored the emotion, shifting from tenderness to menace, and the lighting expertly moved from spotlight to shadow, guiding the tension of each scene. Even when the words felt occasionally clich\u00e9, the music and visuals carried the story.<\/p>\n

Even before the opera began, it was a fun night. Getting ready. Arriving. Finding our seats. I didn\u2019t have to dress up, because this is Victoria, where fashion ranges from sequins to sneakers. But I did dress up. Because when do Gen Zs ever get to dress up outside events like awards nights that we have to work hard all year long to get to? Upon arrival while scanning the audience, I realized I was one of a handful of \u201cyoung\u201d people in a sea of white hair. Opera has long carried a dusty reputation of pomp and ceremony, hardly the obvious choice for a fun night out. Once reserved for royalty and then later for industrial barons, opera is now open to the masses\u2014although ticket prices suggest it retains a trace of exclusivity. Cutting through all of that, there was a buzz in the air, inviting me to sit back and wait. And watch. From the moment the lights went down and the curtains opened, I was entertained. The stage craft was gorgeous and the lighting was clever. The orchestral music was powerful, and the colour of costumes and backdrop was vivid. It was fanfare and flourish, and I was drawn in.<\/p>\n

I went to the performance wondering if opera is still relevant. Certainly, the ticket money could\u2019ve been put to more urgent use, but story is integral to cultural cohesion and purpose. We tell stories, learn from stories, live out stories. The more the better\u2014in the form of novels, plays, movies, podcasts, and operas. When Tosca<\/em> was over, the audience hovered, having been united, even just for a few moments, in a shared experience. Maybe inspired around a common purpose. The conversations on the way home were as much a part of the opera as the performance itself, processing what we had all just seen, distilling the learnings, the takeaways, and the calls to action. What kind of world are we willing to fight for, like Floria and Mario did?<\/p>\n

For all these reasons, I\u2019d go again.<\/p>\n

Tosca<\/em>
\n7:30 pm Tuesday, February 24
\nStudent rush tickets $15 one hour before performance, Royal Theatre
\nrmts.bc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love everything about live stage theatre, but I dislike musicals. I mean, why sing what can be more easily spoken? So, I was apprehensive when assigned this review of Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera’s take on Puccini\u2019s Tosca at the Royal Theatre. And I was surprised by how much I loved it, despite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27902"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27910,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27902\/revisions\/27910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}