Tosca

Puccini secured the rights to Sardou's play, written for Sarah Bernhardt, after years of hesitation and a period in which Verdi and Franchetti were both linked to the subject. The action is fixed to real places and to a single day in June 1800, and Puccini checked the pitch of the bells of Rome and the words of the shepherd's song for the third act. The premiere at the Teatro Costanzi on 14 January 1900 opened under a bomb scare; the police made the conductor promise to strike up the royal march if the theatre had to be cleared.