Luc Bondy, acclaimed for his imaginative theater and opera productions, directs this new production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca. Marcelo Álvarez and George Gagnidze open as Cavaradossi and Scarpia, with Jonas Kaufmann, Marcello Giordani, and Bryn Terfel stepping in for later performances.

Set in Rome at the turn of the 19th Century, Tosca is the tale of painter Mario Cavaradossi, who is sentenced to death by the chief of police, Baron Scarpia for providing aid and comfort to an escaped Bonapartist political prisoner. Scarpia is infatuated with Cavaradossi's lover, Tosca, a singer. Scarpia makes an indecent proposal to Tosca in exchange for her lover's life, but instead, Tosca murders Scarpia, finds Cavaradossi dead, and leaps to her own death from the battlements in a dramatic final scene.