Tosca at Nationaltheater Mannheim

“The butcher working in the garment of the amiable" may describe the political situation in Rome in 1800. The ruthless secret police under the direction of Baron Scarpia Vitello does not back off from any torture and murder in the chase of political opponents. The singer Floria Tosca gets caught in the system’s clutches, when her lover, the painter, Cavaradossi, is charged of high treason because he helped the imprisoned Angelotti escape.

The police chief, Scarpia, cynically offers to save Tosca’s lover’s life, if she gives herself to him. In order to save herself, she stabs Scarpia and hopes to escape with Cavaradossi, who is believed to be dead, after his "mock execution". But she cannot escape the circle of power and violence. The pretended execution of her lover turns out to have been reality. Shocked by the death of her lover, outraged by the evil deception of the police chiefs, and hunted by the police, there is only one way out for her: the plunge from the Castel Sant'Angelo.