Video: Sondra Radvanovsky Sings 'Vissi d'arte' From TOSCA at the Met
Soprano delivers Puccini's signature aria from the Met's David McVicar staging.
The Metropolitan Opera posted a performance clip of soprano Sondra Radvanovsky singing 'Vissi d'arte,' the title character's aria from Act II of Puccini's Tosca, drawn from the company's 2021-22 season. The excerpt captures one of the opera's most recognized moments, a prayer-like outburst from Tosca as she confronts the brutality closing in around her.
Tosca follows a celebrated singer entangled with an idealistic painter and hunted by a sadistic police chief, a plot Puccini set against the hallmarks of the verismo style. The score leans on ambient sound to dissolve the line between onstage life and performance, uses parlato, or spoken text, at the drama's sharpest turns, and gives its singers arias built on unrestrained emotional release, qualities on full display in Radvanovsky's rendition.
This staging is directed by David McVicar, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Met Orchestra. The video was shot by videographer Pete Scalzitti, who has filmed similar behind-the-scenes and performance footage for other Met productions.
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