Tosca

Tosca frames Maria Callas's whole life on stage. She sang Puccini's heroine — a singer, like herself, caught between love, art and tyranny — as a teenager at the Greek National Opera in Athens in 1942; and it was as Tosca, at Covent Garden on 5 July 1965, that she appeared in a staged opera for the last time.

Between those two dates stands one of the most celebrated productions in the history of opera: Franco Zeffirelli's Tosca, created at Covent Garden in 1964 with Tito Gobbi as Scarpia. Their second act — filmed for television in 1964 — remains the single most watched document of Callas the actress: barely a gesture wasted, terror and dignity in the same breath. The production travelled to Paris in 1965, where she sang her final Toscas in France.

"Vissi d'arte" — I lived for art, I lived for love — was more than an aria in her voice; audiences heard it as a confession.

In the Foundation's collection

The Foundation preserves the costume of her final Paris Tosca (1965), among the most precious pieces of the collection, together with photographs and documents of the role across her career. Explore the collection · Licensing

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