On the surface, it is easy to draw Floria Tosca into a box marked ‘elemental, prone to jealousy and fits of impulse.’ Her action takes place over 24 hours, a far cry from the slow decline of Puccini’s previous heroine, Mimi, and her name is synonymous with ‘Diva.’ Angel Blue, looking into this role, recognises that, and something more nuanced.

‘I think she’s just like me – a normal country girl. She just has this ability that makes her a little bit different from everyone, being an opera singer. And she has a temper, she’s passionate, she’s wildly in love with Cavaradossi and doesn’t want to see him with someone else. I’ve been upset because I don’t have all the information about something, those are just human traits.’

Angel Blue first sang scenes from Tosca at age 22, at a party in a Country Club in Los Angeles that requested opera excerpts. She performed Scarpia’s death scene with a UCLA classmate, and she tells the story of being so nervous she forgot to drop the knife, and performed the rest of the scene with it in her hand.

Angel Blue (photo: Dario Acosta)

Now, one of the most prominent sopranos performing today, she is preparing her fifth Tosca for the Royal Opera House, and a lot has changed since her first approach to the role. ‘I think the role has grown because I’ve grown as a person. I’m older, I have more life experience.’ Rather than a caricature or trope, Tosca can be a multi-faceted woman, who has everything a woman has. Blue doesn’t see her as being simply in a jealous rage over Cavaradossi’s painting of a fair-haired woman, she sees a woman in love, looking for reassurance.

‘I see the softness in her. She asks Cavaradossi, “Speak these words to me” because she wants to hear them, like any woman does, I know I do.’ With softness comes ferocity, yet that doesn’t negate the areas of her character that are more faithful and openhearted. In Act 1 Scarpia rouses her jealously and taunts her outburst by reprimanding her for acting such a way in a church, Blue recognises, ‘You can have faith and be jealous or angry. You can be anything and be a person of faith, because you’re a human being.’ The faith aspect of Tosca’s character is one that resonates deeply with Blue, and one where she has experienced the most growth with the role. ‘God has a part in her relationship, I think that’s very powerful because she’s depending on a higher power to help them stay together. And I have that very strongly in my marriage, so it’s more apparent and important to me when I play the part.’

It’s easy to flatten Tosca into a ‘Diva’ and ‘Victim’ dichotomy, it is more interesting to see more dimensions in her reactions to the position she is put in, and consider the choices she makes, whether they are impulsive, cunning, insane or practical. ‘I would probably do the exact same thing if I was in that position,’ says Blue. ‘I have no judgment to give her, for what she did to Scarpia, or for what she does in the end. For a woman of her time, to have done what she did, everyone would be looking for her, there was no escape. I don’t judge her for her decision.’

A lack of judgment and empathy for the character is key to playing it belivably, even when the character’s actions are outside of things we encounter in our daily lives. ‘Not that I know what it is to kill someone, but I think that she feels extreme remorse for what she’s done, and I know what that feels like, to have that extreme remorse after doing something.’

When considering whether we look to the arts to either escape or reflect our reality, Blue’s ease in relating to Tosca makes a case that she can be something of a mirror.

‘If ever there’s a character in opera who shows us that we have to watch ourselves, because we can be so full of emotion that we are we can be driven to murder, it’s Tosca.’

As a Verismo opera, Tosca exists in the realm of the struggles of real people, and though it is set very squarely in Napoleonic times, there is an easily identified contemporary reading. ‘She is just a woman trying to make the best of her life, she is a woman who is simply trying to live and love what she loves.’

And yet, she gets put in a no-win situation, and is sexually manipulated by a violent figure of authority – this is many women’s story. Blue doesn’t just stop there: ‘It’s a universal story. Tosca can be a society, and Scarpia could be a government, Tosca can be a congregation and Scarpia can be a pastor. It works in many settings.’

As a master of the Puccini heroine, when asked about her relationship to the music, Blue offers no technical answer.

‘I just know that if it didn’t feel right, I wouldn’t sing it. If it felt funny, if it felt like I couldn’t do it... I wouldn’t do it.’

The wholehearted, empathic and holistic approach she has taken to Tosca is clear when asked what her favourite recording of Tosca is, which one inspires her the most, and she responds: ‘Mine. I don’t mean that arrogantly, I am just proud of myself, I know it’s not an easy thing. It’s everything, the nuances of the piece of the music, understanding the character, being honest. I’ve sung it in places where I didn’t think I would. I am grateful for what I can do now that I’m more thankful that I’ve ever been.’

The gratitude radiates, as she discusses her favourite sopranos who have sung this role of the past (Tebaldi, Price) and present (Yoncheva, Radvanovsky), and a genuine humility that she gets to be one of them, and a part of what she calls the ‘universal language of mankind’.

Angel Blue is Tosca at the Royal Ballet and Opera on 8, 11, 13 and 19 July: rbo.org.uk

This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2024 issue of Opera Now. Never miss an issue – subscribe today