Lost History – The Campanology of Tosca

Tosca is one of the most frequently performed operas in the world. Composed by the legendary Giacomo Puccini, the score includes some of the most recorded and celebrated arias in operatic history. Based on a French play of the same name, it tells the story of the eponymous protagonist’s romantic ordeals in the days leading up to the invasion of Rome by Napoleon. 

The suspicious Tosca betrays her lover, Mario, to the chief of police, Scarpia, after the conniving inspector convinces the paranoid heroine that Mario has been unfaithful. In actual fact, he has been concealing the whereabouts of a well-known revolutionary whom Scarpia wishes to arrest. Mario and his dissenting friend are eventually captured and imprisoned in the Castel Sant’angelo, facing imminent execution.

The famous third and final act of the opera opens with a shepherd boy leading his flock into Rome at dawn under the ramparts of the notorious papal prison where Tosca’s unfortunate lover awaits his death. The stage directions of the libretto provided specific details as to the use and placement of particular chimes from the belfries of real chapels and churches across Rome. 

Ever the perfectionist, Puccini attempted to transcribe the actual peal of Roman bells into his composition to establish an air of verisimilitude, the like of which had not been heard in opera before. 

To research the sonic landscape of Rome, Puccini journeyed into the city before dawn and visited the Castel Sant’Angelo to ascertain the sequence and pitch of the morning bells from the auditory perspective of the prison. Once he had noted the chain of chimes that constitute the sonorous aubade of the eternal city, he commissioned the casting of eleven bells.

In 1899, conductor, Leopoldo Mugnone, was holidaying at the Springs of Montecatini alongside the supreme maestro of Italian opera, Verdi. Verdi asked his friend Mugnone why he had been travelling to the neighbouring town of Pistoia almost every day during their vacation. “To supervise the casting of the bells for Tosca!” he replied. 

When Mugnone had explained Puccini’s ambitious plan to incorporate the authentic tolling of Roman bells into his new score, a feat that necessitated the manufacturing of eleven unique replicas of the originals to ensure the same resonances, Verdi responded, “Eleven? Impossible! And to think, when I wrote Il Trovatore, I was perplexed as to whether or not I should introduce one bell!”. It is an apocryphal anecdote but one that reveals the challenge of staying true to a consummate artistic vision. 

Orchestral bells are drastically different from church bells, and the greatest difficulty posed by Puccini’s insistence on including the genuine terrain and timbre of Rome’s campanology was the recreation of St Peter’s Basilica’s colossal, er campanone, chime. Little consensus existed with regards to the true resonance of Rome’s dominant knell, but, after a thorough investigation, Puccini was reliably informed that the basilica’s prevailing peal was an E natural, a revelation that completed the pioneering percussion of his masterpiece. 

The performance of this enterprising novelty requires five individual percussionists to man the matin bells and two off-stage conductors. Few productions bother to include these finely researched and rendered musical features, but the difference is easily discernible.

Next time you hear Puccini’s Tosca, keep your ears open at the start of the third act for this extraordinary detail. You will hear how he not only encompassed a true transcription of the real bells of Rome into his orchestration but how he balanced their inclusion with his melodies and motifs. The effect beautifully enhances the drama of this brilliant opera.