An idealistic artist, a celebrated opera singer, and a corrupt police chief engage in a fierce battle of wills in this tempestuous tale of cruelty and deception. Puccini’s great melodrama may be set in 1800, but its tale of intrigue, hypocrisy, and the courage of convictions is anything but dated. In story, song, and ethical challenge, Tosca offers your students an afternoon of extreme opera. In his new Met production, director Luc Bondy presents Tosca not only as a thriller but also as an intimate drama of devotion, courage, and resilience. “Tosca,” says James Levine, the Met’s Music Director and conductor of this Live in HD performance, “combines Puccini’s glorious musical inspiration with the melodramatic vitality of one of the great Hitchcock films. From the very first bar of the piece, Tosca seizes you and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the last note.” The acclaimed Finnish soprano Karita Mattila, seen in the 2008 Live in HD transmission of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, sings the title role of Floria Tosca—a high point in any soprano’s career. The excitement is not only musical. “At first I thought, ‘How will it feel to kill somebody on stage?’” Mattila says. “But Tosca is like an action movie, and the drama just happens.”