The Mary D. Fisher Theatre is home for the Met Live Opera programs for the 2024-2025 season, presented by the Sedona International Film Festival.

The season continues with Puccini’s “Tosca” live via simulcast on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 11 a.m. and the encore presentation on Wednesday, Nov. 27 at 3 p.m.

Plan to come early as John Steinbrunner will lead a pre-opera talk one hour before the LIVE production on Saturday.

Extraordinary Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen stars as the passionate title diva in David McVicar’s thrilling production. British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso makes his eagerly anticipated company debut as Tosca’s revolutionary lover, Cavaradossi, and powerhouse American baritone Quinn Kelsey is the sadistic chief of police Scarpia. Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the electrifying score, which features some of Puccini’s most memorable melodies.

ACT I
Rome, June 1800. The painter Mario Cavaradossi, a revolutionary, helps the escaped political prisoner Cesare Angelotti hide from the police. Cavaradossi’s devoted but jealous lover, the singer Floria Tosca, suspects him of being unfaithful. Baron Scarpia, the sadistic chief of police who is hunting Angelotti, wants Tosca for himself and arouses her jealousy with remarks about Cavaradossi. As the crowd intones a Te Deum, celebrating Napoleon’s recent defeat in battle against the Allied forces, Scarpia declares that he will bend Tosca to his will.

ACT II
Unable to find Angelotti, Scarpia has arrested Cavaradossi, whom he suspects of aiding the fugitive. When Scarpia has the painter tortured, the frightened Tosca reveals Angelotti’s hiding place. News arrives that Napoleon has in fact won the battle. Cavaradossi triumphantly cries out in defiance of tyranny, and Scarpia’s men carry him off to be executed. Scarpia offers Tosca Cavaradossi’s freedom in exchange for her love. She agrees, but the moment that he has written a safe-conduct pass for her, she grabs a knife and kills him.

ACT III
Tosca comes to Castel Sant’Angelo, where Cavaradossi is imprisoned. She tells him that he is free but explains that he must go through a mock execution before they can flee. The firing squad shoots, and Cavaradossi falls. When Tosca realizes that the shots were real and he is dead, she cries out that she will meet Scarpia before God and throws herself from the battlement.

The 2024-2025 Met Live Opera season in Sedona is generously sponsored by Chris Fladlien.

The Met Live Opera’s “Tosca” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 11 a.m. (live simulcast) with an encore on Wednesday, Nov. 27 at 3 p.m. The pre-opera talk will take place one hour before the live Saturday simulcast.

Tickets are $25 general admission, $22 for Film Festival members, and $15 for students. Tickets are available in advance at the Sedona International Film Festival office or by calling 928-282-1177. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona. For more information, visit: www.SedonaFilmFestival.org.