"Tosca" was first performed on January 14, 1900 at the Teatro Costanzi, now the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, symbolically on the spot. The evening was a major social event, and in addition to the Prime Minister and the Queen, the composers Pietro Mascagni and Francesco Cilea were also present. With his "Tosca" Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) entered a new century and, with his highly theatrical and effective scenes, he committed himself to Verist opera on the one hand and to the tragic-heroic grand opera on the other.After seeing the drama of the same name by Victorien Sardous, which was a huge international success with Sarah Bernhardt in the leading role, the composer successfully applied to Sardou for the rights to create a libretto. The wealth of musical ideas (more than 60 themes appear as leitmotifs) and the breathless sequence of events are largely responsible for the immense tension and drama of the opera. By focusing on the main character, the work is considered a "prima donna opera" par excellence. Although it has always been suspected that a historical figure is behind Tosca, the characters and plot are freely invented.However, the background against which the plot unfolds is historically determined by the Second Coalition War and the Battle of Marengo in 1800 between French and Austrian troops. Napoleon’s supposed defeat and his final victory over the coalition troops are reported in the first and second act of the opera.Today "Tosca" is one of the most popular and most performed operas of all.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) wrote his “Aida” at a politically highly explosive time: Germany and France were on the brink of war (Franco-Prussian War 1870/71), which is why the premiere could not take place until a year later after the scheduled date: Because both the stage sets and the costumes were stuck in the Prussian occupied Paris. The opera had been commissioned by the Egyptian Viceroy Ismail Pasha. However, not, as often wrongly assumed, for the inauguration of the Suez Canal, but for the opening of the new opera house in Cairo in 1871.Aida shows the versatility of this exceptional Italian composer in its entirety: large-scale mass scenes and choruses are juxtaposed with equally intimate, chamber-play-like scenes that reveal a soul drama that is ingenious in every detail. In this respect, the work can certainly be interpreted as a turning point in Verdi’s oeuvre, as it not only focuses on the vocal parts, but also assigns a new and leading role to the orchestra.Verdi received the 150,000 gold francs demanded for his composition, probably the highest honorarium granted to a composer to date. In addition, he demanded his own trumpets for the famous Triumphal March, the so-called Aida trumpets, which had to be commissioned as a special production. Today "Aida" is one of the most successful of the great operas of the 19th century.

As already in his Luisa Miller, Verdi’s eponymous figure Rigoletto is not a man of rank, but a representative of the people, in this case a malformed court jester. The composer devoted himself with the greatest care to the psychological shaping of his hero. This may have been due to the fact that the Venetian censorship had initially banned the opera for insulting majesty, and that it could only be performed on stage after numerous changes. Since the libretto was changed several times and the scenic structure was also shaken, the unity of the play had to be preserved and restored in other ways. Thus Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) transposed it into the personal, tragic conflict of the Rigoletto, which is decisive for the plot and the connection between the characters. The composer succeeded excellently in combining recitatives, arias and duets into a higher musical unity and in dissolving the old structure of the number opera. He himself even regarded his work as revolutionary.After the music had been criticized as too shallow and superficial by contemporaries, especially by followers of Richard Wagner, only Igor Stravinsky was able to overturn this verdict: He praised the ingenuity of the opera. Today, "Rigoletto" is part of the standard repertoire of every opera house, and the popular arias "La donna è mobile" or "Caro nome", which are extremely demanding to sing, are often performed in song recitals in isolation.