Premiere: Puccini's Tosca at the Mariinsky Theatre as part of the XV International Stars of the White Nights Festival

On 31 May and 3, 10 and 26 June the Mariinsky Theatre will be staging a new production of Giacomo Puccini's famous opera Tosca. Musical Director and Conductor: Valery Gergiev; Stage Director: Paul Curran; Set and Costume Designer: Paul Edwards; Lighting Designer: David Jacques.

This production of Tosca is a special Stars of the White Nights festival project. Notably Maria Guleghina, one of the finest interpreters of the role of Floria Tosca today, has been engaged for the premiere. In subsequent performances the title role will be performed by stars of the Mariinsky Opera Company Irina Gordei and Olga Sergeyeva. Puccini's masterpiece has only been staged at the Mariinsky once before, in 1994, when it was directed by Irkin Gabitov and designed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (San Francisco Opera's 1972 production).

Tosca, set to a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa after the play of the same name by Victorien Sardou, premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome in 1900. The opera met with a frosty reception – critics even referred to it as "aural and visual sadism", though later Tosca became one of the best loved and most famous works in world opera. Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was one of musical verismo's classicists. And if his other famous operas – Manon Lescaut (1893) and La boheme (1896) – are not without notes of lyrical drama, then Tosca is the third of Puccini's mature operas – a truly verismo work.

Stage Director Paul Curran on the production: "For us, it is a great pleasure to work on Tosca, especially at the Mariinsky Theatre. I have never staged this opera before, or anything by Puccini for that matter. We thought a lot about what time to choose for our production. It could have been 1800, in correspondence with the date indicated in the libretto, but in my opinion it can also be set in the late 1930s. Why' Because Tosca is an incredibly vivid story of sex, religion and politics. In our production the action takes place in the 30s in Mussolini's Italy. After all, the 30s was the most significant period in the 20th century, when world history and the world itself changed. I thought of setting the opera in the 21st century but that would have been inaccurate. Today there are no public figures like Scarpia. I associate him with statesmen like Stalin or Beria."

The performances on 31 May and 3 and 26 June will be conducted by Valery Gergiev. On 31 May and 26 June Maria Guleghina will be appearing in the title role. Among other soloists also rehearsing the new production are: Irina Gordei, Olga Sergeyeva (Floria Tosca), Akhmed Agadi, Avgust Amonov, Mikhail Vishnyak (Cavaradossi), Valery Alekseyev, Sergei Murzaev, Viktor Chernomortsev and Edem Umerov (Scarpia).