Giacomo Puccini
Victorien Sardou, Luigi Illica, and Giuseppe Giacosa

Two men + one woman = the best of all the operatic potboilers: Scarpia, chief of the Roman police is a powerful man.  He lusts after Tosca, but she is in love with the painter Cavaradossi.  Scarpia uses his power to put Cavaradossi out of the way, for which the emancipated Tosca kills him.  Cavaradossi’s (fake) execution ends fatally.  Tosca jumps off the Castel Sant’ Angelo following him in love and death.  The pinnacle of passion.

In Italian with German surtitles