Puccini Tosca
The standard Ricordi text, newly engraved. Hundreds of inconsistencies corrected, and a full score, vocal score and parts that agree with each other, bar for bar.
Jopfen materials have also been played by Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Liège Royal Philharmonic.
The first page
The same music, the same text. On the right, it is easier to read.
Parts that work at the first rehearsal
Nothing is added to Puccini's text. What changes is how it reaches the players.
Cues instead of counting
In the traditional flute part this passage is a row of multi-bar rests. Ours shows what the bassoon, oboes, clarinet and first violins are playing, so the flutes come in with confidence.
Vocal cues, only where they help
Singers join rehearsals last, so a part that relies on the voice to find an entry leaves the orchestra guessing. We cue instruments where we can. Where a vocal line is the only reference, we write it as a proper cue with its notes, not as words floating over the rests.
One passage, six versions
At rehearsal 29 in Act II, the traditional material gives six different instructions for the same three bars: one in the full score, one in the vocal score, and one in each of four woodwind parts. It is one of hundreds of inconsistencies like it across the opera, all silently corrected in our edition.
The two scores disagree
The full score asks for piano with a crescendo, con forza, martellate, cresc. molto, and accentando in the third bar. The vocal score, which the conductor and singers prepare from, says forte at 29 and pianissimo in the third bar, with no accentando.
Each part has its own version
| Traditional | Dynamic at 29 | Character | Crescendo | Third bar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full score | p, hairpin | a tempo, con forza, martellate | cresc. molto at 29 | accentando |
| Vocal score | f | a tempo, con forza, martellate | cres. molto | pp, no accentando |
| Flute | none | a tempo, con forza (no martellate) | one bar late | p accentando |
| Oboe | none | martellate alone, then a tempo con forza | at 29 | p accettando |
| Clarinet | none | martellate con forza (reversed) | one bar late | p accentate |
| Bass clarinet | none | a tempo | hairpin a bar late | p accel. |
Accettando is Italian for "accepting", which is roughly what orchestras have had to do with this material.
Part by part, before and after
Flute
Oboe
Clarinet
Bass clarinet
What it costs in rehearsal
None of these is a deliberate variant. They are the slips of hand engraving done in a hurry by several people, and they have travelled from one production to the next for over a century.
Each slip is small. Together they mean the winds start at different dynamics and swell at different moments, and the bass clarinet sees an accelerando that is not in the score. The singers and conductor expect a forte the orchestra will not play. The conductor stops, players compare parts, corrections go in pencil, and the same questions come back at the next production.
Our edition
- a tempo once, at the figure, for everyone.
- con forza, martellate on the instruments that play the martellato figure: flutes, oboes and clarinets.
- p wherever an instrument enters, and one cresc. molto for the whole wind section, with a dashed line showing how far it runs.
- accentando and p cresc. in the third bar, for every instrument.
A judgement call, made openly. In the old score, con forza, martellate is printed above the flutes and below the clarinets, so it appears to belong to the bass clarinet too. It is an instruction for the fast repeated notes, which the bass clarinet does not play; its long notes have their own accents. In our edition the marking appears only where the figure is played.
Your cuts, already in the parts
Usually the library receives the material and then marks the cuts by hand in every part. We can do that for you.
Send us your production's cuts, additions and your conductor's markings. We engrave them into the score and every part, so the material arrives ready to play: no pasted-over bars, no pencilled "vi-de", and nothing to erase when the production is over.