# Is Mario Cavaradossi Jewish?



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

This is something I've wondered for a number of years. Cavaradossi in TOSCA is described by the Sacristan as a "heathen" and a "freethinker." I suppose the conventional wisdom is that he's an atheist, an agnostic, or simply non-religious. Yet to my ears there's often a certain "Hebrew" or "cantatorial" sound to the music Puccini wrote for Mario. Moreover, the character believes in justice and helps the persecuted; his unwillingness to kneel to the Madonna statue, etc. in the church (Act I) would fit with his being Jewish, as would the Sacristan's scorn for him. I was just wondering if the possibility has occurred to anyone else. Have there been any articles or essays written on this topic?


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Not even thought about it for a nano second, I do think you are seeking to much in it.


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Pugg said:


> Not even thought about it for a nano second, I do think you are seeking to much in it.


Well, but I don't think the idea is really so far fetched; it might actually be an interesting way to _interpret_ the character. The thing is, though, that in the Europe of the opera's setting, Jews would probably have been categorized, in the Catholic mind, with atheists and other "heathen"; there would have been little distinction made between them.

In fact, it occurred to me just now where I might have gotten this notion originally. In one of J.B. Steane's _Singers of the Century_ books, Steane quoted Richard Tucker (Jewish tenor) as half-jokingly telling Franco Corelli that to sing Cavaradossi's "E lucevan le stelle" well, "you have to be Jewish" -- i.e., you have to know something about what it means to be persecuted and die for your beliefs. Of course, that doesn't mean the character was written as Jewish; but it does suggest that there's something in the character that is "Jewish" or that a Jewish person might be able to identify with.


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Pugg said:


> Not even thought about it for a nano second, I do think you are seeking to much in it.


I agree. He was a freethinker a la Voltaire, probably a deist rather than an atheist - like Puccini himself?


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Well, whatever Cavaradossi was, Puccini didn't care much one way or another. Puccini was really interested only in his suffering women, and the men are there because men are what make women suffer.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

If it is not mentioned he isn´t.

Then if you want him to be he can be.


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Well, whatever Cavaradossi was, Puccini didn't care much one way or another. Puccini was really interested only in his suffering women, and the men are there because men are what make women suffer.


Yeah, it seems Puccini's main interest was in his heroines. On the other hand, I think Cavaradossi is very underappreciated as a character. Typically, he's viewed as a sort of human punching bag who happens to have two great arias; but if you really stop and think about what he does in the opera, he's an incredibly brave man. Too many people overlook this, it seems.


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

DavidA said:


> I agree. He was a freethinker a la Voltaire, probably a deist rather than an atheist - like Puccini himself?


Yes, given the historical period, I think "Deist" makes more sense (like some of the US Founding Fathers, etc.).


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Bellinilover said:


> Yeah, it seems Puccini's main interest was in his heroines. On the other hand, I think Cavaradossi is very underappreciated as a character. Typically, he's viewed as a sort of human punching bag who happens to have two great arias; but if you really stop and think about what he does in the opera, he's an incredibly brave man. Too many people overlook this, it seems.


Perhaps so. It's really up to the singer to make him charismatic, especially up against a potent soprano. The part needs a hunk like Corelli or Kaufmann. Neither is Jewish, and they probably aren't deists either, but you can't have everything.


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> Well, whatever Cavaradossi was, Puccini didn't care much one way or another. Puccini *was really interested only in his suffering women,* and the men are there because men are what make women suffer.


I don't think that holds up as Puccini wrote some of his best stuff for the male roles. True, the men do make the women suffer - Rudolfo in Boheme, Scarpia in Tosca, Pinkerton in Butterfly, etc, but that doesn't mean Puccini wasn't interested in them. Just think of the music he wrote for the men in these operas. I mean, some of the best and most memorable arias are for the tenors!


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

DavidA said:


> I don't think that holds up as Puccini wrote some of his best stuff for the male roles. True, the men do make the women suffer - Rudolfo in Boheme, Scarpia in Tosca, Pinkerton in Butterfly, etc, but that doesn't mean Puccini wasn't interested in them. Just think of the music he wrote for the men in these operas. I mean, some of the best and most memorable arias are for the tenors!


For me Scarpia is Puccini's only interesting male character; he so dominates the proceedings that the opera might have been called _Scarpia_. Of course he's a monster, but one of opera's best, and he allows Gobbi to stand against Callas as an equal onstage - a rare occurrence, I'm sure. The tenor protagonists, though, are mostly supports for the heroines, despite having some nice tunes. A woman does need a man to make her happy or, in most cases, miserable.

It isn't that I find Puccini's men less interesting than most operatic male leads, but that I think his women are so much more interesting and sympathetic. It's rather hard to care what happens to Pinkerton, Rodolfo will put his kleenex away and find another girlfriend with tiny cold hands, Dick Johnson will probably stay home cooking while Minnie's out gambling and shooting cans off fenceposts blindfolded, and God only knows what Calaf will do with a creature like Turandot, or what he ever did before he fell for her. These men don't seem to have histories or lives, or stand for anything. Even Cavaradossi's political convictions and artistic skills - a potentially interesting person there - don't allow him to actually _do_ anything except yell "Vittoria!" and get tortured and shot in a scene too melodramatic to evoke a tear.

No, Puccini identified with the girls. The men are there because you have to have men, and he did only as much with them as he needed to.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

DavidA;1360114Rudolfo in Boheme said:


> To be fair it is not Rodolfo´s fault that Mimi is sick since she is sick before they meet.
> That he is a difficult person is another thing but what fun would there be if everyone was perfect.


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> For me Scarpia is Puccini's only interesting male character; he so dominates the proceedings that the opera might have been called _Scarpia_. Of course he's a monster, but one of opera's best, and he allows Gobbi to stand against Callas as an equal onstage - a rare occurrence, I'm sure. The tenor protagonists, though, are mostly supports for the heroines, despite having some nice tunes. A woman does need a man to make her happy or, in most cases, miserable.
> 
> It isn't that I find Puccini's men less interesting than most operatic male leads, but that I think his women are so much more interesting and sympathetic. It's rather hard to care what happens to Pinkerton, Rodolfo will put his kleenex away and find another girlfriend with tiny cold hands, Dick Johnson will probably stay home cooking while Minnie's out gambling and shooting cans off fenceposts blindfolded, and God only knows what Calaf will do with a creature like Turandot, or what he ever did before he fell for her. These men don't seem to have histories or lives, or stand for anything. Even Cavaradossi's political convictions and artistic skills - a potentially interesting person there - don't allow him to actually _do_ anything except yell "Vittoria!" and get tortured and shot in a scene too melodramatic to evoke a tear.
> 
> No, Puccini identified with the girls. The men are there because you have to have men, and he did only as much with them as he needed to.


Whatever you think of them the fact is that Puccini wrote some of his most memorable music for them!


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Let the revels begin.:lol:


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

DavidA said:


> Whatever you think of them the fact is that Puccini wrote some of his most memorable music for them!


Personally, I think Jack Rance in _La fanciulla del West_ is the most interesting Puccini male character I've come across so far. He's similar to Scarpia, the difference being that Rance is actually noble rather than just trying to appear so.


----------



## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Huh, I guess I've always assumed Cavaradossi was supposed to be Jewish; Tosca was written in 1900 right in the middle of the Dreyfus Affair so the notion of tyrants blaming Jews politically fits in quite perfectly. It didn't have to be said; I expect a listener at the turn of the century would have made the connections without having a picture painted; expressly making the sympathetic hero Jewish could have had repercussions for Puccini as well so he might have felt the need to be cagey. Is it necessary? Probably not, but it fits pretty well with the details as noted by the OP.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

One could also assume Scarpia as Jewish.


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Scarpia specifically describes Cavaradossi as a follower of Voltaire .


----------



## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Bellinilover said:


> This is something I've wondered for a number of years. Cavaradossi in TOSCA is described by the Sacristan as a "heathen" and a "freethinker." I suppose the conventional wisdom is that he's an atheist, an agnostic, or simply non-religious. Yet to my ears there's often a certain "Hebrew" or "cantatorial" sound to the music Puccini wrote for Mario. *Moreover, the character believes in justice and helps the persecuted; his unwillingness to kneel to the Madonna statue, etc. in the church (Act I) would fit with his being Jewish, as would the Sacristan's scorn for him.* I was just wondering if the possibility has occurred to anyone else. Have there been any articles or essays written on this topic?


I don't see the bolded things as suggesting Jewish, specifically, over atheist, agnostic, or non-religious.

While I would not consider this definitive for the opera, in Victorien Sardou's play _La Tosca_ Cavaradossi was not Jewish. He was from a Roman noble family, but born and raised in France. His father left Rome and married the granddaughter of Claude Adrien Helvétius, (a Swiss-French philosopher, a materialist and a rationalist). He was visiting Rome to settle his father's estate, and decided to stay after he met Floria Tosca.

He was a freethinker and a Bonapartist and he offered to do a painting for the church to deflect suspicions about him being a revolutionary.


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

gardibolt said:


> Huh, I guess I've always assumed Cavaradossi was supposed to be Jewish; Tosca was written in 1900 right in the middle of the Dreyfus Affair so the notion of tyrants blaming Jews politically fits in quite perfectly. It didn't have to be said; I expect a listener at the turn of the century would have made the connections without having a picture painted; expressly making the sympathetic hero Jewish could have had repercussions for Puccini as well so he might have felt the need to be cagey. Is it necessary? Probably not, but it fits pretty well with the details as noted by the OP.


Wow, that's all _very_ interesting! Thanks for your response!:tiphat:


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

gardibolt said:


> Huh, I guess I've always assumed Cavaradossi was supposed to be Jewish; Tosca was written in 1900 right in the middle of the Dreyfus Affair so the notion of tyrants blaming Jews politically fits in quite perfectly. It didn't have to be said; I expect a listener at the turn of the century would have made the connections without having a picture painted; expressly making the sympathetic hero Jewish could have had repercussions for Puccini as well so he might have felt the need to be cagey. Is it necessary? Probably not, but it fits pretty well with the details as noted by the OP.


The opera may have been written in 1900, but it was set in 1800. Empire waistlines were distinctly passe in 1900.

Hmmm... People have proposed the Dutchman, Beckmesser, Alberich, Klingsor, and now Cavaradossi. Who gets to be Jewish next? I nominate the Queen of the Night as the Jewish mother of your nightmares. And, given that Monostatos is referred to in that opera as "that wicked Moor," that would make _The Magic Flute_ antisemitic as well as racist, and thus the most bigoted opera ever.

We need to keep up with the times.

(Just kidding, bellinilover. :tiphat


----------



## Star (May 27, 2017)

gardibolt said:


> Huh, I guess I've always assumed Cavaradossi was supposed to be Jewish; Tosca was written in 1900 right in the middle of the Dreyfus Affair so the notion of tyrants blaming Jews politically fits in quite perfectly. It didn't have to be said; I expect a listener at the turn of the century would have made the connections without having a picture painted; expressly making the sympathetic hero Jewish could have had repercussions for Puccini as well so he might have felt the need to be cagey. Is it necessary? Probably not, but it fits pretty well with the details as noted by the OP.


Tosca is based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dramatic play, La Tosca, seen by Puccini in 1889, before the Dreyfus affair erupted. Highly unlikely then Puccini had Dreyfus in mind.


----------



## Rossiniano (Jul 28, 2017)

DavidA said:


> I don't think that holds up as Puccini wrote some of his best stuff for the male roles. True, the men do make the women suffer - Rudolfo in Boheme, Scarpia in Tosca, Pinkerton in Butterfly, etc, but that doesn't mean Puccini wasn't interested in them. Just think of the music he wrote for the men in these operas. I mean, some of the best and most memorable arias are for the tenors!


Yes, often the tenor gets the best and most memorable tune! Plus, in _Tosca_ he quotes the tenor aria at the very end! No wonder Alfano did the exact same thing at the conclusion of _Turandot_!


----------

