New York City Opera presents a concert production of the perennial favorite Tosca as part of the Bryant Park Picnic Performances presented by Bank of America on August 24, 2024 at 7pm at Bryant Park, NYC in honor of the 100th anniversary of the passing of Giacomo Puccini, one of the greatest opera composers in history. 

Entry is on a first-come, first-served basis. Performances are designed to be enjoyed casually - no tickets required - with ample seating available and free picnic blankets for audience members to borrow. For more information, visit bryantpark.org/picnics. Please RSVP here to attend

Tosca is a three-act opera that takes the audience back in time to Rome during the 1800's, just after the French Revolution. Napoleon has successfully taken France and has invaded Rome, creating a new republic. The beloved opera singer, Floria Tosca, is in love with painter Mario Cavaradossi and here begins the story of how Chief of Police Baron Scarpia intersects with these lovers in drama, betrayal, revenge, and murder.

Featuring members of the New York City Opera Chorus led by Maestro Joseph Rescigno with soloists, soprano Kristin Sampson as Tosca, baritone Michael Chioldi as Scarpia, and tenor Victor Starsky as Cavaradossi.

Dan Fishman, Vice President of Public Events at Bryant Park, says "Picnic Performances aims to make New York City’s extraordinary arts and culture accessible to everyone. Without the barriers of traditional venues and with the help of extraordinary partners including New York City Opera, Bryant Park becomes a great setting for newcomers to hear opera for the first time and for longtime fans to experience these lasting works in a new way."

New York City Opera was famously dubbed “The People’s Opera” by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia at its founding in 1943. More than 75 years later, City Opera continues its historic mission to inspire audiences with innovative and theatrically compelling opera, nurture the work of promising American artists and build new audiences through affordable ticket prices and extensive outreach and education programs. Picnic Performances continues the tradition of opera in Bryant Park.

About the Performers

Joseph Rescigno, conductor 

Joseph Rescigno has conducted the music of Bach through the moderns for companies on four continents. Permanent engagements have included the Florentine Opera Company of Milwaukee, WI, where he served as Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor for 38 seasons beginning in 1981. He also has been Music Director of La Musica Lirica since 2005. As a guest, he has mounted the podium of more than 50 companies such as the Montreal Symphony and the New York City Opera (debut 1985). Maestro Rescigno’s discography of seven recordings includes two operatic world premieres and studio recordings of operatic and symphonic works. The University of North Texas Press published his Conducting Opera: Where Theater Meets Music in 2020. A native New Yorker, Joseph Rescigno comes from a long line of musicians on both sides of his family. He trained as a pianist and has studied and performed music since childhood. 

Kristin Sampson, soprano

Praised by The New York Times for her “bright, sizable and expressive voice,” Mexican-born American soprano Kristin Sampson’s 2023-2024 performances include returning to the signature roles of Minnie in La fanciulla del West and Tosca, and concert performances with New York City Opera, The Accord Symphony Orchestra, and Washington Opera Society. Other recent performances include a company debut as Tosca with Connecticut Lyric Opera, a workshop of Jake Landau’s Psyche, a debut and return engagement with the Kauno Filharmonijain in Lithuania under the baton of Maestro Constantine Orbelian, a company debut with Opera Grand Rapids as Liù in Turandot, a role debut as Marguerite in Faust with the Washington Opera Society, and concerts with NYCO and WOS. Additionally, Ms. Sampson performed as Magda in La campana sommersa, as well as Minnie in La fanciulla del West with NYCO, a role she has also sung with Opera Carolina, Teatro del Giglio in Lucca, Teatro Goldoni in Livorno, and Teatro Verdi in Pisa, Italy. She made her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony and her debut at the Festival Puccini in Torre del Lago as Tosca. 

Victor Starsky, tenor

Tenor Victor Starsky, a native of Richmond Hill, New York, received critical acclaim for role debuts as Radamés in Verdi’s Aïda and George Gibbs in Rorem’s Our Town at the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater in 2023. He performed Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with New York City Opera and Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème with Wichita Grand Opera. This winter, Starsky makes his Sarasota Opera debut as Don José in Carmen; one critic wrote “While possessing a voice that flexes with nuance...Watching his slow crumbling into unhinged desperation is unforgettable." Starsky will make his debut with Charlottesville Opera as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore in summer 2024. Previously, Starsky performed The Celebrant in Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with Maestro Maurice Peress, and as an Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera, he was awarded the Shoshana Foundation’s Richard F. Gold Career Grant.

Michael Chioldi is one of the world's most sought-after Dramatic Baritones. His interpretations of the Verdi, Puccini and Strauss repertoire has been praised by critics and audiences across the world. In January 2022 Michael made his major role debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Rigoletto to critical acclaim in a new production by Bart Sher. Critics praised his performance as a “Triumph in the title role” (Robert Levine - Bachtrack) and as “a true Verdian voice that displays booming power, tender softness, and ravaging tragic colors” (Maria-Cristina Necula -Women About Town). He recently made his Gran Teatro Liceu (Spain) debut as Gerard in Andrea Chenier alongside Sondra Radvanovsky and Jonas Kaufmann and subsequently as Miller in Verdi’s Louisa Miller with Piotr Beczala. His portrayal of Henry VIII by Saint-Seans with Odyssey Opera in Boston was heralded by Ed Tapper with Edge Media as “world class baritone singing….Moments such as Henry's Act IV monologue and the final passages of the opera were nothing short of thrilling.” A recording of this performance is now readily available. During the pandemic Michael was fortunate to be able to perform Tonio in Pagliacci with Palm Beach Opera where “Michael dominated the stage. His flawless diction, commanding acting skills and multi-colored instrument were a real showstopper.” (Palm Beach Daily News) He made his Seattle Opera debut as Scarpia in Tosca, now one of his signature roles, and later that season appeared as Marcello in La Boheme. He curated a one man show of Dominick Argento’s The Andree Expedition, a show that will utilize immersive 3D green screen technology. With NYC Opera he performed the title role of Rigoletto at the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice and to over four thousand people in Bryant Park. Chioldi has performed at nearly every major American opera house, including The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera. His recordings appear on the Sony Classical, BMG, Accord and Newport Classics labels.

About New York City Opera

Founded as “The People’s Opera” by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in 1943, New York City Opera (NYCO) has remained a critical part of the city’s cultural life. Launching the careers of dozens of major artists, presenting engaging productions of both mainstream and lesser-known operas alongside commissions and regional premieres, NYCO has continued to endure as a uniquely American opera company of international stature with a distinct identity and singular mission: affordable ticket prices, a devotion to American works, English-language performances, the promotion of up-and-coming American singers, and seasons of accessible, vibrant and compelling productions intended to introduce new audiences to the art form.

Stars who launched their careers at New York City Opera include Plácido Domingo, Catherine Malfitano, Sherrill Milnes, Samuel Ramey, Beverly Sills, Tatiana Troyanos, Carol Vaness, and Shirley Verrett, among dozens of other great artists. New York City Opera has also presented such talents as Anna Caterina Antonacci and Aprile Millo in concert, as well as its own 75th Anniversary Concert in Bryant Park.

New York City Opera forged a path of inclusion and diversity in the arts. It was the first major opera company to feature African American singers in leading roles (Todd Duncan as Tonio in Pagliacci, 1945 and Camilla Williams in the title role of Madama Butterfly, 1946); the first to produce a new work by an African American composer (William Grant Still, Troubled Island, 1949); and the first to have an African-American conductor lead its orchestra (Everett Lee, 1955).

A revitalized City Opera re-opened in January 2016 with Tosca, the opera that originally launched the company in 1944. Outstanding productions since then include: the world premieres of Iain Bell and Mark Campbell’s Stonewall, commissioned and developed by NYCO), legendary director Harold Prince’s new production of Bernstein’s Candide; Puccini’s beloved La Fanciulla del West; and the New York premiere of Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas — the first in NYCO’s Ópera en Español series. Subsequent Ópera en Español productions include the New York premiere of the world’s first mariachi opera, José “Pepe” Martinez’s Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, Literes’s Los Elementos, and Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires. NYCO’s Pride Initiative, which produces an LGBTQ-themed work each June during Pride Month, includes such productions as the New York premiere of Péter Eötvös’s Angels in America and the American premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain.

New York City Opera continues its legacy with regular main stage performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, an acclaimed summer series in Bryant Park that brings free performances to thousands of New Yorkers annually, and revitalized outreach and education programs at venues throughout the city that are designed to welcome and inspire a new generation of opera audiences.