SUNSET PARK — Regina Opera recently presented several meticulously polished, fully-staged performances of Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca,” a tragic story of passion and jealousy set in Rome in 1800, revolving around opera singer Floria Tosca’s fight to save her lover, Cavaradossi, from Scarpia, a sadistic police chief.

Sung in Italian and accompanied by a 35-piece orchestra and English supertitles, the performances took place at the end of November and were conducted by Scott Jackson Wiley with stage direction by Sabrina Palladino at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School located at 5902 Sixth Avenue. Among the featured singers were Audrey DuBois Harris as Tosca and Eliam Ramos as Scarpia. 

Fran Garber-Cohen,  president of Regina Opera, and the show’s producer, told the Brooklyn Eagle that the most unique aspect of her version of Tosca is that “even though this is an extremely popular opera, we have several people in this show — although experienced — that haven’t done this role before, which makes the performances extremely fresh.”  

Garber-Cohen added that working with a full orchestra also significantly adds to the excitement and drama of the presentation.