After our international conference on astrochemistry in Valletta, several of the attending scientists and accompanying persons attended the performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca at the Aurora Theatre in Gozo on October 15 and were truly impressed with the high level of excellence of the production.

The voices were clearly up to their difficult task of singing Puccini’s marvellous melodies as well as interpreting the passions of love, terror and tragedy of the story.

In addition, many of us had seen operatic productions in Paris, Munich, Berlin, etc., where the aim of the stage director and of the scene designer often seemed directed at shocking the audience while forgetting the plot of the opera whereas at the Aurora the beautifully-designed and executed sets suited the different environments of the three acts, allowed those on stage to move intelligently and, thereby, enabled the audience to enter into each atmosphere with understanding.

Of course, it is clear that our special compliments go to the conductor, Colin Attard, whose deep understanding of Puccini’s score – both as music and drama – and his skill at communicating this to the vocal soloists and to his fine orchestra, had all of us engrossed from the first note to the last. Our thanks to everyone involved!