Last night, at teatro Comunale di Firenze, the audience's reaction to Daniela Dessì's Tosca has been so off the hook that the soprano has been requested to give an encore of "Vissi d'Arte", and she -- together with conductor Antonio Pirolli -- obliged.
The last time an encore had been performed at glorious Teatro Comunale in Florence? 1956. When another Italian soprano, la signorina Renata Tebaldi, as Violetta, offered an encore of Amami Alfredo.
Dessì's Tosca is part of a special Maggio Musicale Fiorentino program, "Recondita armonia", a pre-season, two-week "rassegna" of popular operas (Tosca, Boheme, Cavalleria Rusticana) that has already sold more than 30,000 tickets -- 5,000 of which to opera lovers under 26.