Brenna Corner digs into Tosca's political complexity at Vancouver Opera this month

Brenna Corner, artistic director of Pacific Opera Victoria and stage director for Vancouver Opera's season-opening production of Tosca, is lifting one of opera's most famous female characters above two-dimensional archetype by grounding her in historical detail and feminist complexity.

Tosca runs October 24, 29, and November 1 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Music director Jacques Lacombe conducts the co-production, which premiered at Pacific Opera Victoria in February.

"Being a woman, one of the things that I can bring is a different understanding or a different way to look at those characters," Corner told Stir before rehearsals began. "I think any time we put any of these incredible female characters onstage, I want to make sure that any young woman who comes to see it sees the strength and the power that it took to be that story — that there's humanity that is deep and complex."

Giacomo Puccini's Tosca unfolds in an intense 24 hours in Rome, circa 1800, when the city is gripped by fear of invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte's army and governed by a reactionary papal police state. The sadistic Baron Scarpia hunts down political dissidents, including Tosca's lover, the revolutionary artist Mario Cavaradossi, then leverages his life to force Tosca to yield to his sexual demands. The opera opens with Floria Tosca's famous aria "Vissi d'arte" — "I lived for art, I lived for love."

Corner spent more time doing historical research for this Tosca than for any previous opera. "To understand the period is to start to understand Floria Tosca and her actions," she said. "It's very much a political thriller — a political statement on what was happening in Rome at that time."

She noted that North American audiences lack deep familiarity with the Napoleonic Wars in Italy compared to the work's original audiences. "One of the most important things we can do is try and help the audience understand that sort of baseline of where we are. We're in a world where there is corruption. We are in a world where the idea of who's leading is very much askew. We're in a world of oppressive institutions."

Corner has a long association with the work — it was the first opera she ever appeared in, as a 6-year-old supernumerary in a Calgary production. "I got to throw flowers, I got to wear a really pretty dress, and I had absolutely no idea what happened at the end of it at all," she said with a laugh.

Puccini's Tosca opens Vancouver Opera's season October 24.