'Tosca' ends in London after 40 years

LONDON, July 18 (UPI) -- After being performed for 40 years in London, Puccini's opera "Tosca" has gone dark at the Royal Opera House.

The BBC reported "Tosca" was staged more than 230 times at the Opera house since its first performance 40 years ago, starring Maria Callas as Tosca and Tito Gobbi as the police chief Scarpia.

The final one-week run of the opera, starring Maria Guleghina as Tosca, ended Saturday.

When "Tosca" first opened in 1964 more than 120,000 people applied for 12,000 seats.

The audience gave Callas 27 curtain calls for her opening night performance in an ovation which lasted 40 minutes.

While much of the production, including the set, remained unchanged, only a few of the original costumes are still used -- but Tosca's shawl, worn by Callas, has been preserved.

"Tosca's stole has been very jealously guarded," said Director John Cox. "I once asked if it could be made shorter, because our soprano is shorter than Callas and found it a little hard to manage. I was told 'no'. "