Tosca: Performers and producers were brought together, with contemporary Rome as the setting for this live film, to create this unique and highly innovative version of Puccini's Tosca. Abandoning its theatrical roots, the opera was broadcast live by satellite around the world. And dispensing with theatrical sets, it was performed in the very Roman locations and at the very same times of day as Puccini had written into his score: in the 16th-century church of Sant Andrea della Valle, the nearby Palazzo Farnese (a magnificent 16th-century edifice that is now the French Embassy) and finally at Castel Sant'Angelo. But unlike the original, the backdrops were the real thing, not mere sets. And the timings of the three acts were staggered to translate Puccini's score into real time; the first at noon, the second at 8.15 pm the same day and the third at 6 am the following day. The story and characters of Tosca are largely fictional, but the trappings of satellite technology endowed this production with the same sense of partial reality as a TV news clip. The sharp focus of modern technology actually blurred the line between artistic creation and reality: even though the weather outside the church of Sant Andrea della Valle was overcast that day, it was sunny inside.