When Cavaradossi discovers the fugitive in the church, he quickly sees that they are politically like-minded and gives him the food that the Sacristan had prepared for his lunch break. Inspired by Attavanti’s frequent visits to the church, he uses her face in the painting. In the same church, the painter Cavaradossi is working on a portrait of Maria Magdalena with an assistant. His sister, the beautiful Marchesa Attavanti, has planned an escape for him, hiding the chapel key and women’s clothes for a disguise. He finds refuge in a church, where his family owns a private chapel. Just a few hours before his execution, the political refugee Cesare Angelotti escapes from Castel Sant’Angelo, the state prison. The famed opera singer Floria Tosca’s lover Mario Cavaradossi, a painter, is among the opponents. Queen Maria-Carolina now rules Rome, allowing her chief of police to mercilessly arrest and execute her opponents, often without a trial.

A newly-founded free republic, which had overthrown the aristocracy’s supremacy, has been dissolved – once again the royalists have prevailed.

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