Fosca

Who is Fosca?

Fosca is plain, sickly, and has been starved of affection for most of her life, and when the officer Giorgio Bachetti is transferred to her cousin's remote garrison, she falls overwhelmingly in love with him. Rather than hiding or softening her feelings, she pursues him with a directness that unsettles him at first.

Her refusal to accept anything less than total honesty and devotion gradually wears down Giorgio's resistance, and her uncompromising love ultimately forces him to question whether the comfortable, conventional love he has always known was ever truly as real as hers.

Fosca's role in Passion

Fosca is a lead role and one of the most demanding parts in the Sondheim catalog, requiring sustained emotional and vocal intensity across the show's nearly continuous, sung through score, including the numbers I Read and Loving You. The role offers almost no comic relief and asks its performer to sustain raw feeling for the length of the show.

Donna Murphy originated the role on Broadway in 1994 and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, a performance widely regarded as one of the defining portrayals in the Sondheim repertoire.

Fosca on stage vs screen

Broadway compared with the 1981 Italian film Passione d'Amore

The ending plays out differently on screen. In Ettore Scola's 1981 film Passione d'Amore, with Valeria D'Obici as Fosca, Giorgio collapses under the nervous strain during his duel with the Colonel, and Fosca dies of shock. In Sondheim's version, Fosca dies shortly after she and Giorgio finally spend a night together, and he learns of it while recovering from a breakdown in a hospital, as the other characters reappear while he reads her last letter.

Donna Murphy originated Fosca on Broadway in 1994 and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical; Maria Friedman won the Olivier Award for the role in London.

Fosca: frequently asked questions