SINGING 'TOSCA'S' PRAISES POPULAR WORK FEATURING SORDID DRAMA AND SOARING MUSIC ENDS L.A. OPERA SEASON.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

If time and durability are the validation of any work of art, that ``shabby little shocker'' ``Tosca'' has passed the test with flying colors.

This despite the fact that critics once reserved their most venomous epithets for the story, labeling it banal, vulgar and, most famously, a ``prolonged orgy of lust and crime.''

The opera is indeed a compelling tabloid tale of sex, violence and violins, swimming in a tide of some of the genre's richest vocal music.

Star soprano Catherine Malfitano knows that better than most. She has sung the title role multiple times since first taking it on almost 10 years ago opposite Placido Domingo in a live global telecast from Rome for which she won an Emmy.

Malfitano again encounters Puccini's passionate tale of love, lust, murder and betrayal starting Wednesday in the Los Angeles Opera's season- closing revival running through June 27.

``What's not to like?'' Malfitano, 53, said from her temporary home downtown. ``It's challenging on every front. It's always challenging to do these wonderful passionate, fabulous ladies and make them vulnerable.''

Joining Malfitano as ravishing Roman opera star Floria Tosca are tenor Richard Leech as Cavaradossi, baritone Tom Fox as Baron Scarpia, bass-baritone Dale Travis as the Sacristan and bass Louis Lebherz as Angelotti. Director Ian Judge returns to the Los Angeles company to stage his original production.

`` 'Tosca' truly is the perfect introduction to opera,'' says Ian White-Thomson, L.A. Opera's executive director. ``It cuts straight to the heart with its beautiful music, dramatic story and larger-than-life characters. And everybody dies in the end.''

No wonder the tragic tale of a larger-than-life diva who tries to save her lover from the firing squad by submitting to a night of passion with a lecherous police chief seems universal.

Needless to say, the whole thing ends badly for everyone involved.

``The combination of story and music is a major part of the attraction because Puccini was one of a handful of composers who was always aware of the theatrical aspects of the story,'' Malfitano said. ``The music supports the drama every inch of the way and that's what appeals to people even if they don't immediately realize it.''

Based on a play that had been a success for historic stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, ``Tosca'' - which premiered in January 1900 at Rome's Teatro Costanzi - contains a dozen classic moments, including painter Cavaradossi's arias, the duet in Act 1 between him and Tosca, Scarpia's ``Credo'' and, best-known of all, Tosca's ``Visi d'arte'' aria in Act 2 in which she laments her fate.

``This production's got some new elements in terms of period, which is interesting,'' said Malfitano, who lives in New York City. ``The cast are all very much singer-actor types committed to looking for new ways of doing things so we weren't simply fitting into a piece that was stiff and unmoving. There was some flexibility in terms of the various personalities in the cast, and there are some slightly different readings of lines. That's always fun to do, and I'm lucky to be surrounded by cast members with similar desires in wanting to do that.

``I don't like to just repeat things because that's not creative or interesting and it becomes routine. You always want to tell the story as if it's the first time you're doing it.''

Despite initial notices that attacked ``Tosca's'' potboiling plot (including one early critic's ``shabby little shocker'' kiss-off), the opera's popularity continues unabated, driven by some of Puccini's most inspired music.

``The real test is, even when done not that well by so-so singers, it still comes off so well,'' Malfitano said. ``That's why his operas are so popular. It's hard to destroy the drama in the music. It's so inherent. He didn't write a bar of music that didn't have a connection with the drama.''

``TOSCA''

Where: Los Angeles Opera, Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through June 27; 1 p.m. June 17.

Tickets: $28 to $148.

Information: [phone] or www.ticketmaster.com.

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Catherine Malfitano takes on the title role in L.A. Opera's production of Puccini's ``Tosca.''