Tosca is one of the most popular of all operas by Giacomo Puccini repertoire that, by combining the lyricism characteristic of Italian opera with an intensity in the musical accompaniment of recitatives, got a work of exceptional beauty that has achieved an immediate success. From a political background of the scene is taken a plot that involves idealism, love, desire, ambition, jealousy, betrayal and death. Rome, post 1800 revolutionary climate. The ópera "Tosca" tells the story of an opera singer, Tosca's lover Mario Cavaradossi, a painter on the revolutionary activities that, by not reporting the hideout of a friend who had escaped from prison, finds was arrested by the Baron Scarpia. Angela Gheorghiu is a Romanian soprano opera singer. Since her professional debut in 1990, she has sung as soprano leading roles at New York's Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden's Royal Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, Milan's La Scala, and many other opera houses in Europe and the United States. "Vissi d'arte" is a soprano aria from act II of the opera Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. It is sung by Tosca as she thinks of her fate and how the life of her beloved, Mario Cavaradossi, is at the mercy of Baron Scarpia. I lived for art, I lived for love, I never did harm to a living soul! With a secret hand I relieved as many misfortunes as I knew of. Ever in true faith My prayer Rose to the holy shrines. Ever in true faith I gave flowers to the altar. In the hour of grief Why, why, Lord, Why do you reward me thus? I gave jewels for the Madonna's mantle, And songs for the stars, in heaven, That shone forth with greater radiance. In the hour of grief Why, why, Lord, Ah, why do you reward me thus?