Having vandalized Puccini's operas, the barbarians turn to the man himself

From Zeffirelli's production of "Tosca"

Consigned to trash heap by Peter Gelb

No doubt you have heard of the Met's new production of  Puccini's Tosca, in which the Catholic elements are mocked, diminished or removed in order to make room for such invented stage business as an orgy in Scarpia's apartment and Scarpia straddling a statue of the Virgin.  As if to justify such absurdities, a new biography by a Freudian (“O Freud, avanti a Dio!”) alleges that Puccini's Catholicism was merely skin deep.  Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith's thoughts here.