TOSCA & CARMEN • ARENA DI VERONA
★★★★★☆

Photo: Ennevi Photo
REVIEW TOSCA AND CARMEN ARENA DI VERONA: MAGICAL MOMENTS
Summer is over and you can just bask in the memories. GOT TO SEE THIS went for summer rendezvous with TOSCA and CARMEN in the stunning Arena di Verona, an iconic venue which is well worth a trip in 2025 for opera fans with a taste for magnificent productions in the Italian summer night.
The past season set new records with 417,000 spectators from 136 countries, securing an all-time-high revenue of over €33 million after 3 months of the festival with a total of 50 mega performances of 7 different opera productions plus a variety of concerts and other events.
The festival’s Facebook, Instagram and TikTok channels recorded almost 59 million interactions. The opening show was broadcast live on TV and had over 70 million viewers worldwide. We’re on a high roll here.
The giant production of Tosca in the ancient Roman arena was grand in the basic sense of the word. You just don’t see opera mega-events like this anywhere else in the world. Opera’s top international stars flocked to the iconic roles in the repertoire.

Photo: Ennevi Photo
Russian diva Anna Netrebko is perhaps not quite as eminent as she was 10 years ago, and her latest album release has harvested some thistles.
The star soprano’s lawsuit for breach of contract and ‘geo-racism’ against the Met in New York, which dropped her in connection with a kind of Putin/Ukraine-gate, has not given her the best press either.
But Netrebko is still a superstar in the title role of Tosca in this Verona instalment, and there’s a sense of style when she fills the giant stage with karma in her iconic red dress.
Her vibrato floats a little too much in several arias, and perhaps there are times when she pushes a little too hard, at least to make her point on volume.
But in the crowd favorite Vissi d’Arte, she goes completely the opposite way and delivers no less than a magical operatic moment in front of 15,000 spectators, who are completely spellbound in the wonderful hit aria, where she slowly thins her vocals in formidable control and conveys her pain right down to the back row.

Photo: Ennevi Photo
Everyone holds their breath, and it’s so quiet in the summer night under the orchestra’s diminuendo that you could hear a pin drop. The applause is thunderous and the audience screams for da capo as she kneels humbly in front of the cheering crowds in the totally sold out arena. Even the orchestra and conductor join in the several minutes of applause. Magic!
Beforehand, you’ve been exposed to a stunning Te Deum scene with what looks like several hundred performers in a lavish staging, with everything from costumes, mega-sized Catholic relics and cannons accompanying the giant choir with roars and bangs that leave you completely blown away.

Photo: Ennevi Photo
The stage design is classic and centered around an enormous bust of Tosca, holding a gigantic dagger as a kind of symbol of the political and feminist resistance that can be read into Tosca’s plot.
Yusif Eyvazov and Luca Salsi are adequate as the artist Cavaradossi and the supervillain Scarpia respectively, but it’s Netrebko’s night, and her, that makes the experience sublime and grippingly intense in a way I have not previously experienced in such a large venue.

Photo: Ennevi Photo
Unfortunately, the same praise cannot be given to the production of Carmen, which I had high expectations for the following evening.
Bizet’s hit opera Carmen in Franco Zeffirelli’s colossal staging involves no less than 500 performers, with at least half on stage at the same time.

Photo: Ennevi Photo
Instead of being overwhelming and impactful, the result seems disorientated, unfocused and slightly confused.
It doesn’t help that the orchestra under Leonardo Sini plays strangely restrained this evening, with a volume that never quite manages to create a warm-blooded atmosphere.

Photo: Ennevi Photo
In the title role, Clémentine Margaine lacks X-factor, and although the Habanera is one of the most tantalizing, erotic arias in the operatic repertoire, it manages to come across as a pale and unsexy reflection of itself.
Pretty Yende sang the part earlier in the season and might have been a more sensual experience.

Photo: Ennevi Photo
Don José is delivered by Italian tenor Francesco Mali, who is more reminiscent of a bank clerk than the idea of the fiery soldier Carmen seduces into a free-for-all of good sex and bad company.
All in all, it’s a slightly disappointing cast that makes a crucial part of the plot unbelievable and the overall impression external.
The set design of the expected Andalusian locations is huge and colorful, without being convincing. Singers, dancers and extras swarm in and out, creating a huge hustle and bustle and an undeniable flow. In the hustle and bustle, lots of points are scored on the many catchy tunes and a marvelous performance by Dalibor Jenis as the very overextended bullfighter Escarmillo.
Towards the end, the performance loses its spark and pace, but during the scene change between acts 4 and 5, Verona pulls the plug with a fiery flamenco battle where two large gypsy dance groups on either side of the enormous stage alternately challenge each other with stomps, pirouettes, swirling skirts and looks that can kill.
It’s a razor-sharp, riveting stage show that the audience wholeheartedly supports with cheers and applause every time the groups exchange dance broadsides in a kind of open battle on the way to the drama of the finale.

Photo: Ennevi Photo
By the time Don José has finally had enough of Carmen’s lies and murders her in the center of the square, it’s past 2am and we’ve reached the five-hour mark. It’s festive with all the Aperol Spritz you can manage during the intermissions, but it’s also a bit much.
Carmen receives rapturous audience acclaim that may well overmatch the performances, but with a large international audience, a high degree of self-centeredness is to be expected. You haven’t flown in from Chicago and Kyoto to sit and sulk.
An opera evening in the Arena is an impressive experience in any case, and ticket sales for summer 2025 are already underway here.
From June to September, you can experience Aida, Nabucco, La Traviata, Rigoletto and a reunion with Carmen, who may have just had an off night during my visit. 1,200 members of the press from all over the world visited the 2024 season, and with more than 5,000 reviews and reports, it can’t all be plain sailing.
Have a great trip to Verona.