TOSCA • OPERAEN
★★★★★☆
Photo: Miklos Szabo
REVIEW TOSCA: WELL-CRAFTED COPENHAGEN CROWDPLEASER
Kasper Holten’s eagerly awaited staging of Puccini’s masterpiece Tosca is a well-crafted crowdpleaser with surprising, intelligent touches and impressive sets that leave the audience breathless for long periods.
Nevertheless, there was something strangely unresolved about the Royal Copenhagen Opera’s interpretation of the world’s best opera at its premiere on this sunny Sunday in August. First and foremost, the Italian soprano Francesca Tiburzi, who played the title role, only partially lived up to expectations and even had to endure scattered boos during the curtain calls. This is a rarity at the Opera, but not unusual in Berlin, for example, where the audience does not hold back with expressions of displeasure. Let’s be honest: it would not have been nice down there.
Not for a second did one believe in the love between the diva Tosca and the revolutionary-minded painter, the free-thinker Caravadossi (vocalised with great intensity by the melodious Italian tenor Matteo Lippi). Similarly, the characterisation of several supporting roles seemed vague – perhaps a deliberate choice to focus attention on the opera’s three key figures.
Photo: Miklos Szabo
Otherwise always reliable, Johan Reuther did not seem entirely comfortable in the role of the opera repertoire’s best baritone villain, police chief Scarpia, who in this production was dressed in an interpretive white uniform, in contrast to the character’s usual terror look in fascist black and evil leather.
Did we see Scarpia as an involuntary, perhaps even innocent victim of the political instrumentalisation of art, which seems to be the focal point of Holten’s staging? As we know, incorporating contemporary references into opera classics is a discipline in which talented stage directors show their class.
Philipp Fürhofer’s mega-scenography almost tripped over its own feet in the first part of the opera, where gigantic, semi-transparent paintings covered a little too much of the action and kept the audience at a distance, until the rousing Te Deum scene got the opera pulse racing among the 1,500 spectators. A thoroughly delicate lighting design topped off the iconic sequence.
Photo: Miklos Szabo
The Te Deum’s unison finale, with the singers and orchestra at maximum volume, is and remains one of the absolute highlights of the opera genre.
The visual experience rose to astonishing heights in a stunningly beautiful second act, where the refined use of rising and falling platforms added dramatic dynamism to the thriller opera’s skilfully constructed torture scenes, with a kind of double exposure of the polished upside and brutal downside of power.
The third act took first prize for best vocal performance, as Lippi delivered one of opera’s greatest tenor hits, Lucevan Le Stelle (And the Stars Were Twinkling), to the evening’s only spontaneous applause.
A cadeau that Tosca’s signature aria and the show’s usual showstopper, Vissi d’arte, could not even come close to rivalling. Apart from a fabulous dress, the title role lacked impact and charisma. Opening night nerves?
Photo: Miklos Szabo
With its effective plot, manageable running time and wonderful music, Tosca is a treat for any opera fan and a perfect place to start if you want to get into the genre.
Photo: Miklos Szabo
All in all, a season opener that largely delivered the goods, but occasionally left the audience with an unresolved impression.
However, intelligent directorial choices and dynamic stage design secure five stars from GOT TO SEE THIS. Tosca is still the world’s best opera.
