Tosca is my all-time favourite Puccini opera and very high in my all-time favourites as well. The music is just magnificent with too many highlights to list, while the story is compelling, always moving or intense, and the characters are memorable and among the most taxing of any Puccini especially Scarpia. I saw this Tosca for the first time on Christmas Eve, and I absolutely loved it, by far one of the treasures of a hit-and-miss festive season programme line-up. So much so that I taped it and have watched it a couple of times since.
Is it one of my favourite Toscas? No, not quite. My favourites are the 1976 Kabaivanska/Domingo/Milnes, 1992 Malfitano/Domingo/Raimondi, 1985 Behrens/Domingo/MacNeil, 1984 Marton/Aragall/Wixell and 1961 Tebaldi/Tobin/London performances. But it is still a wonderful production, and the best of the four productions that I've seen recently; the others being the Magee/Kaufmann/Hampson performance, which didn't bowl me over but was surprisingly good, the Guleghina/Licitra/Nucci performance, which had a very good Nucci but unexciting and poorly directed and the Patane/Cura/Bruson production, which could well beat the 2009 Met production with Mattila/Alvarez/Godnidze as the worst Tosca ever made.
Back to this Tosca, what did I like about it? The outstanding orchestral playing for one, the whole torture/interrogation scene is overwhelmingly powerful in orchestration and the divine cello ensemble in Act 3 and E Lucevan E Le Stelle destroyed me emotionally. Antonio Pappano's conducting is full of passion and genuinely Italianate. Visually it is more than acceptable, with the sets suitably foreboding in Acts 1 and 2 and the costumes lovely, I personally would have preferred red or black for Tosca's dress in Act 2 but Gheorghiu still looked wonderful in it.
The staging I had no real problem with. Act 3 is both tense, even though I know what's going to happen the build-up to Caveradossi's execution was nail-biting, and moving. Scarpia's murder is very chilling also, and Scarpia's slow-clap reaction at the end of Vissi D'Arte was effective as was Caveradossi's dragging-off after Vittoria. I have seen far more thrilling accounts of Tosca's suicide though, especially Malfitano. The performances are great, with Jeremy White a humble Sacristan, Hubert Francis a superb Spoletta and Lukas Jakobski a strong Angelotti.
But it is the three leads that dominate, with Jonas Kaufmann's poignant, dark-toned and very musically sung(especially during the Act 1 duet and E Lucevan E Le Stelle) Caveradossi the standout. Bryn Terfel is perhaps too thuggish in appearance, but you can tell right from his authority, cruelty and menace that his Scarpia is a nasty piece of work, and that's an understatement. Angela Gheorghiu plays Tosca more of an impassioned, passionate woman in love rather than the prima donna I saw with Guleghina for example and it was a convincing approach indeed; she also sounds lovely, if perhaps playing it too safe on her high notes.
Overall, wonderful. 9/10 Bethany Cox
Is it one of my favourite Toscas? No, not quite. My favourites are the 1976 Kabaivanska/Domingo/Milnes, 1992 Malfitano/Domingo/Raimondi, 1985 Behrens/Domingo/MacNeil, 1984 Marton/Aragall/Wixell and 1961 Tebaldi/Tobin/London performances. But it is still a wonderful production, and the best of the four productions that I've seen recently; the others being the Magee/Kaufmann/Hampson performance, which didn't bowl me over but was surprisingly good, the Guleghina/Licitra/Nucci performance, which had a very good Nucci but unexciting and poorly directed and the Patane/Cura/Bruson production, which could well beat the 2009 Met production with Mattila/Alvarez/Godnidze as the worst Tosca ever made.
Back to this Tosca, what did I like about it? The outstanding orchestral playing for one, the whole torture/interrogation scene is overwhelmingly powerful in orchestration and the divine cello ensemble in Act 3 and E Lucevan E Le Stelle destroyed me emotionally. Antonio Pappano's conducting is full of passion and genuinely Italianate. Visually it is more than acceptable, with the sets suitably foreboding in Acts 1 and 2 and the costumes lovely, I personally would have preferred red or black for Tosca's dress in Act 2 but Gheorghiu still looked wonderful in it.
The staging I had no real problem with. Act 3 is both tense, even though I know what's going to happen the build-up to Caveradossi's execution was nail-biting, and moving. Scarpia's murder is very chilling also, and Scarpia's slow-clap reaction at the end of Vissi D'Arte was effective as was Caveradossi's dragging-off after Vittoria. I have seen far more thrilling accounts of Tosca's suicide though, especially Malfitano. The performances are great, with Jeremy White a humble Sacristan, Hubert Francis a superb Spoletta and Lukas Jakobski a strong Angelotti.
But it is the three leads that dominate, with Jonas Kaufmann's poignant, dark-toned and very musically sung(especially during the Act 1 duet and E Lucevan E Le Stelle) Caveradossi the standout. Bryn Terfel is perhaps too thuggish in appearance, but you can tell right from his authority, cruelty and menace that his Scarpia is a nasty piece of work, and that's an understatement. Angela Gheorghiu plays Tosca more of an impassioned, passionate woman in love rather than the prima donna I saw with Guleghina for example and it was a convincing approach indeed; she also sounds lovely, if perhaps playing it too safe on her high notes.
Overall, wonderful. 9/10 Bethany Cox
