Last Updated on October 1, 2022
The Diva Gets Her Revenge in St Martin’s Lane
How does opera regenerate itself and attract a younger and more diverse audience? The ENO seems to be making something of a success of this with over 12,000 people signed up to their Under 35s scheme of discounts which includes completely free entry for under 21s. At last night’s opening of Puccini’s Tosca, a production brought in from The Finnish National Opera and Ballet and directed by the very dependable Christof Loy, the opera house was filled with a rich mix of people of all ages with a special cheer given for the opera ‘newbies’. The production was not without some controversy.
Before the show started the company’s artistic director Annilese Miskimmon introduced onto the Coliseum’s stage young spoken word artist Kieron Rennie. He had been embedded into the production process and delivered a gentle, elegiac and charming response to his experience that received a generous reception from the audience and also raised some criticism from more conservative elements. But even if a few people were nervous about missing their trains because the show did run over time, this was a valuable intervention that highlight’s the ENO’s progressive policies that seem now to be bearing fruit. The other salient issue for the management was that American baritone Noel Bouley, making his ENO debut as the arch-baddy Baron Scarpia, had lost his voice and would be walking the part with English baritone Roland Wood singing the role from the side of the stage.
Tosca was first performed in 1900 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome; the opera with Puccini’s ravishing and dramatic score with its libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa created an immediate audience hit. It is the second of Puccini’s sequence of three operas featuring tragic heroines – La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly – that have become staples of the operatic repertoire. The libretto is based on La Tosca, a play in French written by playwright Victorien Sardou that premiered in 1887 with leading actress of the day Sarah Bernhardt in the title role. The opera is set 100 years before the date of its premiere, precisely located by Sardou as the 17th and 18th of June 1800. In this period of its history Italy, which was not yet unified, was in constant turmoil with foreign powers jockeying to take control of the wealthy city-states that made up the country.
The story of Tosca takes place in Rome at a time when King Ferdinand VI of Sicily was in charge of the Eternal City having retaken it from Napoleon and the French. However, Napoleon returned to the north of Italy taking Milan on June 2nd with the battle of Marengo raging as the opera progresses. The story of opera singer Floria Tosca, her jealous love for the painter Cavaradossi and the couple’s fatal conflict with the all-powerful Baron Scarpia plays out against the historical background of this struggle between the French supporting Republicans who supported self-rule and were anti-clerical, and the more conservative Royalists. The opera is one of the first in the period written in the new ‘verismo’ style, aiming for an authenticity of narrative and emotion, with a musical language that veers between moments of high drama and Puccini’s lyrical romanticism all underpinned by a series of thematic and character-based motifs that lend dramatic impetus to this most tightly plotted of operas.
Christof Loy’s production makes no attempt to scare off either the ENO’s burgeoning younger audience or the more traditional Puccini-loving punters. From the first scene, set within the church of Sant’Andrea Della Valle – Christian Schmidt’s elegant design presents a simplified and less gilded version of the original – the director’s focus is on the drama, the characterisations and the music. The only misstep is in the 2nd act set in the Palazzo Farnese, when a huge curtain crawls at a snail’s pace across the back of the stage, presumably to mark a transition into Scarpia’s private apartment. It takes the focus away from the action for too long. If the costuming is not all consist with the period it really doesn’t matter as they look terrific.
I last saw Irish soprano Sinéad Campbell-Wallace earlier this year on the same stage playing Mimi in La Bohème in the ENO’s revival of Jonathan Miller’s classic 2009 production. I had concerns about the chemistry between her and her lover, Rodolfo, in that production but I had no such qualms here. She owns the role of the singer Floria Tosca, consumed with love and with her art; and jealous and brave enough to take on the demonic Scarpia who takes a very hands-on approach to his pursuit of her. Her relationship with painter Mario Cavaradossi, played with panache by ENO debutant British tenor Adam Smith, displays passionate credibility and her extreme and somewhat irrational jealousy in Act 1 was received with amusement by the younger audience members. The character’s signature aria ‘I lived for art and love’ had a delightful clarity in the upper register with an affecting contraltoesque texture in the lower.
Adam Smith has a fine career ahead as a heroic tenor cutting a dashing figure and with a fine bright tone. But he was also capable of deep emotion in his Act 3 Aria ‘And the stars were shining’ imbuing the emotionally charged high A near the end with a powerful sense of his own destiny.
As mentioned before American baritone Noel Bouley should have been making his ENO debut in the part of Baron Scarpia but had to make do with miming which he did with aplomb. The singing was delivered brilliantly by Roland Wood who had hopped over the pond in a last-minute emergency dash and brought a mature sense of menace to the part with his richly textured voice. From my position in the Dress Circle, disbelief was duly suspended.
South African bass Msimelelo Mbali brought energy and gravitas to the role of escaped political prisoner Cesare Angelotti whose flight from jail at the beginning of the opera is the trigger for the whole drama. He has a pleasingly resonant tone and in his second year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera is clearly one for the future.
Transgender American baritone Lucia Lucas was characterful as the embittered church officer the Sacristan and ENO Harewood Artist John Findon brought his cultivated tenor voice to the part of the bluff henchman Spoletta.
The award-winning ENO Orchestra is a splendid beast here, marshalled last night by Leo Hussain. From the opera’s dramatic opening brass chords of the Scarpia motif to the lyrical romanticism of the love scenes, Puccini’s orchestral textures shone brightly. If the tempi could have been a bit more fluid at times, maybe that will come as the production beds in. Special mention must go to the Children’s Chorus from Cardinal Vaughan school who brought vivacity and vocal accuracy to the stage. Well done kids!
Puccini, the master musical dramatist, never lets the dramatic pace flag from the opening scene to Tosca’s final leap of faith. This is a great production for those wanting to investigate the artform while traditional Puccini fans won’t be disappointed.
Tosca at the English National Opera
London Coliseum, St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4ES
30 Sep–4 Nov 2022
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