This staging of Tosca in Salerno confirmed the ability of director Michele Sorrentino Mangini to tell a story in a convincing and captivating way, avoiding any unnecessary intellectualism.

Mangini held the thread of the story firmly together (Tosca is, more than any other opera, an action drama) and built a dry, dense dramaturgy both essential in scene movements and effective in lyric-musical moments, proving once more that drama, libretto and music must be complementary and inseparable in staging an opera. In Tosca, the theatrical potential is already in the music and text and, like Michelangelo with marble, Mangini was brilliant at pulling it out to develop a dramatic action, especially in rendering the psychological dynamics between the protagonists: the scenes were never static, as they always had a direction, a purpose and above all one could feel the urgency of the action.

The setting was quite traditional: scenes and costumes by Fabio Arbetti were historically accurate as well as beautifully made, such as Tosca's brocade dresses, Scarpia's gentleman's breeches and the vestments of the priests in the procession of the "Te Deum", whose visual splendour was powerful as for size, colours and for the overall impression of equilibrium in the composition.

The baroque scenography, with the help of some video projections, added to the disquieting sense of the action, like an impending threat which materializes in the tragedy that takes place in the second and third acts.

As for the singers, Maria Josè Siri displayed her dramatic skills as Tosca when her voice grew heart-breaking as the character became more and more desperate. Her timbre was beautiful, expressive and clear, with well-calibrated low notes and a confident and refined emission. Her "Vissi d'arte" was sung with true sentiment: the drama and the passion with which the soprano rendered it were rewarded by the public with a request for an encore.

Applause and requests for encores also greeted "E lucevan le stelle" by Gustavo Porta, who offered an overall effective performance, even though his voice lacked the sentimental and intimate vein that would serve to complete the characterisation. Porta had a secure presence and was convincing when he was the victim of Scarpia's torture; and in the moments before his execution at dawn he sang his aria with an emotionally sustained tone, and a full and expressive voice: in short, the prototype of the tenor with an imposing voice who likes to keep the notes wide, demonstrating power and physicality. However, some lyrical nuances that one would expect here and there from the character were lacking.

Vocally, Sergey Murzaev's Scarpia was rich in colour and sound. Very experienced in the role, his voice was imposing, refined and expressive. Murzaev was as wicked and brutal as the character should be, but still managed to convey, in one with his impatient lust, an almost impalpable but perceptible sense of tenderness and affection for Tosca.

Of the minor characters, Carlo Striuli  sang the role of Cesare Angelotti and Angelo Nardinocchi was the Sacristan, both showing excellent and effective voices. Enzo Peroni, Maurizio Bove and Massimo Rizzi performed with skill in the roles of Spoletta and Sciarrone and the jailer respectively.

The overall success of the evening was equally due to the director and the conductor, Daniel Oren, who offered a strong reading of the score, often gloomy, sometimes nimble, never lacklustre; Oren exhibited his usual expressive, exuberant and stimulating conducting, also finding some really striking sonorities in the score, particularly when Scarpia's death is discovered. Puccini’s music is clearly an important part of this musician’s DNA.

As always, the Chorus of the Opera Theater of Salerno, prepared by Tiziana Carlini, was in exceptional shape, on this occasion flanked by the lively voices of the Children's Choir, with the little shepherd boy well sung by Ayshey Husanait.