UK Edition
Review
Routine approach to a familiar old warhorse - Tosca, Grange Park Opera, West Horsley Place, review
If the country were run by people with Wasfi Kani’s force of personality, it wouldn’t be in the pickle it is today, and we should celebrate her truly astonishing achievement in steering her way through Green Belt planning laws and getting a brand-new opera house up and running – all within a space of less than two years, and for less than £10 million. Although still short of refinements, the building, designed by Tim Ronalds, is intelligently laid out and smoothly functional, with steeply tiered seating and a bright acoustic. In the great tradition of the English summer garden-party, the first-night organisation was all a bit damp and improvised, but Blitz spirit carried us all through, and I am sure the glitches in the "visitor experience" will soon be ironed out.
I have to admit to more disappointment in the opening production. Summer opera festivals should be platforms for exceptional quality, unusual repertory and daring experiment: all we got here was a bog-standard account of that familiar old warhorse Tosca, distinguished in no department and occasionally bordering on the bathetic. It wasn’t positively bad, but it just wasn’t good enough.
The big draw was Joseph Calleja, playing Cavaradossi for what I believe was the first time. He is no great shakes as an actor, but he sang here with all the buzzing vibrancy, ease and warmth that are his trademarks – some imaginatively coloured moments in "E lucevan le stelle" were the evening’s brightest vocal spot. Roland Wood’s saturnine Scarpia radiated bad temper rather than pure evil: perhaps he could have done more had Ekaterina Metlova’s Tosca not been so mousey and bland. This young Russian soprano has a powerful and strident VOICE that hit all the notes fair and square, but she comported herself more like a girl from the typing pool than the imperious prima donna who also remains a superstitious peasant. Peter Relton’s utility staging, resourcefully designed by Francis O’Connor and updated to Mussolini’s Italy, had no special points to make, and Gianluca Marciano’s competent conducting of the BBC Concert Orchestra wasn’t more than routine either.
Perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth and a soft heart - La Rondine, Opera Holland Park, review
Neither Cavaradossi’s torture, Scarpia’s murder, nor Tosca’s death leap struck a spark of excitement; the highest drama of the evening was undoubtedly the moment when Jonathan Dimbleby appeared spotlit in front of the curtain before Act 3 to announce the Exit Polls. Until July 2, in rep with Jenufa and Die Walküre.
Tickets: 01962 737373; grangeparkopera.co.uk