TOSCA made it's London debut at Covent Garden in 1900 and Puccini's tragic, headstrong heroine has swept across it's stage practically every year since then, interestingly the only two noticeable breaks were in the periods during the two World Wars.
Giacomo Puccini and his librettist clashed during it's writing as the composer wanted to strip back Sardou's original play, cutting his five-act drama to three acts; Puccini succeeded and the opera is remarkable in it's through-line - cutting through the usual operatic padding to tell the tragic tale of the diva Floria Tosca and her Republican lover Caravadossi who fall foul to the machinations of chief of police Scarpia in the tinderbox atmosphere of Rome in summer, 1800 as Napoleon's army advances..
Jonathan Kent's production was first seen in 2006 and again I find it remarkable that his theatre productions from that era are lost in time but his opera production is still seen 12 years on. Be that as it may, Kent rose to the challenge excellently; he said at the time "What I admire about it, quite apart from the thrilling music, is its theatre craft ... It's a taut, sinewy melodrama, exquisitely put together. There isn't an ounce of flesh on it ... That's what interested me: to find a way within that hurtling narrative to examine the relationships and its themes of sex, power and death".
Sadly the production now stands as a tribute to the designer Paul Brown who died last November. His wonderful designs for TOSCA have an epic quality to them - his Act 1 Sant'Andrea della Valle chapel is wonderfully realized especially in the Te Deum scene, with the front-stage occupied by Scarpia in the gloomy chapel while above and behind it, the main church is ablaze with light as a mass is sung to celebrate the alleged defeat of Napoleon.
His Act 2 palazzo apartment for Scarpia is dominated by a huge statue of a conquering figure with drawn sword which, of course, mirrors the later action where Tosca kills Scarpia, and his Act 3 battlements for the Castel Sant'Angelo were stark and dramatic - oddly enough I missed the huge sweeping wing across the top of the set which references the enormous statue of the avenging angel atop the building (I've been there you know!).
Mark Henderson's lighting was wonderfully evocative as well, particularly towards the end of Act 2 in the pinpoints of candle-light in Scarpia's palazzo room while the Covent Garden orchestra made Puccini's score come to resounding life under the baton of Dan Ettinger.
Canadian Adrianne Pieczonka played Tosca with a willful passion although I think the English National Opera's Keri Alkema edged her for performance. However her singing of Tosca's great aria "Vissi d'arte" was quite lovely. Maltese singer Joseph Calleja gave a robust performance as Caravadossi with an equally marvellous rendition of "And The Stars Shone" in the last act. Gerald Finley from Canada was a very hissable Scarpia and fully deserved the panto boos he got at his curtain call!
I think I still have a way to go to fully appreciating opera but TOSCA is now a firm favourite.
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