Anna Netrebko - Tosca Wolfgang Koch - Scarpia Yusif Eyvazov - Mario
I watched Tosca from the Wiener Staatsoper where they aired another live performance with no audience. My interest was to see how Anna is singing after her bout with COVID19. Vocally I found her in top form. Physically I thought she has not really fully recovered. No climbing on the furniture in this performance.
It was not my favorite Tosca. There are wonderful ones everywhere you look. The absence of an audience still seems weird to me.
Director: Marco Armeliato Production: Margarethe Wallmann
Tosca Sondra Radvanovsky Mario Piotr Beczala Scarpia Thomas Hampson
This production of Puccini's Tosca at the Vienna State Opera is very popular. I can see why. In Act I the church shows members of the Swiss Guard. I was going to question this when I remembered we are in period, the time of Napoleon, when Rome was ruled by Naples. I associate the Swiss Guard only with Vatican City. Perhaps the Bishop of Rome is attending.
This performance is from last year. I love Sondra in this. She dominates her male partners. She sings and acts with such wonderful intensity. Tosca is a diva of the greatest quality, and should seem so.
There is a lot to like here. Unless I am hallucinating, Piotr gets a bis for "E lucevan le stelle." Cool. I don't seem to tire of Tosca as long as it's new people each time.
Conductor - Riccardo Frizza
Director - Jose Maria Condemi
Mario Cavaradossi - Brian Jagde
Floria Tosca - Lianna Haroutounian
Baron Scarpia - Mark Delavan
When this performance of Tosca first played in San Francisco in 2014, I must have missed it. It is being streamed today from the San Francisco Opera. I saw Brian sing Cavaradossi in Santa Fe in 2012, and may have felt it was to soon to see him again.
There are some fun things in this production. From the evidence, Tosca seems to be the most conservatively dressed female in all of Rome. In the Te Deum we have men in uniforms of the Swiss guards. In Act II we see that the walls are painted with figures, as they would be in the Palazzo Farnese, but the lighting is too dim to allow us to see them. In general they have done a wonderful job of creating the atmosphere of Rome. A little more light would have been nice.
Mark Delavan is fine but not really snarly enough for Scarpia who needs to project evil in the sound of his voice. But then I've seen Thomas Hampson in the role, and he isn't snarly at all.
Brian is lovely, handsome and romantic. Better than at Santa Fe. And Lianna Haroutounian plays the Diva with charm and intense jealousy. She's trying to make the best of a bad situation, and ultimately fails. She presents the varied emotions of the character vividly. I like her very much. She is why you would want to see this. She crosses herself before jumping. Of course.
I wanted to see Tosca, but the recent one from the Met is too soon for me. Besides it was just ok. I looked around and found this amazing one from the Wiener Staatsoper 2016.
Conductor: Jesus Lopez Cobos
Stage Designer: Nicola Benois
Tosca: Angela Gheorghiu,
Cavaradossi: Jonas Kaufmann,
Scarpia: Bryn Terfel
Bryn is astounding. I've seem him in a variety of roles--Falstaff, Méphistophélès, Figaro, Wotan, etc. --, but this is not the Bryn I know. He roars and terrifies. Perhaps Scarpia should always be like this. He's peeling fruit while he interviews Cavaradossi.
Jonas is the great romantic hero of our time, and is perfect in this role. He receives extended applause for his aria at the beginning of the third act. In fact he gets an encore here. This is the performance where Angela missed her cue. I'm very surprised they left it in. Maybe you could get an edited version. Because it's funny but spoils an otherwise fabulous performance.
I recommend this. All are on the same page, with great intensity and beautiful singing.
Conductor - Riccardo Chailly,
Director - Davide Livermore
Anna Netrebko - Tosca
Francesco Meli - Cavaradossi
Luca Salsi - Scarpia
This production of Tosca for the opening of La Scala is constantly in motion. All the required elements are in place when required, but after they swiftly disappear. Why is this necessary?
Anna's Tosca may not be the best sung ever heard, but no one plays the diva to her level. She knows how to flaunt her goods as possibly no other Tosca before her. She is aided by the blocking: after she has given a flower to the madonna, she later takes it back. So it's the thought that counts?
The second act takes place in the Palazzo Farnese which in real life is decorated with elaborate wall paintings. Instead of paintings, we have live people standing in boxes above the stage. This seems exhausting. If you were in the house, you might have missed this, but the cameras show mouths moving and so forth. And when our girl is saying "mori" to Scarpia, she is choking him to death. Three stabs were not enough. She seems to regret it, though.
Luca Salsi as Scarpia is rather more friendly than I have seen. I will assume that Netrebko did not complain. He makes a wonderful, very slimy Scarpia.
Meli is ok. He doesn't usually rise above ok. He's cute. There are a lot of gimmicks in this production. In the end Tosca "goes to god" by floating upwards. I'm not sure the gimmicks enhance the overall emotion. I seem to always enjoy Netrebko. I think it is her natural intensity.
P.S. I forgot to mention that this was the original, longer version of Tosca, also called the critical edition. In fact here is a reference to the critical edition from Ricordi. This comes with a picture of Netrebko.
Floria Tosca
Angel Blue
La Prima Donna
Catherine Malfitano
Mario Cavaradossi
Joseph Calleja
Il barone Scarpia
Alexey Markov
Cesare Angelotti
Simon Shibambu
Il sagrestano
Leonardo Galeazzi
I was curious about the Tosca from the Aix-en-Provence Festival. It was advertised to have two Toscas. Well. If you have spent enough time in show business, you recognize that this is a rehearsal being held in the home of the great Tosca from the past Catherine Malfitano. She is most famous for her part in the movie of Tosca with Placido Domingo filmed entirely in Rome in the real places identified in the score. Her home is filled with memorabilia from this great performance.
At the end of Act I instead of kneeling before the altar, they kneel before the picture of Catherine. Angel Blue sings Tosca but plays herself. She is coached by Catherine. It's chaotic. Most professionals know how to behave better than this. Perhaps they're students. The chorus members mob around the great lady, seriously scaring her.
After the first act, the feed begins to buzz loudly and does not stop until after Act II has started. Instead of disappearing from view when they are not in the scene, everyone goes off into another part of the apartment. Do we go to the opera to see people being themselves? I think not.
Angel sings the big aria "Vissi d'arte" in her jeans, and suddenly we find ourselves in an homage to all the great Toscas, beginning with Callas and going on to Caballe, Verrett, Tibaldi, and ending with Catherine herself in her prime. Today's Catherine confers the ultimate compliment--she gives Angel the Tosca costume to wear. It was well done. It asked for comparisons and we consented.
I didn't mind at all the mixing of reality and performance. It worked much better than La Sonnambula from the Met. The Diva is overcome with her real emotions. I have to say I think Angel could have handled the role quite well on her own. I ended up liking it very much.
Conductor: Christoph Campestrini
Director: Mark Streshinsky
Tosca: Alexandra Loutsion, soprano
Mario: Marco Cammarota, tenor
Scarpia: Philip Skinner, bass-baritone
This time the list of people involved in last night's semi-staged performance of Puccini's Tosca at Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera exactly matches the picture above the list. Our conductor was here last season to present a program of Italian music. Mark Streshinsky directs operas for West Edge. Our Tosca and Mario are new for me, but Philip Skinner (sometimes Philip, sometimes Phil) is a regular at West Edge in the San Francisco Bay Area where he has a following. I have seen him before in seven different operas, including the by now famous Lulu.
The conducting was good. View screens of the conductor were placed at the sides of the stage, as at Covent Garden, but I didn't notice anyone looking at them. As a semi-staged performance, the orchestra was at the back of the stage with a staging area at the front. Each act had an arrangement of furniture to make the set. The singers' proximity to the front of the stage made me more aware of the fine points of the plot than ever before. I don't remember noticing before that the current government was celebrating the defeat of Napolean, when at the end it is announced that Napolean has won and is moving toward Rome.
Phil went loud and domineering with his Scarpia. He is extremely good at this and received loud booing at the end. How much can one write about Tosca? I have reviewed it 9 times before. The singing was lovely, especially Alexandra. They followed the current fad of "Vissi d'arte" starting with Tosca lying on something. It was nevertheless beautiful.
Extremely interesting to me was Scott Levin (normally billed as E. Scott Levin?) who played the Sacristan who appears only at the beginning of the opera. His voice is extremely full and beautiful.
If we aren't to get a fully staged opera, this semi-staged one was good.
Now wasn't that interesting. I'm talking about the new McVicar production of Puccini's Tosca in HD from the Metropolitan Opera. It was originally supposed to star Jonas Kaufmann, Kristine Opolais and Bryn Terfel, and its conductor would have been Andris Nelsons. So everyone is completely different. And now I'm going to be frank: I don't think anyone from the original cast could have improved on today's spectacular performance. So thank you all for finding something else to do today. Emmanuel Villaume replaced James Levine in turn and did well.
First of all let's talk about the production which is a replacement for the unpopular Bondy production, which in turn replaced Franco Zeffirelli. Act I is remarkably similar to Zeffirelli. It takes place in a church in Rome which anyone may visit. Act II takes place in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome which is now the French embassy and cannot be casually visited. Unfortunately for me, my collection of books includes a photo collection of Palazzo Farnese. This means I know exactly what it actually looks like. None of these productions even remotely resemble it, but perhaps an exact portrayal would be distracting. The McVicar is like Palazzo Farnese seen by someone extremely near sighted.
The third act shows us the roof of the Castel Sant'Angelo pretty much as it actually is. Why try to improve on perfection? For me all three of these sets, though large and difficult to assemble, functioned well as background for our story. It's traditional and fuddy duddy, but for me it works.
Which brings us to our singers. Scarpia is the slimiest of slimy villain baritones, and Zeljko Lucic knows how to turn on his dark side. His voice is also good.
Vittorio Grigolo as Cavaradossi is right in his element. His beautiful Italian overacting seems like it was made for Tosca. You believe in his passion for his beloved as never before. I enjoyed all three of his arias, but especially "O dolci mani." [Oh sweet hands.]
While interviewing Sonya Yoncheva, Isabel Leonard exclaimed, "You are very brave!" In this performance series Sonya made her debut as Tosca. That means she has never performed Tosca before. A debut in a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera and on the HD series. Yes. Very brave indeed. I have heard her only a few times, and this seems the role that most suits her dark voice. You will have noticed by now that I love best the dark voices. For my ears her sound most resembles Callas of anyone I have heard. Today she was simply glorious. Viva Yoncheva. I added her name to the singers list at the left.
There's a film currently on YT of Tosca from the Wiener Staatsoper with Anja Harteros & Jorge de León. It doesn't tell who the Scarpia is. I wasn't particularly wild about the tenor but very much enjoyed Anja's idea of Tosca. She is the first Tosca I've seen that made you feel you were watching a famous opera singer. It's as though she herself murdered Scarpia. She behaves as though she expected people to be constantly watching her. She is ever self-consciously melodramatic. She moves like an actress. And in act III when she instructs Mario how to die, she demonstrates like a director with a very theatrical fall to the floor. This is the Tosca of imagination. #ad
Gradually this has become my favorite version of this aria. Anja's version is the inner Tosca, the real woman who has lived for art and love and does not understand why the Madonna has turned against her. Armiliato is with her in every note.
The film I posted before is gone. This one is more recent.
Angelotti: Richard Bernstein Sacristan: John Del Carlo Cavaradossi: Roberto Alagna Tosca: Patricia Racette Scarpia: George Gagnidze Spoletta: Eduardo Valdes Sciarrone: James Courtney Shepherd: Seth Ewing-Crystal Jailer: Ryan Speedo Green
Saturday was Tosca live from the Metropolitan Opera. The Met is into stunt doubles these days. For instance, this famous scene from Das Rheingold is done by two stunt doubles:
One of the biggest criticisms of this production of Tosca the first time around was the scene at the end where Tosca jumps. It looked like they threw a large rag doll out the window. It's a bit of a leap for a soprano, quite a bit higher than Senta's leap in Flying Dutchman in San Francisco. So this time they used a stunt double. She looked fabulous. There was also a stunt double at the beginning to stand in for Angelotti when he climbs down the wall in the church. This one was very smooth.
There is still a lot more to criticize here. I defy you to find a church that drab anywhere in Rome. Even the Protestant church is fancier than that. But this is all old news.
I especially liked Roberto here. He looks and sounds very good right now and was only occasionally off the pitch, never seriously. Racette is always a good singer and a marvelous, multidimensional actress. We enjoyed the enthusiasm when she stabbed Scarpia. This is her year.
We were interested in Scarpia sung by George Gagnidze. He had a translator in his interview, and we couldn't tell what language he was speaking. He is from Georgia and received a rousing boo when he appeared for his bow. This is supposed to be good, but I wasn't sure he understood that. He made an excellent villain.
Opera Quiz. What's the other opera where they shoot off a cannon from the Castel Sant'Angelo? Answer at the end.
The Tosca from the San Francisco Opera is very much a traditional production. The sets don't literally portray the locations, but they do strongly suggest them. In Santa Fe we had a reproduction of an actual painting from the Palazzo Farnese, but in San Francisco there is just the idea of a frescoed room in an Italian palazzo. And it is best not to stare too long at photos of the Castel Sant'Angelo trying to figure out how Tosca could possibly have jumped from it. We are on the roof facing Saint Peters, as always.
The person sitting next to me said that this was her first Tosca. I told her at the end that she should always compare Tosca with this one. It was very nice indeed.
Tosca is wearing her traditional trains, and Angela Gheorghiu, our Tosca, flings them around to keep from falling over them. I always remember Marie Collier in this role, viewed from about where I currently sit, avoiding her train in an almost magical way. Angela made it all the way through in good voice and great style, altogether a very satisfying Tosca. She placed the candles just as she should. You believed completely when she stood over Scarpia shouting "mori"--die.
Roberto Frontali is a crude, sadistic Scarpia. We aren't sorry when he dies.
Massimo Giordano looks exactly as he should. He could sound better. Should I give him advice? I am always curious that none of the Italian tenors seem to be imitating Luciano. Brighten the vowels, open the throat. You will be glorious.
I asked the woman next to me what else she had seen. She liked Moby-Dick. The feeling of actually being on a ship was very powerful.
In Tosca the cannon is fired from the Castel Sant'Angelo to announce that a prisoner has escaped. In Benvenuto Cellini the cannon is fired to announce the end of Carnivale.
This picture in a somewhat wider and more decrepit version is the decoration for Act II of Tosca at the Santa Fe Opera. Its title is "Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne" by Annibale Carracci, and it is indeed in the Pallazzo Farnese in Rome. Only there it's on the ceiling while here it's on the wall. A lot of that sort of thing goes on in this production. (Please note the tie-in to Dionysus in King Roger. This cannot be a coincidence.)
This shot shows the inside of the church dome with Cavaradossi's painting lying on the floor for Act I. People walk all over it. Bizarre. And who are these lovely people? Brian Jagde sang Cavaradossi and Amanda Echalaz was Tosca, both big soaring, romantic Puccini singers. Amanda was best in the intense scenes, and I liked very much her "Vissi d'arte."
Brian is a replacement for the arranged singer. I knew the name sounded very familiar. He has been an Adler Fellow for 3 years, and he just won Operalia (I even managed to remember this.) He needs to work this role into his voice more completely before he sings it in San Francisco in November.
The third person in this production was Thomas Hampson as Scarpia. He is very sophisticated and casual about his evilness. A lot of women think Hampson is very handsome, so what exactly is Tosca's problem? We may never know the answer. He died with a lot of flailing around. He was booed in the bows and made a comical gesture--Moi?
Opera productions of the most popular operas become like established rituals. The picture hangs here, Scarpia dies here, Tosca jumps here, but occasionally it is interesting to see something slightly different. It is nice not to have to explain the opera.
I think I was in Germany having a wonderful time when Tosca was simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera in 2009. The other night it appeared on my local PBS station, so I put it on my DVR and watched it today.
The production was booed at the premier. Tosca is set in famous places, two of which any tourist can visit. Only the Villa Farnese is closed to the public. Anyone knows what it's all supposed to look like. In this production it's all dark and somber instead of brilliant and festive like real Italian churches and villas. But so what? The opera is quite somber. There are some odd touches: Mary Magdalene whom Cavaradossi is painting has one of her breasts showing, and Scarpia has some girls over for a visit. At the end you can see that something is leaping from the window above just before the lights go out. This all seems pretty mild to me, especially after the recent odd Werther in SF. But then people love a scandal.
The stars of this production were soprano Karita Mattila as Tosca, tenor Marcelo Alvarez as Cavaradossi, and baritone George Gagnidze as Scarpia. People love Marcelo, and it is easy to see why. He is cute, passionate, warm and very stylish for Puccini. George is quite nasty with his huge, dark voice.
Can I say it? I don't enjoy to write a pan. Mario describes Floria as gentle. I don't see the gentle Tosca in Karita Mattila's performance. And I don't feel Puccini in her phrasing. She is hysterical and unnuanced. The audience stood for Marcelo so they were still up for Karita.
The sound in my living room was not nearly as good as in the movie theater. This is all very after the fact. Listen to a little Callas.
I was fascinated by this production of Tosca in Sacramento and spent the third act obsessing over the lighting. In the program we are told that the action takes place close to midsummer on June 17, 1800. If it is dawn at the Castel Sant'Angelo and I am facing St. Peters which could be seen in the background, the sun will rise behind me and somewhat to the left, and not from the left front as seen here. Never mind. Non e importante.
The director created business for the minor characters that I've never seen before. The flunky who carries out Scarpia's orders appears at the execution, telegraphing that Tosca will be betrayed. The Marchessa Attavanti becomes a character in the drama. We see her planting the key under the statue, we see her slapped by Scarpia at the beginning of Act II, and we see her executed atop the Castel Sant'Angelo where she sings the shepherd music just before being strangled. This last bit isn't exactly obvious, but there is no credit for the shepherd role in the program, and there is one for the Marchessa Attavanti, someone usually only talked about. She was sung by Rebecca Plack.
The director, Mark Streshinsky, is the husband of our Tosca, Marie Plette. They live in the Bay Area. The program is full of information telling us that she prefers the role of Butterfly. Nevertheless, she is a fine full-voiced, appropriately melodramatic Tosca. I personally admire Tosca much more than Butterfly. Tosca loves, she believes, she acts, and fate brings her down.
Have I ever seen a better Scarpia, a more completely loathsome Scarpia than the Scarpia of Rod Nelman? His edgy, unpretty baritone is just right for this slimy portrayal. The audience enthusiastically booed him in the bows.
Dinyar Vania was our Mario. I believed him as a romantic hero and admired his beautiful voice. He should work on his legato. His voice slips out of the phrase often enough to be annoying. If he stopped doing this, he would be fabulous. He fell marvelously, as though he had taken Tosca's advice to heart.
Tosca jumped off the parapet downstage, something I've never seen.
Jean and I were watching the Tosca movie with Placido Domingo and Catherine Malfitano, and Jean said "Dump that woman!" This was a terrible shock. "But Jean, Mario is the one who drags them down by getting involved in politics. If he dumps Tosca, he's still dead."
I love Catherine Malfitano's Tosca. She is so wonderfully out there. Tosca is supposed to be an opera singer. She is maddeningly jealous and passionate. And she leaps to her death in style.
This movie is famous for the wonderful cinematography used to film the locations in Rome. But it isn't just for pictures--the singing and acting are also very fine. #ad
My stars must have been arranged perfectly today. I decided that today was the day I would finally go to the Washington National Opera. I knew they were doing Tosca, but I didn't know who would be singing. "Tosca is hard to completely mess up," I thought. "I should like it."
Quite by accident I was treated to Salvatore Licitra singing Cavaradossi. All I can say is this is what opera is supposed to be. It's a mature voice (he's about 37), a big voice, a voice that never needs to be pushed to make its full effect. The Sony standard biography points out that he has been working with Carlo Bergonzi. This is completely believable because he has the authentic Italian style, and where is there a better master of this style than Bergonzi? Opera is for giving you goose bumps, for making the hair stand up on the back of your neck, for making you cry. Today I had the true opera experience. He's a bit rough around the edges, but I'm not at all sure this isn't part of his charm.
There is something to be said for the idea of a singer managing an opera company. The Washington National Opera might also be called the Placido Domingo personal opera. People who donate belong to the Domingo Circle, for instance. Who better than Domingo to find the best singers from around the world? I noticed the performance was sold out.
Licitra was not perfectly matched with his Tosca, Ines Salazar, who possesses a voice that can only show power above the staff. The middle of her voice is somewhat soft, and when she and Licitra were singing together he overpowered her. The conductor, Leonard Slatkin, accompanied her voice with masterful discretion, keeping the orchestra consistently under control.
It seemed to me that the performance was well in tune with Salazar's limitations, emphasizing Tosca's sweetness and religious devotion over her dramatic actress qualities. In the second act she stabs Scarpia four times, washes her hands, and spends the long instrumental interval in prayer instead of the traditional silliness with the candles.
Juan Pons as Scarpia was his usual excellent self. He died a hard, very athletic death. Licitra also managed an expert somersault in the second act. There seems to have been a lot of physical business in this opera.
By the end of the opera you should have shouted at least once, preferably several times. When toward the end they proclaim how their souls will soar in light, you should weep for the cruelty of their fate. Ultimately you should have forgotten every other Tosca you have ever seen.
