New "Tosca" Tests Youthful Cast in Met-in-HD

By Marlies Wolf

Hardly! Tosca, Giacomo Puccini’s iconic opera, which takes place on an actual historically significant date, (June 17th 1800, during the Napoleonic Wars) has withstood many challenges. It triumphs each time, because it somehow has aspects relevant to whatever period in which it is performed. Premiered in Rome in 1900, it could not be more appropriate in 2018, with our current #MeToo problem.

The opera is based on Victorien Sardou’s play La Tosca, which was specifically written for Sarah Bernhardt. Puccini went to see her perform it in 1889. It deals with the passionate diva Floria Tosca and her lover, painter/patriot Mario Carravadossi, and the predatory Police Chief, Baron Scarpia, who schemes to have non-consensual (to say the least) sex with her. That is the bare-boned, theatrical plot of the libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, who also provided the libretti for the highly successful La Bohéme and Madama Butterfly.

Puccini, (1858-1924) a tremendously clever showman knew that this melodrama, distasteful supposedly for everyone who worked on it, was going to fascinate many an audience.

It is set in actual Roman locations – the magnificent church Sant’Andrea della Valle, the famed Pallazo Farnese and the infamous Castel Sant’Angelo. Dramatically featuring, ecstatic love, jealousy, lust, torture, patriotism, murder and suicide, it can compete with any of today’s explosive movies. It does so with a glorious score and truly exquisite taste, if it is not sabotaged by over-the-top-just-to-be-different-direction. The Sir David McVicar production, not as grandiose as Zeffirelli’s, certainly more fitting than the unattractive Bondy which elicited boos from the Met’s usually polite audience, pleases us with middle–of-the-Roman-settings by John MacFarlane. It cleverly manages to make us feel the huge size and height of the della Valle and certainly ranks favorably with the many magnificent DVD versions readily available on YouTube.

One of the most frequently produced of all operas all over the globe, the current casts of those DVD’s most often feature the top performers, Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann, who seem to own the parts. They are the most sought-after victims of various evil Scarpias, such as Bryn Terfel and Thomas Hampson.

The role of the diva, is a great favorite with many a soprano because, as diva Gheorghiu so charmingly verbalized in an interview prior to a Tosca performance: “I am playing myself.” It offers a rich range for the character musically and dramatically. And, what could be more romantic than the heroic, yet so vulnerable Caravadossi?

The Met produced its first Tosca within a year of the opera’s premiere in Rome, immediately casting it with its most famous performers. The list during the entire 20th Century truly includes the best the opera world had to offer. Possibly some of the people reading this review, may have been lucky enough to see/hear such greats as Tebaldi, Callas, Corelli, Pavarotti, or Domingo in the latter part of the 19-hundrens.

Besides being featured by every major opera house, Tosca is a staple of regional opera companies. Although there are some who consider it a bit vulgar, describing it famously as “a shabby little shocker,” everyone must admit that it, and La Bohéme, are the draft-horses which permit the existence of these very opera venues.

Admittedly it might have been glorious, had we been gifted with the supercast originally planned for New Year’s Eve and this Live-at-the-Met-in-HD transmission. Even though opera buffs watched with sorrow, as one after another super-star cancelled, it was no tragedy, to experience it with the current cast.

Kaufmann’s various cancellations have offered the already European-seasoned Vittorio Grigolo a solid Met career. Possibly to differentiate himself from the elegant Kaufmann interpretation, Grigolo plays his debut Caravadossi as a hotheaded, not overly intellectual champion. Young, attractive, with athletic ability, which he has shown so ably in last season’s well received performances, Grigolo here adds a general vocal performance to cement his rising stardom. The rendition of his 3rd-act “E lucevan le stellle,” as usual brought the house down. Frankly, I thought it undeserved. It was an over-the-top, exaggerated crowd-pleaser presentation.

The Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva debuting her much heralded Floria Tosca, lived up to the expectations of which we were convinced by earlier Met appearances. In her intermission interview with HD host, Isabel Leonard, she explained that McVicar’s idea was to stress the youth of the ill-fated pair; that she concurred, and admired Tosca’s spirited defense of her lover, having long wanted to play the dynamic part. Yoncheva is a clever actress with excellent timing. It is delightful that we are to see/hear her again in the upcoming HD performances of La Boheme and Luisa Miller.

But there were moments when I felt this Tosca should have been named “Scarpia.” The great Serbian baritone Zeljko Lucic seemed to steal the show. Here is a Scarpia truly to be feared. His entrance in act 1 sent shivers up one’s spine. His superb acting throughout was helped by a sly smile when pulling off some of his most cruel offenses. The creepy lust for Tosca truly painted a vivid picture of the period’s #MeToo existence. (I was also struck that Puccini obviously saw him as another Iago, even giving him a decided “Credo” aria). The Met has seen many excellent Scarpias. Lucic who has gifted us with superlative performances as Rigoletto and the Count de Luna, surely ranks with the best of them.

In general the acting of the entire company made this operatic melodrama come to life quite vividly. The “youth” stress was even carried out during the curtain-calls, with the entire company running to the front of the stage to accept the applause. As usual, the Met’s mighty orchestra, here under Emmanel Villaume’s baton, well deserved the bravos of the house, and those of the HD audience as well.

By all means enjoy the encore, of this Tosca Wednesday, Jan.31st 2018 at 1:00 PM.