![]() Her role certainly comes with challenges: Tosca is meant to embrace both ardor and morality, to be explosive and a devout Catholic, deeply naive about the vast corruption of the Roman papal state. ![]() Musically, it's a brassy, bold outing led by a veteran soprano. Lovers of old-school epic Italian aria will still cheer Jonathan Kent's new staging the classic - as indeed they did on opening night. Yet his endeavours to dominate both his victim and her lover in a vast, nightmarish library setting, in which bookcases conceal torture chambers, somehow conveys neither passion nor menace. He has Tosca's lover arrested in order to entrap her in a role, again, sung masterfully by Welsh bass-baritone-bass Bryn Terfel. She turns up the flame in the second act as she takes on a the corrupt police commander Scarpia, a pious hypocrite of a heavy who offers holy water to the objects of his fancies. However, it sometimes feels as though the audience for this Tosca is applauding as much for the institution of the Royal Opera as for the performances themselves.Ī troubling example is the nominally fiery, jealous Tosca, the heroine on whose rages the whole work turns, sung with skill by Kristine Opolais. The substantial investment required for a Covent Garden opera ticket should entitle you to a bold if not breathtaking production, that properly blasts the stalls and tiered balconies of the fabulously ornate main hall. ![]() The Royal Opera's new rendition of the Puccini classic doesn't take chances on outlandish characterisations or anachronisms, preferring to bet on monumental set pieces that will awe traditional fans and performances that are musically tone perfect if not always stirring.
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