EVIL LUST AND DESPAIR IN ROYAL OPERA’S TOSCA

¨How can you fail with Tosca? … If you fail with Tosca, then there is something incredibly wrong¨, Sir Bryn Terfel told me recently. The Welsh bass-baritone is currently performing at Royal Opera Covent Garden in Jonathan Kent’s revived staging of Tosca. Fortunately there is not much wrong with this rather conservative, but very effective interpretation of Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece. Despite this being another revival of a revival production, so to say, it still always holds my attention, thanks to some very solid casting, great sets and one of the country’s best orchestras.

Bryn Terfel is an original cast member of this production, which Jonathan Kent staged in 2006. Surely Terfel has sung the role hundreds of times and must be the most experienced, still active, interpreter on the planet of the sadistic, much dreaded Chief of Police. Terfel is not one for doing a routine job and I don’t mind his little mannerisms or facial expression here and there, ‘borrowed’ as they are from the great Tito Gobbi, who he freely admits to have studied in the filmed performance with Maria Callas in the title role. Terfel’s Scarpia wears his hair long and scruffy and it helps that Terfel is physically imposing. He acts with feigned civility towards Tosca (Natalya Romaniw) in Act I, while expertly stirring up her jealousy, as if he ‘d studied Iago closely. The Te Deum scene that follows is artfully lit like an Italian baroque painting while the choristers, clerics and the cardinal sing at the high altar. They’re towering above the chapel where Scarpia, while looking for the escaped political prisoner Angelotti, has been distracted by the fiery opera singer Floria Tosca. She turns out to be the perfect decoy for Scarpia’s henchmen who follow her to the republican Angelotti’s hiding place. Terfel’s Scarpia can barely contain his excitement and lust for her, to the extent that when he joins in with the choir singing the rejoicing hymn it feels like, uhem, a  spiritual ejaculation. In the Second Act Scarpia, while extolling the beauty of Tosca, explains that ¨God created diverse beauties diverse wines, I will taste as much as I can¨ . You can sense Scarpia greedily savouring both pleasures at once, as Terfel sings the aria Ha piu forte sapor.

The South Korean tenor SeokJong Baek was still classified as a baritone two years ago and his forceful voice bares witness of it. His wide range and lyrical tone colour are equally impressive, but would Cavaradossi’s challenging high notes and slightly awkward opening aria cause him problems? Yes, early on in the Recondita armonia aria I felt that his vibrato was a tad excessive, due (possibly) to his vocal chords not yet being warmed up. But as the act progressed his voice started to sound properly rounded and he had no problems maintaining the high register throughout. Cleverly Puccini introduces E lucevan le stelle, Cavaradossi’s Third Act I’m-about-to-get-killed aria, with a melancholy prelude composed for cellos and violas. Cavaradossi’s heroic defiance hasn’t really achieved much, but just before facing the firing squad he remembers the fragrance of his garden, Tosca’s tender caresses, until he realises that his ¨dream of love¨ has vanished and that all that he’s left is E muoio disperato! ( die in despair).

Designer Paul Brown (who died in 2017) made a valuable contribution to the staging. In the First Act double stairs are leading up to forbiddingly high metal railings at the back of the altar. In the dungeon (well, it’s really supposed to be a chapel) Cavaradossi is painting massive mural, depicting a rather pensive looking blue-eyed blonde, who doesn’t resemble Tosca (which causes her to be jealous). The Palazzo Farnese, in the Second Act, turns out to hide a torture chamber behind a bookcase. But it is the enormous statue of the Archangel Michael, sheathing his sword, that dominates the room. The Third Act takes place under a starry sky on the roof of Castel Sant’Angelo, where the real statue of St. Michael to this days supposedly protects the people of Rome from the plague (that is Scarpia?).

SeokJong subtly packs layers of emotions into the aria and concludes E non ho amato mai tanto la vita! (Never have I loved life so dearly). SeokJong is charmingly ingenuous in the first scene with Tosca, but already veristic and armored with Verdian heroics in the Second Act’s torture scene. Is he convinced by Tosca’s claim that there is going to be a mock execution and that Scarpia signed a letter of safe conduct? Probably not, because Cavardossi matures quickly during the course of the opera, and SeokJong appears shocked rather than triumphant that Tosca has killed Scarpia with her own ¨sweet hands¨.

 

SeokJong and Natalya Romaniw (Tosca) are a convincing pair, not least because they correspond in age. In Act I Tosca, jealous of the blue-eyed model in the painting,  asks Cavardossi twice to give her dark eyes (like Tosca’s). Romaniw and SeokJong twice manage to generate a laugh from this line. Romaniw has appeared in a previous revival of this production and she has also sung Tosca with various major German opera companies. She has a voice  like panna cotta, aromatized with coffee. Yes, that’s a silly analogy, but she does possess a sweet, lyrical upper register, and she can just as easily express all the bitter, dark and earthy tones that Tosca explores. In Scarpia’s chamber in Act II, the drama comes to a head and Romaniw pulls out all the stops; first in the Vittoria scene and then in the heart-wrenching aria Vissi d’Arte. Romaniw’s minute attention to detail is admirable and equally impressive is her breath control, which is difficult to master in this very slow plea for mercy. The audience cheers her rendition enthusiastically, but Bryn Terfel’s Scarpia responds with a sarcastic slow clap. My one criticism is really more of a challenge that I would set the singer. Romaniw is almost too much in control of her voice throughout. The second Act can do with a little bit of (acted) rawness. Just like Terfel at times almost growls in the role of Scarpia, I think one can allow Tosca to be a bit more of a loose cannon.

This was the South Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim’s debut at Royal Opera and she was in no mood to tarry. The brass section in the magnificent Te Deum overpowered Scarpia a little bit too early and there were a couple of other instances where possibly over-enthusiasm  and first night nerves led to the orchestra overwhelming the singers.  Le campane suonano mattutino, the prelude of Act III with the slightly out-of-tune bells setting the scene, only ever makes sense in the theatre and Eun Sun Kim made it work to perfection. In general the orchestra and the singers came together most beautifully in the Second and Third Act.

As stated earlier, this is a conservative interpretation with little stress put on the politics that form the backdrop to the straightforward plot. In the end nobody really wins in Puccini’s superbly adapted (from an original story by Victorien Sardou),  brilliantly orchestrated and very well sung opera.

I interviewed Bryn Terfel and in my podcast he talks about his inspiration for Scarpia, the Coronation weekend and why singing Mozart is so important is so important at the start of  your career.  Many other subjects are also discussed. Listen to the podcast  here

 

SEEN @Royal Opera Covent Garden 26 November 2024

You can find all the details about the remaining performances here