Tosca on the Edge: The Glimmerglass Opera, 2010, by Seth Lachterman

800px-view_of_the_tiber_lookin
Castel Sant'Angelo (with St. Peter's in distance) where Tosca leaps to her death

Tosca

Music By Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illiaca and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on the play by Victorien Sardou

David Angus, Conductor

;  Ned Canty, Director; Donald Eastman,Sets; Matthew Pachtman, Costumes; Jeff Harris, Lighting; Zachary Schwartzman, Assistant Conductor; Richard K. Blanton,Assistant DirectorJeanne-Minette Cilliers, Principal Coach/Accompanist; Ming Kwong, Assistant Coach/Accompanist;Richard K. Blanton, Stage Manager; Anne Ford-Coates, Hair and Makeup Design

Cast

Floria Tosca, Lise Lindstrom
Mario Cavaradossi, Adam Diegel
Baron Scarpia, Lester Lynch
Cesare Angelotti, Aaron Sorensen
Sacristan, Robert Kerr
Spoletta, Dominick Rodriguez
Sciarrone, Zachary Nelson
Shepherd, Xi Wang
Jailer, Jonathan Lasch

The great scandal surrounding the Met’s 2010 production of Tosca seemed to be a hyperbolic reaction to the palpably conflicting musical and psychological currents of Puccini’s darkest opera.  Joseph Kerman’s famous dismissal of it as a “shabby little shocker” is at least one-third correct: shocking it is. Yet, swathing those nasty bits with the sounds and imagery of the Catholic liturgy – Puccini’s innovative use of Latin plainchant, modal counterpoint, carillons and chimes, vaulted church interiors, ritratti della Madonna, and the spectacle of worship – is the primary way Puccini projects a creepy sense of moral and psychological irony and repression throughout. The character of Tosca – passionate, obtuse in her petty jealousies and perception of others, at times cloyingly pious and self-righteous – is sometimes at odds with the lush, gorgeous music the composer gives her. Throughout this work, Puccini mixes a brew of seedy lasciviousness, human weakness, and the hopelessness of piety, all with beautiful and memorable music. The three or four arias and duets that emerge as “set” pieces (well shrouded in Puccini’s experimentation with through-composition) have immortalized this work for over a century.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review for the Arts!

Michael Miller