In fact it was a rather tight-knit trio – Arteta had a superb rapport with both Gallo and Ilincai – a deserved nod to great casting. Gallo’s delivery of Te Deum at the end of Act I held its place against the strengths of Ilincai and Arteta. But Tosca is strong and plays to that weakness of Scarpia’s. His firm baritone voice is foreboding and unfaltering as he holds Tosca, telling her how he prefers to “conquer” women rather than romance them – a sick kind of aphrodisiac. Entre Gallo as the menacing Scarpia – you can’t help but dislike him. Those first impressions were deepened with strong performances by Luke Gabbedy as the mildly comic sacristan and Richard Anderson as the recently escaped Angelotti, bringing a heroic tone with his bass and excellent strength in the chorus.īut an opera is not complete without a villain. Teodor Ilincăi as Cavaradossi and Ainhoa Arteta as Tosca. She moves from sweet seduction and a lover’s jealously with Cavaradossi, to victim and manipulator in the face of police chief, Scarpia (Lucio Gallo), her vocal range and nuance shaping her character perfectly. Tosca is a heroine-dominated opera, and Arterta has no difficulty in pulling off the complex dramatic role. Ilincai, as Cavaradossi, launches into Recondita armonia (Hidden harmony) in the first Act with incredible penetrating power, soon followed by the duet Non la sospiri la nostra casetta (Do you not long for our little house) with Spanish soprano Ainhoa Arteta, setting the tone. Tosca delivers with dramatic explosion at every point. I love the dramatic – the theatric, even.’
Puccini wrote in 1907: ‘I don’t believe I could write anything other than opera. The contrast heightens the narrative framed by red Nazi banners, the stage becomes an ominous boardroom and the scene of war crimes.ĭramatic sets by Michael Scott-Mitchell make this production of Tosca Photo Prudence Upton Moving from that Baroque opulence of Act I, Scott-Mitchell delivers us into the stark world of Nazi Germany with Act II. The curtain rose on an incredible recreation of a Roman basilica – its proportions only matched by the enormous voice of Romanian tenor Teodor Ilincai – welcoming audiences into an exquisitely constructed world designed by Michael Scott-Mitchell. I would go so far as to say it is the jewel in this year’s season for Opera Australia. Four years later and that impact is just as strong in this revival by Roger Press. John Bell’s overlay of Puccini’s dramatic Napoleonic masterpiece with tones of Nazi occupation set an impressive benchmark when it premiered in 2013. The point is that Tosca connects and inspires audiences it has a timelessness that is again apparent this month. We might even go so far as to find resonance with our own political situation in Australia, where the value of artists has been under attack with persistent cutbacks. Rather, one could translate those Nazi overtones to modern day Turkey or Syria where veiled dictators “remove” artists and the intelligentsia from society. Picture: Prudence UptonĪ piece of performance themed around Nazi occupation hardly floats my boat, but then this is no regular portrayal of an ancient war dosed up with bitter nostalgia. “Ludovic Tézier’s Scarpia should not be missed if you get a chance ever to see him in the theatre.Teodor Ilincăi as Cavaradossi in Opera Australia’s Tosca. For more information and instructions, please see here. If you have tickets for summer 2021, you can move your reservation to next year. To Puccini, opera was a world of emotions and dreams, in which even the deadly wounded would keep singing until their very last breath. The tangle of raging jealousy captivates the mind, while Puccini’s effortlessly flowing music reveals the true feelings of the threatened lovers. She seems to change with the times and never ceases to impassion and agitate audiences,” says director Keith Warner. “In the last century, Tosca has thrown herself down from great heights and fallen at our feet time and time again.
She is paired with tenor Matthew Polenzani, a regular guest of the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, and the Bavarian State Opera, who is making his much-anticipated debut as Cavaradossi. Miina-Liisa Värelä is said to be on the very cusp of a stellar international career. Besides Tosca, we’ll have the amazing privilege to hear him sing in his own recital on 17 July. Our visiting soloist in summer 2022, baritone Ludovic Tézier, is not only the world’s best chief of police Scarpia – presenting a maddeningly skilful exploiter and manipulator – but also one of the truly big names of the opera scene. “Ludovic Tézier’s Scarpia should not be missed if you get a chance ever to see him in the theatre,” an international review site writes.
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