Well I am just back from a most enjoyable evening of Opera.
Tosca hasn’t got a lot of tunes in it, as far as I could judge just the one really, Tosca’s prayer to the Virgin in Act Two.
The rest of the music is really recitative, (maybe I’ll change my mind on that when I start to play the CD I just ordered)
Without the great show stoppers, which other classic operas boast, Tosca needs all the help it can get from both production and singing.
We had a magnificent Tosca in Constance Novis from Canada.
She had an incredibly powerful and yet vibrato free voice.
She is a pleasure to listen too, and an actress who managed to convince and move me even in the sometimes ridiculous convulations of plot of this opera.
She was well served by her Mario, David Curry also from Canada and a wonderfully evil Scarpia, Mario Solimene from Brazil.
But the real star of the show was the innovative production.
We were bullied about between the various locations by jack booted and blacked up soldiers, ushered up through the stage to Act Three in front of the Bishops palace, to a bomb site, lit by burning barrels the orchestra playing in a graffiti daubed black plastic fit-up.
In this the director, Michael Hunt was very well served by Mike Leahy and Dermot Quinn from Waterfords Spraoi whose street theatre skills suited this production exactly.
A great night .