Composer: Giacomo Puccini, with new composition by Frank Moon
Translator and lyricist: Christopher Cowell
Director: Rebecca Marine
Becoming Tosca, currently at the Arcola’s Grimeborn Opera Festival, is Prologue Opera’s take on Puccini’s famous work. Like many Grimeborn participants, Prologue Opera’s stated aim is to reach out to the community. A notably successful example of a community-facing production earlier in the Festival was Baseless Fabric’s The Elixir of Love (Re-imagined), directed by Joanna Turner. But where Turner’s handling of the Donizetti was fresh and funny, Becoming Tosca, in its earnest determination to spell out the characters’ psychological backstories, is in danger of talking down to the audience.
Christopher Cowell translates some of the original lyrics as well as providing brand new ones for the lengthy prologue ‘Becoming’. So ‘I remember Sundays’ is the hook for each of the main characters to fill us in on their early lives. Puccini’s Sacristan is stripped out in favour of an over-elaborate backstory for the villain Scarpia, which has him preparing for ordination as a Catholic priest. Scarpia, as would-be priest, is shown to have a taste for the scourge – that instrument of extreme religious self-mortification. This then self-consciously points to Scarpia’s swift transformation into a torture-loving political dictator.
Becoming Tosca is set in an unnamed South American country, ‘where a military junta battles the burgeoning resistance’. But this attempt at political relevance sets up its own problems. Most of the prologue lacks any sort of political dimension. The painter Cavaradossi, we learn, has been to America to pursue his artistic career. He’s given an aria about how his love for home has led to his return. There’s nary a whisper here to suggest his feelings have any political discontent.
But next thing we know, he’s fomenting rebellion against Scarpia’s detested regime. Given all this, why did he return? And why has he accepted a commission to paint a religious painting for Scarpia? The directorial decision to have him working with chalk pastels on a piece of A4 does little to convince us of his stature as a renowned religious artist.
And this really is the problem all the way through. The tone of Becoming Tosca keeps shifting. It doesn’t seem to know whether to take itself seriously or not. Scenes in Puccini’s original which attain grandeur through the soaring music fall flat in this production when reduced to spoken dialogue, which is often banal. Most egregiously, the passionate love of Tosca and Cavaradossi gets pushed to one side, her jealousy making little sense when Angelotti’s sister, the Marchesa Attavanti, has also been excised from the plot.
Music-wise, we might hope to hear more Puccini, less Frank Moon (the composer of the songs in the prologue). The orchestral music is rewritten for Berrak Byer on piano and Boyan Ivanov on clarinets, both of whom perform well. The principal singers – Anna Sideris in the title role, Anthony Flaum as Cavaradossi, Brendan Collins as Scarpia and Jonathan Cooke as Spoletta – all have richness and force. But they seem to have been directed to sing at full force at all times, resulting in a disappointing lack of subtlety.
Jonathan Cooke, in particular, was brilliant as Nemorino in the aforementioned The Elixir of Love (Re-imagined). Here, he doesn’t get the opportunity to display either his vocal range or his considerable acting ability. Newcomer Harry Gentry is given the distinctly thankless part of a reimagined Angelotti, whose chief mode is relentless political ranting. It’s a particularly clunky bit of writing that doesn’t allow Gentry to show off more of his acting ability.
Visually, Becoming Tosca is on the dull side. There’s little in the way of staging, and Rebecca Marine as director has far too much of the action played in one direction, the protagonists looking straight out front to just one section of the audience at the expense, in the Arcola, of those sitting in seats at the two sides.
One of the many joys of Grimeborn productions is that they tend to be short and sweet. The Elixir of Love (Re-imagined), for example, came in at just 55 minutes. Becoming Tosca, with a run time of over two hours, outstays its welcome.
Runs until 6 September 2025
