Writers: Score by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Director: Edward Dick
Although Opera North’s Tosca is a revival from 2018 the current conflict in Ukraine gives it a sharp contemporary relevance. The thuggish villain openly boasts of preferring brutal conquest to gentle seduction while a pair of initially apolitical, even trivial, artists find unexpected levels of courage and dignity in opposing his tyranny.
Artist Mario Cavaradossi (Mykhailo Malafii) is interrupted in completing his church painting by the unexpected appearance of Cesare Angelotti (Callum Thorpe) – an old friend but also an opponent of the oppressive government and on the run from reprisals. Cavaradossi agrees to hide Angelotti but this raises unwarranted suspicions in his highly-strung lover, opera singer Floria Tosca (Giselle Allen). When Cavaradossi is arrested, and tortured Tosca desperately appeals to Baron Scarpia (Robert Hayward) for his release. Scarpia arrogantly agrees on condition Tosca consents to sleep with him not realising this will leave him vulnerable to Tosca’s deadly kiss.
Puccini’s melodramatic score may sound, to a contemporary audience, like a film score. A dramatic blast of horns opens the opera as Callum Thorpe enters climbing down a rope in the manner of Mission Impossible. Although the score slips into an occasional jaunty caper style the dominant sense is of restrained tension – violence is always bubbling under the surface.
Catholic imagery runs through the production becoming increasingly debased as the show progresses. Scarpia is fond of adopting a martyred cruciform pose even in death. The central feature of Tom Scutt’s opulent set is a massive portrait of The Madonna which appears in increasingly inappropriate locations – initially a church then Scarpia’s bedroom and finally the prison cell of a condemned prisoner.
Robert Hayward is a magnificent villain. Hayward suggests a character motivated by impure desire without any moral restraint- dry-humping his four-poster bed. Although obsessed by Tosca, Baron Scarpia crudely shows his domination over his subordinates by caressing them sensually when giving orders.
Giselle Allen develops Tosca from a one-dimensional trivial character to one of the vengeful Furies from legend. Initially Allen presents Tosca as a parody – an exaggeration of how audiences expect opera singers to behave. In full diva-style she pouts and sulks around the stage demanding attention by moving spotlights from artworks onto her profile and indulging in an actual foot-stamping tantrum. Yet, when faced with the extent of Scarpia’s depravity Tosca becomes the audience’s representative -howling in grief at the lack of humanity.
Director Edward Dick allows the opera to touch the depths of despair before offering a sense of redemption. This is a modern-day production with easily recognisable figures of oppression- bland torturers in smart nondescript suits. The confrontation between Scarpia and Tosca is a brutal display of power- there is no element of seduction just crude force. In the third act, however, the soaring vocals of Malafii and Allen raise hope that challenging tyranny may be successful and if nothing else serve as a striking display of defiant decency.
Runs until 11 March 2023
