A Successful Production. 60 Leit-motive for Tosca, Music and Vision 7 aprile

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by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Tosca is the quintessential Roman opera. With a political and sexual thriller of a plot located in three of the Italian capital's famous landmarks, its 14 January 1900 première in Rome was bound to be enormously successful. It is, conventionally, considered as the starting date of Novecento (twentieth century) Italian opera and music drama. Tosca was a breakthrough in a musical world still searching for its own ways, after Verdi's melodrama and attempts to mimic French grand opéra and to join it with the Wagnerian aesthetics and experience. Ten years earlier, Tosca had had a precursor: Giordano's Fedora, now nearly forgotten or regarded as minor work, even though it has many of Tosca's ingredients.

A scene from Act I of 'Tosca' at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini
Tosca is a standard staple at the Teatro dell'Opera with over two hundred and fifty performances since 14 January 1900. At the small Piccolo Lirico, in the last ten years, there have been four hundred and fifty performances of an always renewed production. The production was unveiled on 1 April 2010, and this review is based on that evening performance. It not a new production. Neither it is the grand 2008 Franco Zeffirelli 2008 production nor that of Giuliano Montaldo which was often on stage in the 1980s and 1990s. Finally, it is not the very innovative staging by Franco Ripa di Meana unveiled last summer, which was considered almost 'weird' and 'excessively anticlerical' by the conservative Rome audience.

A scene from Act II of 'Tosca' at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini
Thus, it is a revival (by Marco Gandini) of the 1964 Mauro Bolognini production. This had, on its own account, a long history: the stage sets are based on the Adolf Hohenstein sketches for the 14 January 1900 world première. These sets mirror Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot's paintings. They were updated in the 1950s by Camillo Parravicini with site inspections in Sant'Andrea della Valle, Palazzo Farnese and Castel Sant'Angelo -- the places where the plot unfolds. The scenes were painted, in 1964, in the tulle brands of fine silk; thus, their colors have kept pretty well as the years and decades have gone by. The costumes are selected from the fifty thousand items in the storage house at the Teatro dell'Opera. Within this context, the stage direction must be quite traditional; it follows quite closely the indications provided by Puccini himself in January 1900.

A scene from Act III of 'Tosca' at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini
This may not please fans of innovative staging, but it has an advantage: attention is on the music. Not only it is focussed on the best known arias 'Recondita Armonia', 'Vissi d'Arte', 'E Lucevan le Stelle' and to the engrossing duets or the Te Deum at the end of Act 1, but also on the marvelous, and for many aspects, incredibly innovative orchestration (with sixty intertwined leitmotives). Tosca begins with Scarpia's brutal theme, a particularly sinister and menacing sequence of chords, and ends Act 1 with savage strengths. Meantime, during the rest of Act 1, the lavish melodic music of the love scene is dominated by two themes: Tosca's andante sostenuto and Cavaradossi's andante mosso. These two leitmotives will appear in various forms during the rest of the opera. Scarpia's theme dominates Act 2, especially in his two great monologues where he is shown as a man of power but completely dominated by his own desires. The thematic characterizations of Tosca and Cavaradossi intensify this in Act 2, with Tosca's deep prayer and Cavaradossi's outburst of joy at the news from the outcome of the Marengo's battle. Once again Scarpia's demonic motif closes Act 2. A gloomy passage from horns and high woodwinds in consecutive fifths conjures up the atmosphere of Act 3, and, after the return of the love theme (in the cellos), gives away to a sorrowful melody and slides into the final mourning theme.

Svetla Vassileva in the title role and Marcello Giordani as Cavarodossi in Act I of 'Tosca' at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini
This review emphasizes the orchestral score because it is often underplayed in journalistic analysis, even though it is a main contribution to the modern and contemporary way of composing. Fabrizio Maria Carminati and Rome Opera are specialists in Tosca, and have done an excellent job, deserving the applause they received.

Svetla Vassileva in the title role and Marcello Giordani as Cavarodossi in Act III of 'Tosca' at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini
Cavarodossi was Marcello Giordani. He showed clear timbre, easiness with both the acute and the mezza voce, and a very articulate fraseggio. He will alternate, until 11 April 2010, with Salvatore Licitra and Francesco Rollo. Tosca was Svetla Vassileva, an excellent and attractive actress. She has already sung Tosca in Turin, and is frequently in a similar role (Manon Lescaut). She is not yet as a dramatic soprano as would be expected. Most probably, she is in transition -- from coloratura and lyric soprano roles to thicker parts. Juan Pons is Scarpia -- a role he has sung hundreds of times. At the end of Act 1, I thought he was ready for an honorable and happy retirement. He improved considerably in Act 2.

Svetla Vassileva in the title role and Juan Pons as Scarpia in Act II of 'Tosca' at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini
In short, a successful production.
Copyright © 7 April 2010 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

TOSCA
GIACOMO PUCCINI
ROME
ITALY
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