patrikpen: Updating Tosca 2 in M&V 2 agosto

giovedì 9 novembre 2017

Updating Tosca 2 in M&V 2 agosto

Updating Tosca

GIUSEPPE PENNISI report from
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

As part of the summer season of Rome's Teatro dell'Opera in the open air ruins of the Bath of Caracalla I saw and heard the fourth of eight performances of Tosca on 16 July 2017. Tosca is a very Roman opera — its plot develops on 16 June 1800, from afternoon to dawn of the following day. Its world premiere took place in the Teatro dell'Opera on 14 January 1900 and it is generally considered the birth of modern Italian opera.

This Tosca features a double updating. On the one hand, as in the original 2013 production, Pier Luigi Pizzi — stage director as well as author of the sets and the costumes — moves the action from 16 June 1800 to a time around 1934-37, when fascist Italy had conquered Ethiopia and called itself an Empire. Already, among others, Jonathan Miller, Peter Sellars and Robert Carsen have set Tosca during fascism. On the other, the cast has been totally changed as compared with the 2013 production.

A scene from the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma production of Puccini's 'Tosca'. Photo © 2017 Yasuko Kageyama

The main significant difference is the orchestra, conducted by Donato Renzetti. Also, due to improved amplification in this huge performing area, conductor and orchestra were able to show that Tosca is Puccini's most Wagnerian opera. The orchestration used motifs, every one of which refers to a single object, person or idea, though none of them is developed or modified. As in Wagner, Puccini sometimes uses these motifs to provide the audience with additional information about a character's unexpressed thoughts. For example, in the first act, Tosca asks Cavaradossi to meet her in the evening. 'This evening?', Cavaradossi replies, and the orchestra plays Angelotti's motif because the refugee is in the painter's villa awaiting to find a way to escape Rome.

Also in the second act, Scarpia's interrogation of Cavaradossi is punctuated by a motif connoting the well where Angelotti is hiding, which is what the painter has in mind. Again the sophisticated orchestration makes Tosca not the rather simple heroine of Sardou's play, but a credible woman of the theatre, intelligent, witty and courageous. This is especially true in the third act, when she thinks she is in command of the situation, and believes that her main task is to train Cavaradossi to be a credible actor in the 'simulated' execution scene, before the tragic discovery of the truth.

The three protagonists were excellent: Tatiana Serjan is a vibrant Floria Tosca, especially in the pianissimo of Vissi d'Arte, and she is a superb actress. Giorgio Berrugi is a generous young tenor who started his career with bel canto, singing Donizzetti's operas and he handles Puccini quite well. Roberto Frontali is a veteran Scarpia.