Opera CdA proves worthy of Puccini’s Tosca, continuing Sunday
Tosca has remained among the world’s most popular operas since its premiere in 1900, and for very good reason: it is a masterful construct of plot, character and music that grips the viewer from the first notes and carries him inexorably along to the tragic conclusion. The performance on Friday night by Opera CdA brought together singing actors, musicians and production specialists fully equal to the stringent demands of Puccini’s score. The predictable result was an intensely exciting and memorable evening of theater.
Apart from his immense gifts as a melodist, Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) brought to the libretto of Tosca a deep commitment to Richard Wagner’s ideal of opera as the “gesamtkunstwerk,” or “complete artwork,” in which music is inseparable from drama, and in which sight, sound and thought are fused to achieve a single artistic purpose.
This places tremendous demands on the judgment and skill of the conductor. In this production, Anthony Barrese, delivered an interpretation which was both technically impeccable and deeply infused with dramatic urgency. While allowing the singers ample time to support their voices and mold their phrases meaningfully, Barrese never allowed tension to flag during the moments of tense repose Puccini provides in Acts 2 and 3. The enthusiastic applause he received would have been just as great in Milan or Vienna.
The plot of Tosca concerns the passionate feelings of two men for the same woman, Floria Tosca, a celebrated singer. Tosca’s character is a compelling mixture of piety and sexuality. This challenging part was taken by Jill Gardner, who vividly embodied both Tosca’s spiritual and sensual passion. Ms. Gardner’s beautiful lyric soprano moved sweetly or powerfully through Puccini’s taxing writing without ever sacrificing tone, pitch or projection. If one were to ask for anything more, it would be greater insistence on clarity of diction, which sometimes lapsed, causing a blurring of dramatic focus.
The focus of Tosca’s worldly passion is the painter and political activist Mario Cavaradossi, performed in this production by Roger Honeywell. Though possessed of a tenor voice of considerable range and power, Mr. Honeywell was nevertheless miscast in this role. The quality of his voice is not at all what Puccini calls for. His is a fresh, open voice, forwardly produced and brightly lit, rather than the sensuous, Mediterranean timbre needed for the part of Cavaradossi. Furthermore, while Mr. Honeywell’s diction was admirably clear, one was never able to ignore the fact that Italian is not his native language.
No complaints concerning diction could be leveled at Jake Gardner, who took the role of the second male pursuing Tosca, the loathsome Baron Scarpia, the chief of police. In fact, there were no complaints of any type to be leveled at Mr. Gardner’s performance, which had one rummaging through the names of great Scarpias of the past, names like Warren, Ruffo and Gobbi, for examples of comparable mastery. Scarpia’s character, like Tosca’s, is a challenging confluence of opposites, both sensual and spiritual, but in Scarpia’s case, transmuted by a diseased mind and corrupt soul into a sickening stew of lust and cruelty. The best interpreters, and one includes Mr. Gardner in this class, are able to convey this without dropping Scarpia’s mask of aristocratic refinement and elegance. It was an honor to witness a performance of such stature.
The orchestra, though likewise diminished in size, was of such outstanding quality as to be able to carry off brilliantly the heavy demands placed on them. Made up of many of the finest musicians of our region, including several principal players, past and present, of the Spokane Symphony, the orchestra fulfilled its role as equal partner to the singers. One unforgettable moment was violist Nick Carper’s ineffably tender statement of the melody which later becomes the most famous tenor aria in the opera, “E lucevan le stelle.” As usual, Mateusz Wolski, Concertmaster of the Spokane Symphony, imparted a unique intensity to every measure in which his violin was audible.
The chorus in Tosca does not play a large a role, but it is a crucial one. Though the stage could only accommodate a chorus diminished in size, so crisp and forceful was their diction, and so full the tone they produced, that they succeeded in making just the impact Puccini intended. Under the direction of Max Mendez, the chorus successfully brought off one of Tosca’s most spectacular theatrical moments, the “Te Deum” which closes the First Act, as though their number were many times greater.
Shouldering the daunting task of making a modest stage suggest the vastness of the Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle or of Scarpia’s apartment in the Castel Sant’Angelo, at once posh and sinister, was set designer Michael McGiveney. Scenic design, being among the components specified by Wagner, is not merely incidental, but a vital component in any production of Tosca, and Mr. McGiveney’s designs – stylish, substantial and atmospheric – succeeded admirably in producing this “complete artwork.”