Puccini Tosca opera to libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. Directed 2018 by Michael Sturminger at the Osterfestspiele Salzburg. Stars Anja Harteros (Floria Tosca), Aleksandrs Antonenko (Mario Cavaradossi), Ludovic Tézier (Baron Scarpia), Andrea Mastroni (Cesare Angelotti), Matteo Peirone (The Sacristan), Mikeldi Atxalandabaso (Spoletta), Rupert Grössinger (Sciarrone), Levente Páll (A Jailer), and Benjamin Aster (A Shepherd Boy). Christian Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Salzburger Bachchor (Chorus Master Alois Glaßner), and the Salzburger Festspiele und Theater Kinderchor (Chorus Master Wolfgang Götz). Costume and set design by Renate Martin and Andreas Donhauser; lighting design by Urs Schönebaum. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini. Sung in Italian. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B-
Here’s yet another attempt at a contemporary “thriller” version of Tosca. The curtain opens on Act 1, and in 2 seconds we have 6 corpses:
Below Anja Harteros as Floria Tosca and Aleksandrs Antonenko as Mario Cavaradossi:
This production has many little, irritating inconsistencies (as well as big, irritating plot inventions). For example, Angelotti arrives at the church in handcuffs, but the cuffs mysteriously disappear after he ducks into his family vault with the painter’s food. Cavaradossi yesterday painted a likeness that is immediately recognized by two characters as a prominent local woman (the fugitive’s sister). But the likeness is a statute. Did he really make the statute yesterday?
Below seated is Ludovic Tézier as Baron Scarpia and (on the left) is Mikeldi Atxalandabaso as Spoletta (who is always busy stealing the show). Maybe one day somebody will write an opera about Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani and maybe Ludovic and Mikeldi can create the roles.
Next a neat twist. During the interrogation Act, Scarpia’s dinner table is sitting in a corner waiting for dinner to be ordered. During the questioning, the table gets knocked over. The big steak knife is somewhere in the mess—waiting for Tosca to discover it when Scarpia starts chasing her around the room:
Scarpia thinks he has a deal; Tosca is well poised to strike a blow with the knife (this image comes from Internet PR and is not on the Blu-ray):
Next below, Tosca has stabbed Scarpia and fled the scene. Act 2 ends with a big surprise (sorry, I really have to spoil this):
In a nasty twist, some choirboys from the church have been recruited to join the firing squad:
More surprises:
Well, I haven’t told you how many more corpses Michael Sturminger gives us at the end. Do you think it will be closer to Puccini or to Shakespeare?
Mark Pullinger assures us (May 2019 Gramophone at page 95) that we finally have a good Tosca update in this “film-noir inspired production” set in modern-day Rome. But William Braun, on pages 72-73 of the September 2019 Opera News, reports that the updating “runs [the show] off the rails” with “silly” plot twists. He goes on to say, however, that Harteros “sweeps the field” of video Tosca sopranos and that the orchestra and chorus also perform admirably.
I have to side with William Braun as to Sturminger’s directing. But I was also much impressed how great the Staatskapelle Dresden sounds in this under Thielemann and how well the sound recording is mixed to support the directing and singing. I’ll grade this B-. It appears we must keep looking for a fully successful update of Tosca to modern times (if such a thing is possible).
Here’s a trailer from C Major:
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