This autumn’s classical opera in the Finnish National Opera is Giacomo Puccini’s ”Tosca” – one of the best known operas ever. The story tells about a singer Floria Tosca, who is in love with artist Mario Cavaradossi. He gets involved in political intrigues, is arrested and the police chief Scarpia uses the opportunity to blackmail Tosca to his bed by promising to save Cavaradossi from execution. As a passionate artist Tosca kills Scarpia after having heard him to give instructions to arrange a fake execution of Cavaradossi. Unfortunately, true to his nature, Scarpia has betrayed Tosca by actually instructing his men to shoot Cavaradossi to death. And when he dies, Tosca also jumps to her death from the wall of the fortress. So, plenty of strong emotions!
Tosca is one of my favourite classics, since it has wonderful music and charismatic performers make it always memorable. Unfortunately this direction of Christof Loy was not one of the best. Loy had clearly directed the opera according the principle “Art first”. If the hero sings his best known aria first towards a corner and then to his folded arms, the audience has little opportunity to enjoy the aria.
I did not particularly like the soloists either. The voice of Aušriné Stundyté (Tosca) was rather metallic and contained a lot of vibrato and when none of the soloists were that charismatic, probably for the first time in my life, I could not have cared less when all the main characters died in the end. Loy had also made Scarpia a total creep. Sure, he is not exactly a nice guy in the opera, but somehow I have always seen him in my imagination as a charismatic (though evil) schemer, but this Scarpia was just a despicable slimeball. The second act was the best part of the opera, but even it could not save the whole opera.
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