Puccini’s Tosca was the last great 19th century opera. In 1900 when Tosca was first produced, Puccini already had La Boheme and Manon Lescaut under his belt and was being widely hailed as the heir to Verdi’s mantle.
With Tosca Puccini was on fire. Tosca has everything a really great pot-boiler should: sex, politics, and religion. A jealous diva. An artist willing to die to oppose tyranny. A depraved baron hiding a lust for dominance behind a mask of piety. Love, jealousy, subterfuges, spies, sadism, attempted rape, murder, and betrayal. Add to that several of Puccini’s greatest arias and the luscious orchestration and it’s easy to see why Tosca has been one of the most frequently staged works in the operatic repertoire.
I’ve seen at least ten performances of Tosca over the years (I’ve frequently complained that Lyric Opera was the Tosca, La Traviata, La Boheme Repertory Company). If all of the performances had been as good as this one, as far as I’m concerned Lyric could do nothing but Tosca, La Traviata, and La Boheme and I’d be happy.
The production we saw last night wasn’t the production we’ve been seeing for the last several years—it’s the 1964 Zeffirelli production. It’s a beautiful set and good costumes but the only problems I saw with last night’s performances were directly related to difficulties in navigating some rather labyrinthine set pieces—scaffolding in Act I and a staircase in Act III. Other than that the performance was simply tremendous.
We’d been looking forward to Sam Ramey’s performance as Baron Scarpia all season and we weren’t disappointed. He doesn’t have quite the physicality he had twenty years ago (who of us does?) but his stagecraft has matured. He’s simply the finest actor-singer on the operatic stage today. His Va, Tosca that climaxes Act I had the women sitting around me nearly swooning. When was the last time you saw that at an opera?1
I’ve never been a big fan of Neil Shicoff’s rather tinny tenor. And I was apprehensive when he soft-balled the first act Recondita armonia (one of my all-time favorite arias) and failed to top Tosca in their first act duet (even though the music clearly calls for it). I understood later: he was saving it up for the third act. To continue the baseball metaphors he knocked E lucevan le stelle out of the park and received an appropriate ovation from the audience. Lyric Opera audiences are pretty stingy with their ovations. He continued at the same level of excellence and matched Tosca in their heart-rending (if you know what’s going to happen—as the audience does) third act duet. Well done.
Doina Dimitriu simply owned the role of Tosca last night. Her acting was perfect; her singing was fabulous. I’d point to highlights but every aria and every duet was a highlight. I’ve heard few sopranos who were able to make use of the pianissimo and contrast it with the fortissimo that well. That takes real control. I’ve never seen a better Tosca.
Lyric Opera saved the best for last. This is the best performance of Tosca I’ve ever seen.
With the season concluded here’s how I rank the operas in the 2004-2005 Lyric Opera season: (best to worst): Tosca, Das Rheingold, The Cunning Little Vixen—Fidelio (tied), Aida, Don Giovanni, A Wedding. Knock-out performances of Tosca and Das Rheingold. A performance of Fidelio I could actually tolerate. And a nice little performance of a nice little opera in The Cunning Little Vixen. The season came out better than I’d expected and I’m looking forward to next season. We’ve already re-subscribed.
1Almost makes me wish I were a bass-baritone rather than a tenor.
