Puccini: Tosca [Royal Opera House, 2011] - Gheorghiu, Kaufmann, Terfel [2012]

I shopped around a good many performances of Tosca before settling on this one, and it does not disappoint. This Royal Opera House version has a good balance between traditional production values (the setting is Rome in 1800, like it says on the tin) and fresh, naturalistic acting by an excellent cast. It doesn't take any gimmicks to rejuvenate this war horse, just love and attention to detail and top-quality singing. In his brief introduction, the enthusiasm of Tony Pappano, the conductor, leaps across, and he has obviously communicated it to the orchestra: the playing shimmers and sparkles, the ensemble is flawless, and as an spectator you can just forget about any logistical problems and allow yourself to be carried along effortlessly by the drama.Bryn Terfel is a great artist, not too vain to show Scarpia for what he is: a failure, the wreckage of a man, but no less terrifying for that. Jonas Kaufmann has to be simply one of the best Marios ever, putting Alagna and even Domingo in the shade. Angela Gheorghiu in the title role seems sometimes to let her undoubted beauty of both looks and vocal tone carry her through at the expense of acting: she is too restrained in Act II, seeming to regard the prospect of being raped by Scarpia with some equanimity, before managing to stab him to death without getting so much as a drop of blood on the knife or her flawless white dress. Let's face it, most Toscas are too restrained, and/or too haughty - when will we get one who has an urchin's wildness under her diva veneer, as the play called for? But that's by the by.However good the performance, I have to admit I can never see this opera without wishing that it was just a little bit better than it is. Puccini and his librettists rushed their work and couldn't agree on what they were trying to achieve, much as movie adaptors of novels tend to in our time, and the opera is stuck half in and half out of the chrysalis of Sardou's mechanical melodrama, not quite fulfilling the enhanced emotional potential of the characters and the story. This is especially obvious in Act III, where the iconic final leap from the battlements can't make up for the fact that we expected the characters to grow further, and they regress instead.However, all the claims that this opera is `decadent', that it wallows in passivity and futility, that its message is `the illusory nature of happiness', seem to me to be wide of the mark. This is what critics have been saying for a century, either to dismiss Tosca or to assert its place in a tendentious 'story of western culture' in which Romanticism inevitably has to decline into decadence, nihilism, etc. so that a sterilised, intellectually straitjacketed High Modernism can take over. Performers and audiences, however, have stayed happy Romantics and do not experience the opera as a gloat over doomed puppets. Rather, it comes across as an affirmation, a moral victory for the lovers who, although apparently destroyed by a cruel world, achieve an apotheosis not much different from those of The Flying Dutchman, Aida or Swan Lake. It is this joy snatched from terror that makes people endlessly return to see it. Now that post-modernism has relaxed the stranglehold of the highbrow, middle-brow opera-goers can surely reassert their love for it without shame. And point out that rather than being a decaying fruit, Tosca was in some ways ahead of its time: musically, in its anticipation of film music; dramatically and morally, in its depiction of totalitarianism. (Susan Vandiver Nicassio's book 'Tosca's Rome' has some interesting discussion of this.) In Scarpia's Act II monologue, just as in Orwell's 1984, Mao's China, the files of the East German Stasi, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is made clear that the totalitarian state and its representatives cannot tolerate any relations among its citizens based on trust, sympathy, and, especially, sexual love, rather than power. Mario may have sheltered a political subversive, but his real offence and Tosca's is against Scarpia's proto-fascist code that coercion is better than consent, that struggle is all. Scarpia's horrible bargain with Tosca is designed to prove that love - foolish, fallible, human love - is no match for power. Yet he gets more than he bargained for: although the lovers cannot escape his plot, he loses, even in his own terms. And Tosca's and Mario's triumphant moments of defiance and subversion are what stay in the audience's mind.Some criticism of Tosca seems to stray dangerously close to the totalitarianism that the opera condemns. The recurrent opining that Puccini should have had the `courage' of his convictions and openly relished the sexual sadism of Scarpia, that Scarpia is a `strong' character to be contrasted with the `weak' Mario (who is actually degenerate enough to think about love-making rather than politics just before he dies, and to admit to despair in the face of death! What a disgrace to the Party!), that Tosca secretly prefers Scarpia or is better matched with him (even the great Tito Gobbi fell prey to this tripe) ... all this, I should say, shows that the opera's message that consensual sex is an entirely different thing from coercive sex, and is worth it however vulnerable it makes you, is not as obvious and anodyne as you might think; indeed, that it was lost on a large proportion of twentieth-century intellectuals, and is, perhaps, only now coming into its own, thanks partly to the rise of women opera critics and directors. I relished hearing Catherine Malfitano, a great Tosca in her time and recently the director of a production at the English National Opera, explode the `charismatic Scarpia' nonsense and elevate Mario as the real though all-too-human hero of the opera. https://audioboom.com/boos/126231-eno-operacast-catherine-malfitano-talks-about-directing-tosca What she tells us, the miraculous Jonas Kaufmann in this performance shows us, beyond any doubt!Perhaps it's not too late to retrace our steps from the lunacies of the twentieth century and recreate the tradition of tuneful, taut, emotionally cathartic and obsessional operas like Tosca. Until they come, we are left with the great stalwarts of the Romantic repertoire, well served by DVDs like this one, that may bring them to a whole new audience.

This recording of Tosca created from performances on July 14 and 17 in 2011 brings together artists of considerable renown for a short run. These are Angela Gheorghiu as Tosca, Jonas Kaufmann as Cavaradossi and Bryn Terfel as Scarpia. To these must be added the considerable expertise of the conductor, Antonio Pappano. The production by Jonathan Kent has become a staple fixture in the Royal Opera repertoire and is unashamedly `traditional' in its concept.The combination of such talents raised expectations that something very special could be achieved. As one who has a number of recordings by all of these artists, I can honestly state that, in my opinion, none of them has delivered anything finer individually and that this combination has resulted in a recording of Tosca that is gripping from start to finish and may well have exceeded even the most optimistic hopes of all concerned.It must be made clear from the start that this is certainly not the performance that anyone other than purchasers of this disc will have seen as this is a combination of two performances, and presumably the best of each, uniquely available on this disc. Others attending the same production will crucially have heard different combinations of the cast so are not in a position to comment about this particular disc. Even attenders of either of these two nights or those who watched the TV broadcast will still not have experienced this particular edited product. The editing is seamlessly done so the whole final product runs as if it was one live uninterrupted performance.The production, as mentioned above, is traditional but very well observed and convincing. The slowed down, and thus more chilling, entry of the execution squad in act 3 would be one of many examples of dramatic flair. Perhaps the most controversial part is the decision to show Scarpia in an unkempt guise as that would not fit with a serial womaniser. There is another interpretation of this though. Scarpia's libretto makes it clear that he is not interested in wooing any woman but simply exults in his power over them. What better way to reinforce this than to show his utter contempt additionally through his personal appearance? Any woman thus abused would feel doubly defiled.This is a more theatrical production than the fine Verona alternative which was effectively tailored to a much larger canvas. In more general terms, this new recording appropriately offers a more intimate and more subtle rendering of the opera in countless ways throughout and which can only be briefly touched on in a short review such as this and as follows:The outstanding contribution of Pappano and his orchestra cannot be overstated. This is a very flexible account of pace, phrasing and dynamics creating great emotional contrasts. Moments of chilling or dramatic power are contrasted with swiftly following gentle and sensitive passages. Everything is tailored exactly to the drama being played out on stage. A small example of this detailed attention to precise coordination, just as you would expect with a ballet, can be observed after Scarpia's death as Tosca places the two candles by Scarpia before exiting. The very moment that each candlestick bottom touches the floor is precisely accompanied by a soft woodwind chord. Tempo is withheld throughout this sequence as it is performed in free-time and the effect is extraordinarily powerful. Other performances simply are not this accurate.The main cast is of the highest calibre, although there have always been those who do not warm to Gheorghiu as either a singer or as an actor. In my opinion she is on superb form here and delivers an astonishing degree of passion, either in full voice or sotto voce. The tingle factor was high for both me and my wife. Bryn Terfel manages outshines his earlier fine performance of Scarpio under Riccardo Chailly. He exudes evil and has just the voice and body mass to match the intentions of Scarpia as he effortlessly towers over both of his victims. This seemed to be casting against type with the earlier Dutch recording but, even thus prepared, I have been struck by the development in the role. This must almost be definitive. Jonas Kaufmann has the enviable ability to really live his part while delivering singing of tonal magnificence. This has led him to considerable world renown which is fully justified here. His voice has a similar tonal silkiness to my ears to that of Gheorghiu's and thus makes an ideal vocal match between the two. In addition, both Gheorghiu and Kaufmann have the right degrees of physical attraction and relative ages that make this a dramatically convincing coupling thus reinforcing the effectiveness of the drama.The supporting roles are equally effective. The Sacristan, well sung and acted by Jeremy White, has far more character than usual. Little details like his tongue protruding as he concentrates all add to the impression of a subordinate character that could easily be controlled by Scarpia. Lucas Jakobski's Angelotti is also more strongly drawn than usual which is in line with his dramatic role as a suspected revolutionary. Hubert Francis, as a slim Spoletta, brings a level of vindictive evil to match that of the far larger physical presence of Terfel.The camera work is totally engrossing and fully engages with the production. The imaging achieves a state-of the-art HD crispness and colour definition. The sound spectacularly captures the outstanding performance of the orchestra and the balance of the singers seems excellent to me. The sound is presented in DTS 5.1 and stereo. There is an 8 minute introduction included which is well presented by Pappano.This is a star-studied production and has obviously aimed high. In my opinion it has hit all the targets and now stands as an outstanding modern version to join the fine but totally different modern production at Verona plus other fine recordings from previous generations. The audience were justifiably and wildly enthusiastic at Covent Garden in my opinion with a marked absence of the famed English reserve! On that basis, coupled with my own personal responses, I would expect most purchasers of this disc to be equally enthusiastic and therefore a 5 star rating seems totally reasonable. This will not be a disc for those who do not respond to this sort of production or these singers of course, but that is not the remit of this review.........................................Some dialogue from the comments section that may offer further help:Hi IanJust ordered this for Christmas !Colette (see below)Keep on writing reviews, please, this is just well done. Greetings.. (see below)