English National Opera's new production of Puccini's Tosca, set in Eastern Europe in the 1980s, delivers spectacular action and masterful conducting, yet much of the drama feels cold and detached. The opera, first performed in 1900, unfolds over the afternoon and evening of June 17 1800 and the morning of June 18, when Napoleon's invading army liberated Rome from its Austrian occupiers. The historical event serves as a backdrop to the sexually charged conflict between Cavaradossi, the would-be revolutionary artist; his lover Floria Tosca, an opera singer; and Scarpia, the predatory chief of police in an authoritarian regime.
A New Setting for Tosca
Annilese Miskimmon's production for English National Opera relocates the drama to "somewhere in Eastern Europe in the 1980s," following other stagings that have placed the action in pre-WWII fascist Italy. Rosanna Vize's single set depicts an awkwardly laid-out, split-level concert hall that has clearly seen better days. In this regime, musicians are harassed, instruments are brutalised and broken, and in the final act they are piled up in what looks like a funeral pyre.
Action and Music
While dramatically viable, much of the action is ungainly and not entirely coherent. Crowds rush across the stage or wander aimlessly, while a small army of men in black uniform strut around waving guns, threatening an energetic chorus of kids from Marlborough Primary School who try very hard to act unruly. Amid the busy staging, the ENO orchestra under Ben Glassberg delivers a spacious, finely detailed account, savage at times, at others luminous and lyrical.
Singers and Performances
The singers often struggle to impose themselves. As Tosca, Axelle Fanya produces moments of quiet vocal grace, but Chaz-men Williams-Ali's Cavaradossi seems an unfocused presence. Both voices fray under pressure, and their body language is clumsy, with the pair frequently many yards apart expressing their passion at a distance across the vast Coliseum stage. The most impressive stage presence is Christopher Purves, who, without needing to snarl, makes Scarpia a figure of subdued menace, barely able to suppress his panting lust.
Tosca's demise is spectacular and disturbing, but too much else feels cold and detached. The production runs until December 11.
