Torture, murder, lust and lies: Don’t miss this thrilling Tosca
By Chantal Nguyen
Tosca
Sydney Opera House, June 25
Until August 16
Reviewed by CHANTAL NGUYEN
★★★★½
Who knew a psychological thriller could be so lurid yet so luminous? With a flash of light and Puccini’s opening crashing chords, prisoner-on-the-run Angelotti (David Parkin) plunges from the ceiling, Mission Impossible style. His entrance sets the tone for Opera Australia’s new Tosca: a gripping, visually captivating game of cat-and-mouse.
Edward Dick’s production, created for Opera North (Leeds, UK), displaces Opera Australia’s previous decade-old Nazi-inspired production in a purposeful nod to current times. At its premiere, Dick’s programme book featured pictures of Five Star Movement rallies and Donald Trump posing in front of a cross.
In Act 3, the dramatic cupola flips into a star-studded disc through which the characters face their destinies. Credit: Keith Saunders
Echoes of the #MeToo movement also rebound: Gevorg Hakobyan sings the villainous Baron Scarpia in a chillingly rich, burnished baritone as if Harvey Weinstein had taken up a police job. Act 2 is no longer the negotiation conducted in the professional removes of the police bureau, as in more traditional productions. Here it’s a graphic encounter in Scarpia’s bedroom, where he lounges on his four-poster bed, coolly watching torture livestreams from a laptop. In that intimate setting, Act 2’s violent climax is unflinchingly claustrophobic and visceral.
Young Woo Kim as Cavaradossi and Giselle Allen as Tosca.Credit: Keith Saunders
The vocal standout is Young Woo Kim as Cavaradossi. Kim soars in a glorious, effortless tenor, with a top register so powerful you can feel the vibrations shimmer in the air around you. He is impressive in Act 3’s showstopper E lucevan le stelle (“And the stars were shining”), but particularly remarkable in Act 1, where his aria Recondita armonia (“Concealed harmony”) opens the opera with golden effect.
Giselle Allen created the title role in this production to critical acclaim for her complex, nuanced acting. Her Tosca is vain and vulnerable, with Allen unafraid of using the “ugly” parts of the voice – sighs, cracks, sobs – to skilful dramatic effect. She has a sharply focused soprano, which, though slow to warm up and thinner in Acts 1 and 2, comes to full power in Act 3, contrasting with her guttural, emotive chest voice. Allen’s sound won’t be to everyone’s taste – I found her vibrato too wide, at times almost a warble – but her acting is deeply satisfying.
Gevorg Hakobyan sings the villainous Baron Scarpia.Credit: Keith Saunders
The cast is rounded out by Scarpia’s henchmen, Spoletta (a creepily feline Benjamin Rasheed) and Sciarrone (Luke Gabbedy in fine, looming form). Alexander Hugo Young sings with purity as Act 3’s shepherd boy.
Visually, this Tosca is also beautiful, with Tom Scutt’s set featuring a glowing cupola modelled after Rome’s pantheon. It floats over Act 1 as an ecclesiastical portrait of the Madonna, then in Act 3, flips into a star-studded disc through which the characters – dramatically lit by Lee Curran – face their destinies. A ring of stage spotlights also dominates Act 1, their gaudy yellow stares highlighting Scarpia’s theatre of co-opted religion and politics, contrasting with the soft glowing prayer candles that light the lovers’ arias.
Finally, Johannes Fritzsch conducts at a rollicking pace, the orchestra playing with finesse, balance, and clarity.
Overall, this is a dramatically taut, uniquely thrilling ride of an opera – not to be missed.