A most pleasant production of Tosca

Opera
Tosca
Aurora Theatre

It seems that whenever there is opera in Gozo the elements do their best to thwart the superb efforts made by all those involved in such productions. Last Saturday’s performance of Puccini’s Tosca was another such case, but it did not deter opera buffs from filling the large house for a performance which was certainly one of the best-ever at the Aurora.

Tosca is one of my favourite operas and I could not count how many times I have seen it in the last 56 years, at home and abroad. Yet it is always a thrill to experience a good performance such as this one. There was drama, colour, spectacle, passion, cruelty and tenderness, a wide range of emotions in a work which has all the ingredients that Puccini and his librettists, all three of them superb men of the theatre, turned into an eternal masterpiece.

The three principals were up to their task in forming the deadly love triangle which was to destroy all of them, with the detestable Scarpia having the last laugh from beyond the grave. Soprano Michèle Crider was a scenically splendid Floria Tosca whose vocal prowess, especially her middle and lower registers and generally powerful, clear top helped her dominate the opera. She was credible from beginning to end and she was convincing as the jealous, yet loving, heroine who is overwhelmed by circumstances, resorts to desperate means to save her lover but ends up destroyed by forces too great for her. Her duets with her lover in Acts I and III contrasted very well with the dangerous cat-and-mouse game with the sadistic Baron Scarpia in the long cruel scene between them in Act II, with the well-known outcome. An added touch of cruelty is discerned in the final duet with Mario Cavardossi, when deliverance seems so close only to be hopelessly shattered.

Scarpia, whose motif is heard in the opera’s opening crashing chords and whenever his name is mentioned in his absence had a worthy interpreter in baritone Juan Pons. He had all in his favour: presence, voice, a perennially menacing aura even when he feigns sweetness of manner as he tried to wheedle information from his victims so as to destroy them. His suaveness made him even more dangerous and loathsome and one could not but be pleased when Tosca kills him. His other victim, Cavaradossi was well-projected by tenor Neil Shicoff.

A pre-performance announcement informing the audience that despite falling ill, the tenor went ahead with his commitment, found little if no echo in his singing. He still produced a beautiful warm timbre, and tackled even his most difficult notes and phrases with great credit. Patient with Tosca and her jealous rages, defiant and able to resist torture he does not hide his disappointment when feeling betrayed by the well-meaning Tosca. He faces death with despair, (singing a splendid E lucevan le stelle) has a last flicker of hope and succumbs to his fate.

Secondary roles were very well-interpreted by bass-baritone Alessandro Busi as the Sacristan, the only comic relief in the work; bass Noel Galea as the republican fugitive Cesare Angelotti; the rather reedy-voiced tenor Costantino d’Aniello as Scarpia’s trusty henchman Spoletta and baritone Louis Andrew Cassar as the Jailer. Young soprano Annabelle Zammit sang the Shepherd Song. The mis-en-scene was very good, crowd scenes in Act I well-handled with the whole production moving very sleekly.

Novella Tabili was also set designer who with the collaboration of set artist Paul Falzon and constructor Anthony Buhagiar created splendidly effective scenery which of course also depended for effect on excellent lighting handled by Donald Camilleri. The lighting up of the cupola’s interior at the climax of the Te Deum concluding Act I was an additionally effective touch, while Scarpia’s apartment in Palazzo Farnese (Act II) and Castel Sant’Angelo in Act III reeked of authenticity.

Colin Attard was at the helm of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and he also trained the Aurora Opera Chorus. Apart from finding the tempo a tiny bit too slow when Mr Shicoff sang Recondita armonia in Act I, and brief moments in the same act when the orchestra tended to overwhelm the singers, the right balance was soon established and maintained throughout the rest of the opera. Director and orchestra are to be congratulated on working so hard as part of the team to make this a most pleasant performance.