Amanda Echalaz |
Stephen Barlow's new production of
Puccini's Tosca at Santa Fe
Opera(seen August 8) is deliberately traditional but within this framework, both
sets and staging introduced innovations. Yannis Thavoris's sets took
elements of the real life locations (Church of Sant'Andrea della
Valle, Palazzo Farnese and Castel Sant'Angelo) and re-cast them in a
spectacular and non-naturalistic manner.
For
act 2, the front portion of the acting area lifted up to reveal on
the underside, one of the Raphael frescoes from the Palazzo Farnese
which formed the key feature of Scarpia's room. The configuration for
act 3 was similar to act 1 except that we had exteriors of domes of
the Roman churches outlined against the dark New Mexico sky.
Barlow's
production was, frankly, less innovative with many of his changes
seeming to be change for change's sake. The naturalistic presentation
was 'enhanced' by a great deal of extra detail and by play (someone
cleaning windows at the Palazzo Farnese, bickering between Spoletta
and Sciarrone etc.) The first half of act 1 included a lot of comic
business whose function seemed purely to put the audience in a good
mood.
Dale
Travis's sacristan was a master class in over acting, the like of
which I never hope to see again. At the end of act 1 the procession
was a liturgist's nightmare. It is difficult to get this right on
stage, but I have seen productions (at Scottish Opera and Opera
Holland Park) where the procession worked dramatically and
liturgically. This matters because it mattered to Puccini, he took
great care to ensure that he used the correct plainchant at this
point. Barlow and Thavoris's procession was a symphony of meaningless
gesture and liturgical ornament. I will not go into the tedious
detail of exactly what was wrong.
At the
end of this act, the scene started to change to the next act, so
rather than have Scarpia outlined against the assembled church
congregation he was alone, grimacing as the act closed.
At the
end of act 2, after Tosca had stabbed Scarpia, his body ended up in
the entrance of a doorway to a side chamber, rather than centre
stage. His letter of passage for Tosca and Cavaradossi was in plain
sight, Tosca searched his body not for the letter but for the key to
the room (change for change's sake). Then Tosca laid out the body simply
by covering it with a cloak and shutting the door to the side room,
thus hiding the body. The whole point of Puccini's careful stage
directions at this point are to emphasise Tosca's religious beliefs,
even a being as evil as Scarpia should not go unshriven.
For
the opening of act 3 we were still in the Palazzo Farnese, the window
cleaner sang the shepherd boy's song, rather indifferently, and then
discovered Scarpia's body. During the lovely prelude depicting dawn
with the tolling of the Angelus, we watched (and listened to) the set
being changed. Balance here was all wrong in the orchestra, the
tolling bells were barely audible with conductor Frederic Chaslin
encouraging the orchestral strings to be overly prominent in their
self indulgent phrasing. The tone and placing of the bells is important, again this was something that Puccini took
great care over, .
At the
end, Sciarrone put hand cuffs on Tosca and for one awful moment I
thought that this was going to be my first ever Tosca
to end with Tosca not jumping, but luckily she struggled away and
jumped just in time.
None
of these alterations and additions were awful or fatal in themselves,
but the general accumulation began to make the production seem fussy,
with a constant nagging thought of why is she/he doing that?
The
singing was generally very creditable with some strong individual
performances. Amanda Echalaz (making her US debut) was a very young
and girlish Tosca; jealous and passionate with something of the diva,
but all done with a light touch. She did not essay the grand,
passionate manner of divas of the past and this sat well with the
naturalistic production style. Her voice seemed to lack tonal depth
at the top, but this was a very finely sung account of the role, with
a beautifully controlled Vissi d'arte
with no grandstanding at all.
Singing
Cavaradossi was the young American tenor Brian Jagde. He has an
attractive lyric voice which he had an unfortunate tendency to 'big
up' at dramatic moments – a worrying habit in someone so young. You
feel that he would be better off appreciating the lyric beauty of his
voice rather than attempting to emulate Pavarotti. More worrying
still were his vocal habits, and in this he seemed to be aided and
abetted by conductor Frederic Chaslin. Jadge hung onto high notes
until they were well past their sell by dates, pulled phrases around
and generally made a meal of tempos and phrasing in a way which
seemed designed to generate applause rather than to investigate
Cavaradossi's character. This is a promising young man who needs to
be taken in hand before bad habits develop further.
Raymond
Aceto was obviously a local favourite. He has an attractive baritone
voice, though not one which easily dominated the ensemble at the end
of act 1. Aceto's Scarpia was full of detailed acting, but the effect
accumulated into something rather studied, and not a little camp.
Fundamentally, Aceto did not project the feeling of contained evil
which sits within Scarpia's civilised exterior.
There
were one or two moments during act 2 when the dialogue between Aceto
and Echalaz caught fire and you got a glimpse of an entirely
different Tosca.
Zachary
Nelson was a fine Angelotti and Dennis Petersen and Christian Bowers
provided strong dramatic support as Spoletta and Sciarrone.
In the
pit, Frederic Chaslin favoured relaxed speeds and an elasticity of
phrasing which threatened damage to Puccini's musical structures.
Chaslin seemed content to dally and admire details without worrying
over much about the essential structure.
This
was an entirely pleasant evening at the theatre. A less experienced
opera goer, who had not seen a tauter, more dramatic performance of
this opera, might come away satisfied. But this company is capable
of so much more.
Further coverage of Santa Fe Opera on this blog
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