Sacramento Escorts: Opera review: New ‘Tosca’ opens Metropolitan Opera season
And yet, for all that, neither the production nor its cast provided fresh ideas. Bondy updated the story of a diva, her lover and the lecherous chief of the secret police, from 1800 to a decadent Rome in the early 20th century. Cavaradossi paints a topless, fetching Mary Magdalene, which Tosca in a fit of jealousy slashes with a knife, in a cathedral that looks more like a grand Fascist assembly room, albeit one with somewhat nicer folding chairs than those given the audience in the plaza. Scarpia’s lair is early Italian modern. Three prostitutes do their best to arouse the head cop as the curtain rises on the second act.
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Tenor Marcelo Álvarez was a generic Cavaradossi, interested in his full, round tone and extending climaxes for as long as he could get away with. A Georgian bass, George Gagnidze, replaced Juha Uusitalo, who took ill and bowed out of the production a week ago. Gagnidze’s Scarpia never seemed a match for the towering Mattila or, for that matter, even for his …