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It was almost the tail-end of Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera’s Caracalla summer season by the time I got round to seeing on the 5th. of August one of six performances of Puccini’s celebrated Tosca conducted by Asher Fisch and what an evening it was thirtytwo years away from my first visit to the Terme.

It is as though Shakespeare in entitling one of his works As You Like It and the other Or What You Will (Twelfth Night) via his generous appeal to the public has perpetually given theatre directors and opera producers down the line the green signal to make exactly what they like of his works and by that yardstick do as they will with all theatrical oeuvres worldwide on stage. While this became quite the done thing in twentieth century drama, in the staging of opera it came into vogue only some time in the nineteen eighties. Having lived through infinitely more shocking pulsating stagings in the realm of opera production, from the likes of Ken Russell and Zeffirelli that made scandalous headlines in their day, I myself am as is the public immune to unexpected extraneous elements being tacked onto this beloved form. For the opera public still comprises afficionados addicted to stylistically accurate interpretations by conductors and vocal renditions by favoured or upcoming opera stars and producers creating those lovely authentic worlds of extravagant illusion and tremendous spectacle. This depiction by 35 year old Arnaud Bernard from France went against the very grain and fundaments of verismo opera that composers like Puccini for all their individuality still held close to their hearts and wrote within the constrictions of.

Quintessentially Roman
Tosca itself for all its melodrama (Puccini himself strongly objected to its violence almost not taking on the Sardou play as he believed its subject matter unsuited to his own delicate style and refined approach), largely thrust in the central character of Tosca who by no stray chance happens to be an opera singer in the year 1800 (Napoleonic times), hence as woman passionate to the core, as lover jealous to an extreme, and as enemy even violent without qualms when it comes to the crunch, is extremely precise and realistic in terms of its setting and stage directions, all inherent in the Giacosa/ Illica libretto and Puccini’s music itself. As an opera, it speaks volumes for the Eternal City. And its locations, precisely exact in each detail, are all quintessentially Roman. Puccini’s affection for Rome is all too evident not only in the three acts set in the Sant’Andrea Della Valle (the first chapel of which is still visitable as the Tosca chapel), the Palazzo Farnese and the Castel Sant’Angelo respectively, hence specifically selected locations that plunge us headlong into the realism of that world, but also in minute details such as the offstage haunting folksong of the shepherd boy/ Pastorello that opens Act 3 or the two settings of Act 2 in Palazzo Farnese prior to the Tosca-Scarpia confrontation where the old world cantata sung by Tosca in the noble salons of the Farnese (at the behest of Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples in honour of General Melas) virtually performed offstage requires tricky handling orchestra wise. And most of the music that connects up with that Roman spirit is all timed so as to contain the entire action within sixteen hours, even if Puccini is a product of his times and contemporary musical signals, Puccini-isms laden with postWagnerian leitmotifs and even Japanese overtones to be exploited in Butterfly, appear here and there somewhat out of sync with the characters.

Upstaging Puccini
This Bernard production deliberately seeks to distance us the public from the Puccini world so laboriously erected by making the opera a Cinecittà filmset where Tosca is being filmed, reminding us that art is artifice and the world depicted unreal, thus going contrary to veristic principles. It is a direct violation of the intentions with which the opera embarks and makes light of the materials of which it is so tightly constructed. That said, all this would have been alright and scarcely caused a murmur, had it not interfered with the action and been more original. This version looked like something we’d seen somewhere before and these trappings of filmmaking, clapboards and calls for action, cameramen on trolleys going right up to the stars in the middle of their dramatic highs (filmcrew hangers on fortunately vanished in the Vissi d’arte) were all perfectly useless baggage tacked on. They interfered in my opinion with the enjoyment of the opera. When the staging and the music go in two different directions, the effect is unreal and all you create on stage amounts to sheer gimmickry. For you haven’t changed Puccini’s music! You could have gone in for a total adaptation that creates a different world, that of a filmmaker filming Tosca. Tell us that story, then it is acceptable. Here you have a picture perfect traditional rendition by conductor Fisch who excels even in the open air setting of the Caracalla adhering musically to the Puccini score and gives us the most authentic performance of the original Puccini ever. There is no fooling around with the score. While there may’ve been some debatable tempi embarked upon and a tendency to slacken the pace, perhaps to emotionalise and savour moments, this delineation was soft to the point of becoming sentimental and its shaping so vibrant as to be emotionally moving.

Well Directed Voice
The opera singers were all in their respective worlds, oblivious to the constantly flitting cameras. Kamen Chanev (Bulgaria’s opera singer specialised under my good friends of yore Gena Dimitrova, Boris Christoff and Alexandrina Milcheva), as Cavaradossi was wooden as an actor, quite implacably expressionless, but vocally controlled in the Russian / East European mould as opposed to the open throated Italian where Cavaradossis belt their arias. Unimpressive in his first act (perhaps relying on amplification which didn’t project his voice),“Recondita armonia” was virtually reined-in. Other than his offstage shrieks from the torture chamber where he was vastly improved, he only warmed up and came into his own in the third act in “E lucevan le stelle” and in .the “O dolce mani” scene. It is his choice of role for which his voice may not be quite right that I find fault with, although as winner of the Jussi Bjorling competition Kamen Chanev has a number of lead roles in his belt, Puccini’s Des Grieux, Pinkerton, Calaf, Rodolfo and Verdi’s Radames, Alfredo, Manrico ( a success at the Met and Seoul like Jose in Philadelphia and Rodolfo in Atlanta). Perhaps he should reassess his voice which according to me has distinct baritone possibilities. Or specialise in Russian, Bulgarian and other opera more suited to his limited but welldirected voice used with an intelligence and darkness of conception.

Lirico Drammatico Par Excellence
In contrast, Csilla Boross as Tosca was all expression, moved with a fluidity and grace, and shaped each stance from the music. A naturally gifted opera singer with a repertoire so vast that she sings all from Handel to Janacek and thrives on staples such as Mozart’s Donna Anna, Fiordiligi, Elettra and Verdi’s Lady Macbeth, Abigaille, Violetta, her wellhewn technique makes even this demanding strenuous role seem easy. A singer of immense musicality, her voice of great lyrical beauty has carrying power and tremendous expressivity. She proved to be a versatile actress, vocally always in command, as from the imperious frantic cries of  “Mario, mario..” Tosca makes her presence felt even before she appears on stage. On the set the dramatic soprano from Hungary is a sheer delight. Beautiful, wellproportioned and glamorous from start to finish, whether blazing forth her possessive love for Cavaradossi or politely coldshouldering, rejecting the advances and even spurning churlishly (“Questo e il bacio di Tosca!”) Baron Scarpia in the second act, she is the lirico drammatico par excellence with a sculpturesque quality to her singing and movement as she lives the character on stage. Away from sheer personality projection, with solid technique well-applied, as Csilla Boross focusses on becoming the character, we have exceptional abilities at play that produce effects at all times. Her voice sits comfortably in the Puccini Tosca tessitura as evident in the duet “Non la sospiri la nostra casetta” she starts off. That headstrong Tosca is a role tailormade for her we see not only in her exceedingly powerful singing but also in projecting a voice shining in its immensity with a brilliance of colours where tonal warmth equals emotional warmth. It is one that calls for considerable vocal stamina, a confident technique and a continuous stream of wellmodulated pliant or smooth legato singing, remarkable qualities she has in abundance. Controlled and persuasive indeed, she is perfect for Puccini, and has already, only three years into a promising career, performed Mimi, Cio Cio San, Liu, Lescaut and Tosca. This evening we saw Csilla’s exquisite voice run through a gamut of emotions and passions such as suspicion, jealousy, pining, sorrow, fear of losing her beloved, shattered confidence, pathos. For like the lady from Banbury Cross Tosca creates scenes wherever she goes and even in the ultimate gruesome act of exterminating Scarpia ironically anoints her victim with tall candles and a crucifix.

The only pity was “Vissi d’arte”, the longawaited aria coming at the end of an arduous performance of an intense act, very challenging vocally as well as dramatically, which could have been more fervent. It is wholly possible that with all energies expended in the taxing scene and the last minute flinging down by costar (the crucial timing of this aria has given innumerable Toscas including Callas problems!), the artist was somewhat out of voice. Csilla Boross needs to conserve her energy for the aria and give it her all because it is the world famous plea cum lament that it is and the public expects it of her. However, something was decidedly wrong, whether the slow tempo set by the conductor, Scarpia throwing Tosca down too late (could producers fix this Scarpia-Tosca problem of timing before the great aria once and for all! ) or a deliberate stance adopted by the singer choosing a lowkey dignified rendition much quieter than anything we have ever heard, live or on disc. Whatever the reason, the concluding ‘così’ was practically a soft fadeaway diminuendo that went unheard. Everything else in the second act was spot on as Boross was in full command in the scene with Scarpia, and both loving and worried with her lover. The tension in the third act was maintained through impassioned singing as she naively expects love to triumph. It is hoped that this star familiar to the Italian public having sung in Trieste, Bolzano and Rome (Nabucco under Muti, 2010) and expected to make her debut at La Scala with two operas in the pipeline, shall become a regular at the Teatro dell’Opera for she is a jewel of voice and versatility combined, hard to come across these days. A warmtoned lirico-drammatico with perfectly knit registers, Csilla’s voice is radiant across its range. With her immaculate phrasing and stylish singing, Csilla Boross is among the most formidable exponents of the role in these times I have heard.

Stimulating Scarpia
A distinguished performer in the grand styled manner to the extent of being occasionally individualistic, Carlo Guelphi’s voice has a special timbre, his diction’s perfect and whether in fullthroated or mezzavoce singing he is always suave and stylish. More suave than evil I meant or perhaps it’s hard to hear a voice of beauty and equate it with an ugly character! However, he exploited it and all his talents to the full with subtlety and irony, conveying Scarpia’s smugness and arrogance. Among the depictures away from the traditional was this Scarpia who was elegant and almost Germont-like in persona, disconcertingly far from the man before whom citizens quivered in their boots (“avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma”). Well-regarded as Iago, Germont, Amonasro, Ernani, Barnaba and Tonio, Guelphi as Scarpia was poised and commanded the stage like one who is used to getting his way. Portraying dramatically his obsession with Tosca, lust or ‘love’ his weak point, Act 1 onwards, he was in great form vocally. Painting his scenes, whether in “Già mi dicon venal” or elsewhere, with his firm resonant wellproduced baritone, he humanised the villain Scarpia is meant to be, by making him magnetic and charming rather than intimidating, menacing or downright evil as required by the libretto. Quite like Tosca’s strident entry with off stage singing causing immediate effect, Scarpia’s entrance in Act 1 onstage ought to be something so fear-generating that it sends all and sundry flying helterskelter. Instead it passed by as one of many facts along with effect-ruining trolleys and cameras, with the focus on the ensemble scene.

The shrewd sharpwitted Sacristan was deftly tackled by baritone Giorgio Gatti as we had some comically interesting opera buffa segments, Rossinian in tone and texture, handled well by the producer and the cast and crew of children and women, as the acolytes and choristers who performed in their nimble voices with acuity the Te Deum to perfection. Also welldeserving the mention was Paolo Battaglia playing Cesare Angelotti, his fulltoned rich bass delivering the political intrigue drama with acumen.

Conductor Convinces
Conductor Asher Fisch acclaimed for his Magic Flute, Rigoletto and Butterfly at the Met, Macbeth at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and a regular at Wien Staatsoper and those of Berlin and Dresden, Paris Opera and Royal Opera House Covent Garden, handled exceedingly well in Tosca the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro dell’Opera he’s well acquainted with since his 2010 Falstaff that performed with conviction and warmth.

Although Puccini’s Tosca is best-loved for its headstrong heroine and three worldclass arias, it is a work that literally signalled the dawn of a new world century, when first performed in January 1900, with its thorough music-drama integration, integrated scenes instead of the formulae of arias, duets, trios and quartets and an increasing importance given to the orchestra. This intricate score calls for so much dovetailing, especially in the parallel performances, that it takes all the ingenuity and combined services of conductor Fisch, Maestro Del Coro Roberto Gabbiani and the Voci Bianche conductor Isabella Giorcelli exerting themselves to deliver the total performance we hear. Voices and orchestra made sure we had highly dramatic musical theatre in terms of precision and splitsecond timing as they attentively heeded both stage directions and the distant baton, as all must synchronise with the music from the orchestra pit. In Tosca’s voice offstage (entry), Scarpia’s sharply-timed entrance, Tosca’s cantata in Act 2 with chorus and Cavaradossi’s Act 2 torture scene (two offstage sequences brought onstage in parallel) and the shepherd boy’s song offstage accompanied by bells, you have actions and scenes occurring on different levels, simultaneously or in quick succession. To add to that, musically Puccini in general and Tosca in particular may run upon pure clean lines, all in a breath, but all those nuances and shadings demand an attention to detail. What Verdi with his grand opera bent would have made of the Sardou play he almost approved a decade before Puccini, one can only wonder!

Producer Arnaud Bernard, already a fixture in Italy since his Roi de Lahore 2005 and Luisa Miller at La Fenice 2006, who reaped success with his Boheme in Verona, Falstaff at San Carlo Naples and Thais at Maggio Musicale in Florence, 2010 edition, with an eye for the visual spun artistic compositions wellframed as in cinema, treated the chorus and crowd with the finesse of a choreographer. In missing out on some operatic essentials, he thrived on highlighting relatively irrelevant details with a fastidious zeal. If traditional opera ask for that pinch of Coleridge’s willing suspension of disbelief, then acceptances of the film set and crew on stage call for a totally gullible Caracalla public hard to come by in this day and age that would swallow the producer’s bait hook line and sinker.

Sumptuous Costumes, Skeletal Stage Design
Carlo Savi scored with his stage design, sets and costumes. Art and artifice at work, gigantic conventional sets were dispensed with in favour of dismantlable movable boards on wheels housing the florid baroque altar and chapel columns of the Andrea Della Valle, the portrait in the chapel that the artist works on, the Castel Sant’ Angelo’s Bernini bridge facade (at opera end, Tosca invariably heads in the wrong direction because the playwright had confused the placement of the river Tiber thinking it lay on the other side of the castle, that is on the Vatican side. Haven’t seen any one correct that yet!). Ensemble scenes and the choruses were most effective. While Carlo Savi’s fancy vis a vis the sets may have been restricted somewhat by production demands --(with all the film crew extras aboard, the actual opera being filmed gets handed sets that are meagre! for example, a staffless Baron whose dining table doubles as his office desk, stamps and releases documents with aplomb entirely on his own off the multipurpose table)-- he had a freehand it seemed with the costumes delivering a mix of the sumptuous grand in the flowing silks of Tosca and the austere clean lines and stark contrasts in colours of the male performers and the chorus not to forget the casual attire of the film crew. While Scarpia’s suave red and black was impressive, Tosca’s Act 1 sumptuous flame orange silk seemed somewhat in excess for a church visit and rendezvous with her lover. I thought it might have been more suited to Act 2 where she actually performs in a concert (she stays in that up to opera conclusion for the sequence of scenes is such). Perhaps the plain magenta-purple (a shade harking forward to the darker aspects of the drama) which is much too subdued for a diva at the Farnese would’ve been apter for Act 1. Both exquisite garments, by the way, looked superb on the singer in question. Ironically or coincidentally the lady in the portrait wore a gown very much like the Tosca orange. Did anyone else spot that?

Light design by Augustin Angelini could have played up the Caracalla possibilities but chose to opt for unobtrusive staid lighting. In the third act instead of capitalising on its scope of magical starlit sky sung of and Castel Sant’Angelo by night, we had a gigantic film screen to one side. So much for Castel Sant’Angelo’s kleine nacht musik!

All in all, the opera was saved from dwindling into bathos and the hands of the supposed Cinecittà by the keen musical intelligence of the three main stars and their careful loving characterisations and a conductor who kept the action under control ruling the roost from his sunken orchestra pit, in spite of all odds and distracting oddities contending for prime place (blow-ups on screens of Tosca’s race to the river when the mock execution she calmly witnesses to her horror turns real), evoking the utmost from the orchestra and cast.