13 June 2006[News]: Royal Opera gambles on staging first new Tosca
for 40 years


Rupert Christiansen reviews Tosca at the Royal Opera in Covent Garden

This was a big gamble. The Royal Opera has finally bitten the bullet
and dumped its physically decrepit but hugely popular production of
Puccini's Tosca, originally directed by Franco Zeffirelli in 1964 for
Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi.

    Even if one leaves its romantic associations with those great
stars out of consideration, Zeffirelli's staging remained a true
classic, weathering changes of fashion and some 30 revivals with
remarkable resilience. The consensus in the critics' archive asserts
that for sheer realistic splendour and dramatic focus it remained
unbeatable, and a lot of us wonder just why a replacement was
considered necessary.

So what's immediately striking about the new version is that instead
of avoiding odious comparison by attempting a radically different
interpretation, the director Jonathan Kent has taken on Zeffirelli at
his own game.

Designed by Paul Brown and lit by Mark Henderson, the setting
remains "in period" - Rome in 1800, during the Napoleonic invasion.
Each act looks magnificent, and Kent directs the plot with skill,
flair and attention to detail. The result is a smart piece of work
that could well have as long a shelf-life as Zeffirelli's.

It's basically a highly competent re-tread, which doesn't offer fresh
illumination of character or drama. Perhaps another singer in the
title role would make me feel differently.

Whispers from the wings report that the glamorous Romanian diva
Angela Gheorghiu has been causing friction with her "erratic"
behaviour in and out of rehearsal. There's a certain nice irony about
this, as Tosca is of course a celebrated prima donna determined to
get what she wants.

Madame Gheorghiu's characterisation therefore offered a certain
unanswerable authenticity. As her preening manner never ceases to
remind you, she is a beautiful woman with a gorgeous voice.

Coy, flirtatious and manipulative, she radiates kittenish petulance
and sings with velvety allure. But of Tosca's heart - of the peasant
courage, cunning and command that Callas triumphantly emphasised -
there was nothing. This Tosca has the soul of a phoney soubrette, and
Gheorghiu's singing was simply too poised, small-scale and self-
conscious to carry any sort of emotional impact. She also needs to
work on her diction - much of the time she communicated nothing
verbally beyond ooh-aah vowels.

As Cavaradossi, Marcelo Alvarez sounded nervous and effortful in his
Act I aria. Come Act 2, he began to warm to the task, giving clarion
intensity to his victory cry. His best singing, however, came in the
final love duet, where he sang with a lovely charm and touching
sincerity.

Antonio Pappano conducted expansively, with tempi tending on the slow
side it's good to hear a conductor who really believes that this
score is full of good music. But the star is undoubtedly Bryn Terfel,
From his first stunning entrance to his death-throes, this Scarpia is
terrifyingly impressive - a man as squalid as he is mesmerising.
Terfel sings with hard, black tone and crisp attention to the text.
Can Gobbi himself have been more thrilling, more potent, more
dangerous?

Another great review!

Kay

<<< A supercharged, superstar Tosca
By Fiona Maddocks, Evening Standard

Tosca Royal Opera House ****

With a line-up of superstars for Covent Garden's new Tosca, the only
fear was that one of them might have injured their metatarsal. But
all was well.

No-one was summoned from the operatic substitutes' bench and the
world's top diva, Angela Gheorghiu, together with the dazzling
Argentinian tenor Marcelo Alvarez and the Welsh phenomenon that is
Bryn Terfel, led the cast in the Royal Opera's first new staging of
Puccini's shocker - let's forget shabby or little; this is a
masterpiece - for 42 years.

After 230 performances and a catalogue of leaping divas, the old
Zeffirelli production, made for Callas, has been scrapped. Theatre
director Jonathan Kent has created a new vehicle for La Gheorghiu.

But as yet this new staging has a long way to go to fulfil all the
promise and hype. Paul Brown's traditional but cumbersome sets are a
major problem, especially in Act I where the fatal symmetry of a
double balustrade freezes the action, forcing the eye to a vacuum at
the centre. The rickety iron work and two tier division didn't help:
in the grand Te Deum, the processing chorus was cramped aloft, out of
sight. The second act is dominated b y sculpture Damien Hirst might
envy and Act III is merely drab.

Kent's staging is neutral, which is to say most of the energy seems
to flow from individual performances with some ill-advised downstage
singing which, given the scale of the sets, deadened the sound.

That said, with only two-star sets and three-star production, the
cast was a resounding full-house five, and no evening with these
singers could fail to excite.

Gheorghiu and Alvarez took a while to warm up but the moment Terfel
arrived and sang Scarpia's menacing opening notes, the impact was as
electrifying as sticking wet fingers in a live socket. His
performance throughout was mesmerising.

Puccini is core repertoire for the Royal Opera's music director
Antonio Pappano. Beloved of singers, he has a golden touch when it
comes to handling the reputedly tricky Gheorghiu. She sang Tosca for
him for the 2002 Benoit Jacquot film but this was her first stage
performance.

Her Vissi d'arte had all the beauty and finesse we expect from this
incomparable singer, but as yet her characterisation remains pallid.
If she opens up and becomes more voluptuous, she will triumph.

Alvarez's Cavaradossi rang out with thrilling top notes and an
exquisite E lucevan le stelle, with tender clarinet solo.

This is not an opera for the anxious. One production, perhaps at the
insistence of a nervous soprano, had the heroine float off into the
sky a la Mary Poppins. Other Toscas have bounced up again,
embarrassingly, after their death leap owing to over-responsive-
mattressing backstage.

Fortunately Gheorghiu has no fear of heights or of flinging herself
off them. She hurled herself from the battlements with consummate
flair and a roar of applause and cheers.

In repertory until 8 July. Box Office 020 7304 4000




----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Here are links to the Tosca reviews that have shown up so far on the
Internet. Most are excellent for Marcelo, although one critic calls
him "uncharismatic." Say what? Some critics are not kind to Angela.

Kay

Music OMH
http://www.musicomh.com/opera/roh-tosca_0606.htm

The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?
xml=/arts/2006/06/14/bmopera14.xml&sSheet=/arts/2006/06/14/ixartleft.h
tml

The Guardian
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,,1797130,00.html

The Independent
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/theatre/reviews/article994125.ece

Evening Standard (This Is London)
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/articles/22875399?
source=Evening%20Standard&ct=5

Financial Times
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d1b44564-fbc5-11da-b1a1-0000779e2340.html

The Times Online
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14936-
2225554,00.html

Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?
pid=10000088&sid=adxLGvqqqHus&refer=culture

Below is a Tosca review from the New York Times. I'm sorry that Yahoo
mangled the review links I posted. For links that should work, try
our Files > Reviews > Tosca ROH reviews.

I do wish, though, that the critics had spent less ink on Zeffirelli
and Callas and told us more about THIS production and MARCELO!  <sigh>

Kay

******

Covent Garden 'Tosca' Is a Kitten, Not a Tiger
By ALAN RIDING
LONDON, June 14 — No less than the Metropolitan Opera of New York,
the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden has long counted on Franco
Zeffirelli's lush and safely traditional productions to fill the hall
for yet another revival of an opera evergreen. While music critics
may grow tired of them, the public rarely complains.

The real problem arises when it comes to replacing them. Opera houses
may want something fresh but must please famously conservative
audiences as well as accommodate an array of different soloists over
a decade or two or even more.

The Royal Opera House's decision to replace Mr. Zeffirelli's 1964
production of Puccini's "Tosca," then, represented both opportunity
and risk. It also required the house to confront its own history: Mr.
Zeffirelli created his "Tosca" for none other than Maria Callas, who
according to legend was given 27 curtain calls and 40 minutes of
standing ovation.

Taking up the challenge, Covent Garden presented Tuesday's premiere
of Jonathan Kent's new production as the season's highpoint, with a
cast to fit the occasion: the Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu,
singing the title role onstage for the first time; the Argentine
tenor Marcelo Alvarez singing the role of Mario Cavaradossi, Tosca's
lover, for the first time; and the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel as
the evil Roman police chief, Baron Scarpia.

The production will run through July 8, with these soloists appearing
five more times (June 16, 20, 23 and 26 and July 1) and a second
cast, with Catherine Naglestad as Tosca, Nicola Rossi Giordano as
Cavaradossi and Samuel Ramey as Scarpia, performing six times (June
22, 27 and 29 and July 3, 5 and 8).

The response of the audience at the opening night suggested that Mr.
Kent's production had met Covent Garden's highest expectations: it
was every bit as traditional as Mr. Zeffirelli's. And Mr. Kent, a
respected British theater director who has previously staged
Janacek's "Kat'a Kabanova" and Mozart's "Lucio Silla" at the Santa Fe
Opera, made no apologies.

"Some operas are cornerstones of the repertory, and they need to be
arenas for great singers to move through," he said in an interview
soon after the dress rehearsal. "Every opera house needs these
productions, and I recognize the responsibility. It was understood
that there would be no point in doing something that would last only
a year."

It is easy to set "Tosca" in its period because the action takes
place in Rome on a specific day in 1800 against a historical
background. Each act's location can be visited today. Act I unfolds
in the Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, Act II in the Palazzo
Farnese (now the French Embassy) and Act III in the Castel
Sant'Angelo. Mr. Kent and his designer, Paul Brown, have evoked these
settings convincingly.

Still, if Callas's appearance here in 1964 continues to be discussed
in reverential terms, it is also because Tosca is one of the soprano
repertory's most demanding roles, one that even Ms. Gheorghiu,
immensely popular here, might have taken on with some trepidation.
She had sung the role in Benoît Jacquot's 2002 movie version, but
that involved a recorded soundtrack, very different from stepping
onto the very stage that Callas conquered on Jan. 21, 1964.

Unsurprisingly, then, rather than trying to match Callas's
extraordinary charisma and sense of drama, Ms. Gheorghiu has offered
a gentler and less passionate Tosca than "La Divina," as Callas was
known.

"I am not a tiger," Ms. Gheorghiu said in a BBC radio interview last
week, in what could only be interpreted as a reference to Callas's
raw power, "and I don't like to be hysterical. I hate when someone
says, 'She has a huge voice.' I don't like to hear that because that
is a bad signal. I would like to have a Tosca really fresh, feminine
and young."

Whether this was Mr. Kent's intent (and, not for the first time,
there were rumors of furious behind-the-scenes power struggles
involving the strong-minded Ms. Gheorghiu), this was the Tosca
presented Tuesday.

"Coy, flirtatious and manipulative, she radiates kittenish petulance
and sings with velvety allure," Rupert Christiansen, The London Daily
Telegraph opera critic, wrote. "But of Tosca's heart — of the peasant
courage, cunning and command that Callas triumphantly emphasized —
there was nothing." And he added: "Gheorghiu's singing was simply too
poised, small-scale and self-conscious to carry any sort of emotional
impact."

The Guardian's critic, Tom Service, concurred, noting that "you never
really believe that this Tosca is capable of real venom or malice."

Her final duet with Mr. Alvarez's Cavaradossi on the castle ramparts
provided the most moving moment, but many critics felt that Ms.
Gheorghiu's voice simply lacked the punch needed for this role, even
in a medium-sized opera house like Covent Garden.

In his debut as Cavaradossi, Mr. Alvarez began hesitatingly in the
role's show-stopping Act I aria, but he soon recovered his confidence
and shook the rafters with Cavadarossi's famous victory cry in Act
II. The consensus of critics and audience though,


was that Mr. Terfel injected the necessary emotion into this
production. Oozing lust and sadism, he groped and blackmailed Tosca,
all the time singing, Mr. Christiansen observed, "with hard, black
tone and crisp attention to the text."

Once the dust has settled from Tuesday's opening night, the Royal
Opera House's principal interest will lie in insuring that this
production ages well. That, after all, has been one of the foremost
appeals of Mr. Zeffirelli's shows: they last.

At the Met in New York seven of his productions are still in
repertory, and while five of his productions at Covent Garden have
been replaced in recent years, four others — "Cavalleria
Rusticana," "Pagliacci," "Alcina" and "I Puritani" — are still
available to be staged. And as a reminder of the numbers to beat: Mr.
Zeffirelli's "Tosca" was performed 242 times in an extraordinary 38
revivals.

The Sunday Times June 18, 2006


Opera: A triumph for tragedy
The Royal Opera's new Tosca is stunning, with Terfel at his evil
best. So why did Gheorghiu falter, asks Hugh Canning




Mai Tosca alla scena più tragica fu! — "Even on stage, Tosca was
never more tragic" — yells Baron Scarpia as he torments Puccini's
temperamental diva with the screams of her lover being tortured in an
anteroom. It is one of the great moments of melodrama at the
theatrical climax of this most melodramatic of operas, and Bryn
Terfel delivers it with a kind of sardonic triumphalism that chills
the blood at Covent Garden.

The Royal Opera's long-awaited new production of Puccini's opera —
the house's first since Maria Callas's diva sparred with Tito Gobbi's
Scarpia for Franco Zeffirelli in 1964 — opened last Tuesday to the
kind of reception rarely heard in Bow Street these days: wild (and
deserved) cheering for Terfel; the Argentinian tenor Marcelo Alvarez
as Tosca's inamorato, Mario Cavaradossi; and Antonio Pappano and his
superb orchestra.

Somewhat to my surprise, the clapometer reading dropped noticeably
for the curtain call of the prima donna, the beautiful but ever-
controversial Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, and there were even
a few boos from the upper parts of the house.

So, an unqualified triumph for Terfel, the vocal star of the show,
and Pappano; a big success for Alvarez; and a respectful hand for the
production team, Jonathan Kent, director, Paul Brown, designer, and
Mark Henderson, lighting, who had the unenviable task of replacing
the iconic work of Zeffirelli and his associates. Gheorghiu's
failure, if it can be called such, is more perplexing, because the
portents were so good. About six years ago, she made a soundtrack
recording to a pretentious Tosca film by Benoît Jacquot, with Pappano
conducting his ROH forces, at EMI's Abbey Road studios. Close-miked,
the soprano suggested she would be a Tosca to reckon with when she
chose to sing the role in the theatre. It was always going to be a
daunting task for her, especially at Covent Garden, where the ghost
of Callas hovers over every subsequent soprano who sings the role in
this theatre.

For all the ductile beauty of her timbre — a classic lyric Puccini
voice, with its individual vibrato and gleaming high notes — and her
alluring physical presence, Gheorghiu lacks the essential weight and
cutting edge the role requires in a big theatre. On opening night,
she never seemed to inhabit the part as a star of her standing
should. Her offstage entry didn't synchronise with Pappano's beat,
and anxious glances at the conductor throughout the evening suggested
incomplete mastery of the notes. She may have been nervous, but her
tentative singing of Tosca's show-stopping Vissi d'arte and her
rather improvisatory, "actressy" posturing once again raise questions
about her dedication to the job. With so much natural talent at her
disposal, she gives the impression of "coasting". On the other hand,
I don't think I have heard Tosca's love music more beautifully sung
in the theatre; but, in the final analysis, her voice is probably too
small to succeed as Tosca on the world's most prestigious stages.
We'll see.

The good news, though, is that Kent and Brown have, for the most
part, delivered a Tosca production the Royal Opera can be proud of
and revive regularly. When the curtain rose on Act I, I was worried
that, once again, the company's addiction to scenic clutter was going
to restrict the acting area. The internal architecture of Brown's
Sant'Andrea della Valle looks like no Roman church I have seen, with
its double staircase descending from the high altar behind a grille —
Kent and Brown are obviously not interested in Zeffirelli-style
representationalism. This split-level set at least has the virtue of
separating Terfel's brooding Scarpia from the Te deum procession at
the end of the act.

It is a relief, too, that director and designer have dared to give
London a broadly traditional Tosca, but one that suggests a fresh and
detailed approach to the music and libretto. And there is a genuine
frisson in the interaction of Terfel and Alvarez's Cavaradossi in
their inquisition scene. Terfel presides over a grand study,
dominated by a statue of St Michael conquering the Devil and
noticeably short of books: the only shelves laden with tomes prove to
be the concealed doorway to the torture chamber, suggesting the
veneer of civilisation with which the hypocritical Scarpia attempts
to mask his brutality. The Welsh bass-baritone is riveting to watch
in this scene, and Alvarez rises to the challenge of his testing
cries of "Vittoria!" at the news of Melas's defeat at the hands of
Napoleon.

Pappano is the only RO music director in recent memory to take
Puccini seriously — a sign not only of the conductor's Italianate
sympathies, but also of the composer's rehabilitation as an operatic
genius. And apart from a couple of horn blips at the beginning of Act
III, the orchestra plays with real bite and attention to Puccini's
dynamic markings. This was a great night for Pappano, and one hopes
he returns to Tosca soon and frequently.

I was so sorry to hear that Marcelo was ill and had to withdraw from
the June 16 Tosca performance. Let's hope it was not serious and that
he recovers quickly and soon feels as good as new!

He and other singers were sick before the Luisa Miller in Madrid but
they heroically rose to the occasion with a splendid performance.
I'll never forget their expressions of triumph - and relief! - at the
curtain calls.

Some other fans and I from the U.S. are heading to London for the
June 23 and 26 Tosca performances and of course we are looking
forward to seeing and hearing Marcelo. . . please cross your fingers
for us that he is well enough to perform!

Kay

*******
"The star was without question Marcelo Alvarez as the painter
Cavaradossi. Ardent, passionate acting was matched with a voice in
its prime. Both the big arias built in volume and intensity as they
should, and Alvarez's projection was impeccable. He portrayed love,
torture and death with equal conviction, and brought the house down
at the final curtain." -- Dominick McHugh, Music OMH.

I found some great pictures of Marcelo as Cavaradossi and added them
to the Tosca folder in our photos section.

I also put together a little web page of photos from this production,
so they can be seen all at once: Click on

http://tinyurl.com/gzayk

or

http://community-2.webtv.net/LostTrees/Tosca/

Kay


*******
"The star was without question Marcelo Alvarez as the painter
Cavaradossi. Ardent, passionate acting was matched with a voice in
its prime. Both the big arias built in volume and intensity as they
should, and Alvarez's projection was impeccable. He portrayed love,
torture and death with equal conviction, and brought the house down
at the final curtain." -- Dominick McHugh, Music OMH.

Still another great review for Marcelo! Not so great for poor Angie.

Kay


Opera
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
The lady doth protest too little
Amid a glittering cast, Romanian diva Angela Gheorghiu fails to seize
the glory at Covent Garden

Anthony Holden
Sunday June 18, 2006

Observer

Tosca Royal Opera House, London WC2, Tue to 8 July

'Sex, lust, betrayal and corruption': Covent Garden's otiose hype for
its stellar new Tosca, long since sold out, could apply to any number
of operas - many of them on around the country as we speak. But the
high-octane sense of anticipation before its gala premiere remains
all too rare.

This first new ROH production of Puccini's tragic masterwork in more
than 40 years, since the Zeffirelli version dating back beyond Maria
Callas's last stage performance in 1965, boasts the cast of the year,
with Jonathan Kent mounting a handsome, if largely traditional
staging.

Would the Romanian diva Angela Gheorghiu succeed in her evident bid
to become the adored Callas de nos jours, aided by the Rolls-Royce
casting of Marcelo Alvarez as Cavaradossi and Bryn Terfel as Scarpia?

Up to a point, it turned out, as Gheor-ghiu offers an unexpected new
take on the role. Less theatrically intense than Callas, she turns
Tosca into a fragile, vulnerable coquette, underplaying and
undersinging the role to the point where, for all her famous purity
of tone, she contrives to cede the show (apart from her risibly self-
aggrandising curtain call) to her co-stars, not least Antonio
Pappano's superb house orchestra.

Alvarez and Terfel are both magnificent, the Argentine tenor's
blazing vocal power outsinging Gheorghiu in their duets, the Welsh
baritone's commanding stage presence creating a spymaster seething
with sinister malevolence. It is Terfel, with his chillingly
hushed 'Eh bene?', who dominates the second act, for all Gheorghiu's
heartfelt 'Vissi d'arte'.

So curiously passive is her Tosca, so far from the impassioned, wild-
eyed spitfire of braver actresses, that her glamorously gowned diva
is easily upstaged by the devilish Terfel, with his thrilling relish
in the torture of Cavaradossi and consequent rape of his lover.

After a lavish, split-level church and an imposing library-cum-
torture chamber, Kent's suave stagecraft suddenly becomes less
conventional in the doom-laden last act, during which a giant wing
hangs over the drama with all the heavy symbolism of some fickle
finger of fate. It is designer Paul Brown's most striking innovation,
dramatically lit by Mark Henderson, dominating a broody night sky as
Alvarez sings a glorious 'E lucevan le stelle' before he and
Gheorghiu - at her best when simply expressing her love for him -
emote their way towards their brutal destinies.

Gheorghiu needs to rely on more than merely her marketing and studio-
manufactured fame - blessed with a lustrous but less than full-
throttle voice, often drowned out by the orchestra - to make this
role her own. Unless she can bring more conviction to her acting, it
is not hard to think of other sopranos who will fare better in this
showcase staging.

Back in the Italian repertoire that is his forte, Pappano emphasises
the shocking savagery of Puccini's score as much as its soaring lyric
beauty. Gheorghiu, Alvarez and Terfel will alternate with Catherine
Naglestad, Nicola Rossi Giordano and Samuel Ramey during this first
run of what will no doubt turn out to be another long-lived house
favourite.

Hi, Kay!
Thanks so much for your postings.  Hope Marcelo gets better.  We are
looking forward to "your" reviews as well.
lidia
--- In fansofmarceloalvarez@yahoogroups.com, "Kay" <kay3914@...>
wrote:
>
> The Sunday Times June 18, 2006
>
>
> Opera: A triumph for tragedy
> The Royal Opera's new Tosca is stunning, with Terfel at his evil
> best. So why did Gheorghiu falter, asks Hugh Canning
>
>
>
>
> Mai Tosca alla scena più tragica fu! — "Even on stage, Tosca was
> never more tragic" — yells Baron Scarpia as he torments Puccini's
> temperamental diva with the screams of her lover being tortured in
an
> anteroom. It is one of the great moments of melodrama at the
> theatrical climax of this most melodramatic of operas, and Bryn
> Terfel delivers it with a kind of sardonic triumphalism that chills
> the blood at Covent Garden.
>
> The Royal Opera's long-awaited new production of Puccini's opera —
> the house's first since Maria Callas's diva sparred with Tito
Gobbi's
> Scarpia for Franco Zeffirelli in 1964 — opened last Tuesday to the
> kind of reception rarely heard in Bow Street these days: wild (and
> deserved) cheering for Terfel; the Argentinian tenor Marcelo
Alvarez
> as Tosca's inamorato, Mario Cavaradossi; and Antonio Pappano and
his
> superb orchestra.
>
> Somewhat to my surprise, the clapometer reading dropped noticeably
> for the curtain call of the prima donna, the beautiful but ever-
> controversial Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, and there were
even
> a few boos from the upper parts of the house.
>
> So, an unqualified triumph for Terfel, the vocal star of the show,
> and Pappano; a big success for Alvarez; and a respectful hand for
the
> production team, Jonathan Kent, director, Paul Brown, designer, and
> Mark Henderson, lighting, who had the unenviable task of replacing
> the iconic work of Zeffirelli and his associates. Gheorghiu's
> failure, if it can be called such, is more perplexing, because the
> portents were so good. About six years ago, she made a soundtrack
> recording to a pretentious Tosca film by Benoît Jacquot, with
Pappano
> conducting his ROH forces, at EMI's Abbey Road studios. Close-
miked,
> the soprano suggested she would be a Tosca to reckon with when she
> chose to sing the role in the theatre. It was always going to be a
> daunting task for her, especially at Covent Garden, where the ghost
> of Callas hovers over every subsequent soprano who sings the role
in
> this theatre.
>
> For all the ductile beauty of her timbre — a classic lyric Puccini
> voice, with its individual vibrato and gleaming high notes — and
her
> alluring physical presence, Gheorghiu lacks the essential weight
and
> cutting edge the role requires in a big theatre. On opening night,
> she never seemed to inhabit the part as a star of her standing
> should. Her offstage entry didn't synchronise with Pappano's beat,
> and anxious glances at the conductor throughout the evening
suggested
> incomplete mastery of the notes. She may have been nervous, but her
> tentative singing of Tosca's show-stopping Vissi d'arte and her
> rather improvisatory, "actressy" posturing once again raise
questions
> about her dedication to the job. With so much natural talent at her
> disposal, she gives the impression of "coasting". On the other
hand,
> I don't think I have heard Tosca's love music more beautifully sung
> in the theatre; but, in the final analysis, her voice is probably
too
> small to succeed as Tosca on the world's most prestigious stages.
> We'll see.
>
> The good news, though, is that Kent and Brown have, for the most
> part, delivered a Tosca production the Royal Opera can be proud of
> and revive regularly. When the curtain rose on Act I, I was worried
> that, once again, the company's addiction to scenic clutter was
going
> to restrict the acting area. The internal architecture of Brown's
> Sant'Andrea della Valle looks like no Roman church I have seen,
with
> its double staircase descending from the high altar behind a
grille —
> Kent and Brown are obviously not interested in Zeffirelli-style
> representationalism. This split-level set at least has the virtue
of
> separating Terfel's brooding Scarpia from the Te deum procession at
> the end of the act.
>
> It is a relief, too, that director and designer have dared to give
> London a broadly traditional Tosca, but one that suggests a fresh
and
> detailed approach to the music and libretto. And there is a genuine
> frisson in the interaction of Terfel and Alvarez's Cavaradossi in
> their inquisition scene. Terfel presides over a grand study,
> dominated by a statue of St Michael conquering the Devil and
> noticeably short of books: the only shelves laden with tomes prove
to
> be the concealed doorway to the torture chamber, suggesting the
> veneer of civilisation with which the hypocritical Scarpia attempts
> to mask his brutality. The Welsh bass-baritone is riveting to watch
> in this scene, and Alvarez rises to the challenge of his testing
> cries of "Vittoria!" at the news of Melas's defeat at the hands of
> Napoleon.
>
> Pappano is the only RO music director in recent memory to take
> Puccini seriously — a sign not only of the conductor's Italianate
> sympathies, but also of the composer's rehabilitation as an
operatic
> genius. And apart from a couple of horn blips at the beginning of
Act
> III, the orchestra plays with real bite and attention to Puccini's
> dynamic markings. This was a great night for Pappano, and one hopes
> he returns to Tosca soon and frequently.
>

Is it possible? Could Marcelo be performing in Boca Raton next year?
The following is from the Sun-Sentinal:

<<< The 10-day international Festival of the Arts Boca planned for
March, during the same time as the Boca Bacchanal, would be the kind of
event that could make good use of an indoor theater, Larsen said.

"We're bringing in the Russian National Orchestra, Marcelo Alvarez and
Itzhak Perlman. We looked at tenting the amphitheater, but it was
$300,000. We can't do that. It would be fabulous to have an indoor
venue," Larsen said.

To accommodate the large numbers of people expected to see the artists,
Larsen said the center has to hold multiple concerts, so it is looking
into auditoriums at Florida Atlantic University and Boca Raton
Community Church. >>>

Wow!

Kay

This critic is quite favorable to Marcelo. Frankly, I am puzzled by
all the cruelty directed to Gheorghiu, and I am really looking
forward to seeing for myself. She is not by any means my favorite
soprano, but I thought she was fine in the filmed version of Tosca,
and her face certainly looks expressive in the photos that I posted
(not as expressive as the new photos of Marcelo, though!). We shall
see.

Kay

<<< Tosca, Royal Opera House, London


What, just two facial expressions?
By Anna Picard
Published: 18 June 2006
After 40 years of Zeffirelli réchauffé, the Royal Opera House has a
new production of Puccini's most cruel and intoxicating opera. No
modern dress. No neologism for neologism's sake. Just a handsomely
decorated, traditional Tosca, directed by Jonathan Kent, designed in
the Roman Baroque style by Paul Brown, and cast with three of the
most bankable singers in the business. On paper, Kent's Tosca held as
much promise as Zeffirelli's, and in the first few bars - conducted
with savage beauty by Antonio Pappano - it seemed as though it might
fulfill that promise. But where Zeffirelli had Maria Callas, Kent has
Angela Gheorghiu.

Though Kent's production is built to last, the casting of the title
role reveals how vulnerable this work is to bad chemistry. During the
course of the opera, Tosca must be careless, flirtatious, terrified,
incandescent, tender, desperate, defiant, delusional, and, of course,
a diva. In a beaded evening gown with a train with the turning-circle
of a London taxi, Gheorghiu certainly meets the last criterion.
Unfortunately, she has only two facial expressions at her disposal
for the greater part of the opera. The first, as directed at Marcelo
Alvarez (Cavaradossi), is that of a woman receiving a compliment she
believes is her due. The second, as directed at Bryn Terfel
(Scarpia), is that of a woman who is mildly chagrined by not
receiving the same compliment.

Beautiful as her voice still is, Gheorghiu's singing has become a
lazy study of off-the-peg pathos. Her Act II and Act III Toscas are
identical to her Act I Tosca: a charming, somewhat self-satisfied,
slightly wistful coquette. This makes it rather hard to understand
why she would make either man "forget God", and harder still to
regard her suicide as an act of resistance, rather than hysteria.
Without some indication that her world-view has been brutally
shattered by Scarpia, and that she loves Cavaradossi more deeply than
she had hitherto realised, "Vissi d'arte" is a vapid party-piece.
Terfel's slow, sarcastic hand-clap at its close was singularly
appropriate.

One has come to take his luxurious saturation of tone and text for
granted. Now it seems as though Terfel is perpetually hungry for the
intense theatrical dynamic he enjoyed with Rosalind Plowright, and
for the rich ambiguities he brought to the role of Wotan. Good for
him, I say. But in Tosca, an opera that should scorch and burn with
hatred and desire, his Scarpia is thwarted by Gheorghiu's passivity.
Instead, the revelation is Alvarez: a formerly cautious, stolid
singer liberated by the right role.

Alvarez holds Act III single-handedly, singing "E lucevan le stelle"
with an astonishing variety of tone and expression, and reserving
enough energy for an uncommonly touching "O dolci mani", while
Gheorghiu plays with her hair. Pappano's conducting, as mentioned
above, is totally compelling, not least for its extraordinary blend
of violence and sweetness. The chorus and supporting roles, not all
of them easy on the ear, are well directed. All the same, this was a
frustrating experience, and the second time this year that I have
seen Terfel's talent squandered. Killed by a soprano? I should cocoa.

So pity poor Jonathan Kent, whose Covent Garden debut was waylaid by
a walking ballgown. >>>

Still another Tosca review! I think Yahoo is getting worn out from
me - none of my posts are coming back to me in email!

This critic liked Marcelo the best. :)

Kay

<<< TOSCA


If there was nervousness on the Royal Opera's part about the
replacement of its Zeffirelli Tosca, fears were allayed when the
curtain rose and a complex but traditional view of the Roman church
of Sant'Andrea della Valle was revealed in Paul Brown's set. As the
evening went on and his period costumes and Mark Henderson's
imaginative lighting became familiar, things got, if anything,
better. Certainly the last act - the execution scene at the fortress
of Castel Sant'Angelo - is a clear improvement over its predecessor.

So is Jonathan Kent's production overall, with its rich, three-
dimensional characters and focused narrative. This is a Tosca to
savour.

Puccini's score registers with maximum impact. The second act in
particular emerges as one of opera's greatest achievements.

Bryn Terfel's Scarpia may be less the aristocrat and more the
roughneck but he sing and acts with constant vitality and point. If
Angela Gheorghiu's diva has little vulnerability on display, her way
with the character is detailed and persuasive and her singing
immaculate.

  Of the three central roles it is Marcelo Alvarez's Cavaradossi that
makes the most complete impression. He is on top form and one's heart
goes out to him in his final aria.

Impressive support too from Graeme Danby's Sacristan, Carlo Cigni's
Angelotti and Enrico Facini's Spoletta. The whole is a triumph and a
show that could last as long as its legendary predecessor. >>>

Hello,

Marcelo regrets that he cannot perform tomorrow too
(salmonella poisoning). But he said that he will
perform on Friday.

Hope you feel better soon, Marcelo!

Christine






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Poor Marcelo! I am so sorry, but thanks for letting us know. All we wish for our
Marcelo is, Be well!

Kay

----- Original Message -----
From: Christine
Sent: Monday, June 19, 2006 8:22 PM
To: fansofmarceloalvarez@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Fans of Marcelo Alvarez] Marcelo will not perform tomorrow

Hello,

Marcelo regrets that he cannot perform tomorrow too
(salmonella poisoning). But he said that he will
perform on Friday.

Hope you feel better soon, Marcelo!

Christine






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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi,

Fabio Armiliato wird heute Abend in London für Marcelo
einspringen.

Fabio Armiliato will sing tonight in London instead of
Marcelo.

Christine






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Love what the critic says about Marcelo! :)

Kay

<<< A pointless Tosca
Tosca
opera in 3 atti
by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica e Giuseppe Giacosa da "La Tosca" di
Victorien Sardou
First performance: Roma, Teatro Costanzi January 14, 1900

Royal Opera House (ROH)
Covent Garden
Londra
00442073044000
June 19, 2006

Jonathan Kent, the director of the new production of Tosca at Covent
Garden, which after 40 years has replaced the one created by
Zeffirelli for Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi, has stated that 'Each
generation has to reinvent these classics, or they become museum
pieces'. This may be his opinion, which seems also to suggest that
when it comes to opera the production is more relevant than the
performance. There is another school of thought though, which
states 'When something works, do not change it', and it is therefore
difficult to justify the reasons why a production which was
intelligent, elegant and functional, and allowed the performers a
characterization both authentic and faithful to the score, had to be
substituted by one which is nothing more than a poor copy of the
former, but lacks subtleties and coherence.

  Kent moves the characters as if they were puppets in Paul
Brown's 'barockitch' sets, inspired by Bernini to provide some local
colour, but with debatable results. In particular, Scarpia is
portrayed as a sadistic brute, a mono-dimensional and superficial
reading which does not help the interpretation of Bryn Terfel, who
seems ill at ease in the Italian repertoire. Angela Gheorghiu has
been quoted as saying that to her taste Callas 'didn't understand the
role', and although it is difficult to make comparisons, her
interpretation does not seem to bring new light to the character of
Floria Tosca, which appears to be beyond the vocal possibilities of
the Romanian soprano.

Vocally the evening was saved by the Cavaradossi of Marcelo Alvarez,
especially moving in the third act.

Once more Antonio Pappano proves himself an exceptional interpreter
of Puccini, and his reading sets off the orchestral colours and the
thematic recurrences, providing, from the podium, the dramatic
intelligence which was lacking on stage.


Barbara Diana
(translation by Barbara Diana)

Marcelo recovered from his illness and performed magnificently Friday
night!

I will write more when I get home but for now, I'd say Marcelo's
Cavaradossi is one for the ages and will never be forgotten by the
audience who cheered him.

The production is gorgeous; Bryn was super and Angela fine; but it was
Marcelo's awesome triumph. The man is truly extraordinary. Bravissimo!

Kay

This Saturday, 1 July 2006, at 1:55 p.m.(New York time), 18:55 (London
time) BBC Radio 3 is going to broadcast:   Antonio Pappano/Royal Opera
House: Puccini ``Tosca" (Angela Gheorghiu, Marcelo Alvarez, Bryn
Terfel) (also downloadable for the next 7 days) (BBC Radio 3) .

Please verify dates and times since I could be mistaken.

Here is a link to BBC Radio 3

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/operaon3/pip/yq2zv/
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/operaon3/pip/yq2zv/>

(I don't know whether the message I posted about five minutes ago is
going to show up or not.)





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://www.youtube.com/results?search=Marcelo+Alvarez&search_type=search_videos&\
search=Search

Christine






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Hi,

after having seen and heard Marcelo's superb
Cavaradossi in London (I don't remember when I have
ever heard such a heartrending, passionated 'E lucevan
le stelle' or 'O dolci mani' with so many most
wonderful piani) I am looking forward to the broadcast
on Saturday and hope that many of you will be able to
listen to it too, for sure it will be 'A MUST HAVE
HEARD'!

It is most impressing how Marcelo managed to do as
well Manrico as Cavaradossi for the first time within
only two months, on top of it in Parma and in London
which also shows his self-assurance! And he didn't
only sing the parts he was in them as if he had sung
them many times before and he was most memorable in
both parts. Must have been hard work for him to make
such debuts in so short time, but the success which he
had in both parts was for sure worth all his efforts.
For me and my friends Marcelo is at his zenith in the
moment and I wish him and us that he will be there for
a long time! Bravo and thank you, Marcelo!

Ad you tube:
I had a look on the you tube website today and have
seen that you tube has fixed the approval for comments
for the videos in the meantime.

As I don't want that anyone writes silly things there
about Marcelo every comment which is made there needs
to have my approval and so I have approved all the
comments which I have got in the last weeks (also
Olga's, and there were no silly comments which I had
to delete, I have approved all).

If you want to read the comments or better to make
your own comments please visit:

http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=5A0BC0B01FF39A1A&page=1

Best regards,

Christine






___________________________________________________________
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Unfortunately the first posting which I have written before (1437)
appeared later than my second (1436), but anyway, am sure you will
find Marcelo's videos on you tube.

Regards,

Christine

--- In fansofmarceloalvarez@yahoogroups.com, Christine
<christine_at_1999@...> wrote:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/results?
search=Marcelo+Alvarez&search_type=search_videos&search=Search
>
> Christine
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________________________________
> Gesendet von Yahoo! Mail - Jetzt mit 1GB Speicher kostenlos - Hier
anmelden: http://mail.yahoo.de
>

Marcelo was fabulous!

After conquering the illness that took him out of Tosca for two
nights at the ROH, Marcelo returned on June 23 and 26 with two
spectacular performances as Cavaradossi.

He sang Recondita armonia as I have never heard it sung before, even
more beautifully if possible than on The Tenor's Passion. The tempo
was slow and sensuous, his voice caressing every note and every word.
The final note seemed almost visible to the eye, floating out into
the audience in waves. How does he do that?!

The conductor paused at that point for applause. I am told that no
one clapped for the  replacement tenors, but when Marcelo finished,
the audience didn't even wait for the pause to burst into shouts of
Bravo and applause that went on and on.

Marcelo's connection with the audience is truly amazing. During
Recondita armonia, as I watched him through opera glasses, I honestly
felt he was looking right at me, singing just for me, and I'm sure
others in the audience felt the same.

Although I listen to his recordings over and over, when I see
him "live" I am always astonished at the pure and creamy beauty of
his voice, the sound that is unique among all voices. I am even more
astonished by the huge size and power of that voice and the ease with
which he floats the highest notes and most difficult passages.

We have heard the power and strength of that voice evolve through
Luisa Miller, Trovatore, and now Tosca, without losing any of its
innate sweetness and beauty. There is steel beneath the velvet, solid
gold beneath the silk.

Much has been written about the production in the reviews so I won't
go into detail except to say that the sets were quite impressive. Act
I is in two tiers, dominated by railings that cross the upper level
and define the curved staircases to the lower level. The gilded
railings are beautiful, yet they are somehow prison-like, ominously
foreshadowing Cavaradossi's future.

He made his entrance from the upper level (and later does
considerable climbing of the steep ladder to the scaffolding and also
on the stairs) as do Tosca and Scarpia. (I'll admit to some breath-
holding, followed by a sigh of relief when he actually appeared on
the upper stage!) He looked handsome and dashing in a long yellow
Inspector Javert-style coat, and he moved with grace and agility
around the stage.

So, what did I think of Angela? I am surprised to say that I liked
her very much. She is slender as a reed, graceful as a ballerina, and
drop-dead gorgeous. Either she altered her performance considerably
to acknowledge the critics' attacks or else the critics were
punishing her not for her performance but for her offstage behavior.

Granted, hers is a light voice, but I had no trouble hearing her from
either side of the house – Stalls Circle and middle Orchestra Stalls.
Her voice sounded beautiful and I did not hear any vocal flaws.
Several people I spoke to afterwards on both nights also felt she
gave an excellent performance and they, too, felt the critics were
wrong.

Of course the interpretation of a role can evolve during performances
(although it might have been fairer to her co-stars if she had chosen
an interpretation during rehearsals and stuck to it!) but I honestly
found no fault with either her interpretation or her singing. Yes,
she did play the role as rather girlish and flirtatious in the
beginning (the sort of behavior that some might find phony and
affected in a real-life person!), an interpretation perhaps suitable
to her light voice, but I found her totally believable as a jealous
diva.

  I thought the relationship of her Tosca to Marcelo's Mario in Act I
was cute and loving, playful and sexy.

I also did not find Bryn Terfel's Scarpia as thuggish and brutal as
others have described. The hair extensions and facial scruff are
rough looking but his posture and bearing were regal and elegant. He
is a giant of a man, towering over everyone else on stage, and
perhaps that alone made him appear evil. He sang beautifully, but
oddly enough, his was the only voice of the principals that I had
trouble hearing. He was drowned out several times during the Te Deum.

Otherwise, he gave a powerful performance and there was considerable
dramatic tension between him and Angela in Act II.

The Act II set was all brown and gloomy, dominated by a huge statue
in the center with the hidden torture chamber behind bookcases to the
left and a large window to the right.

Marcelo's Vittoria, vittoria was electrifying, and his rage as he
struggled to go after Scarpia was downright scary. It is amazing how
he could continue to sing clearly while being manhandled by Scarpia's
minions.

Tosca and Scarpia, left alone, circled each other like caged animals.
Here, in contrast to her earlier playfulness with Mario, she was cold
and imperious, every bit the diva. In a shocking moment, Scarpia
grabs her and forces her down on the table, and enraged, she delivers
the fatal wound.

This is a hair-raising moment, but looking back, I wonder if it
doesn't somehow change the motivations of the scene by making it seem
as if she is stabbing him only in response to his attack. Tosca has
more than enough reason to hate Scarpia for torturing -- and forcing
her to betray -- her lover. That, as well as a peremptory strike
against his lustful intentions, would seem to be reason enough to
kill Scarpia.

I am still puzzled as to why Tosca would tear off the cross from her
neck and throw it onto Scarpia's body, leaving a rather revealing
clue to the identify of his murderer!

The Act III scenery was simple, in contrast to the ornate sets for
the first two acts. The parapet slopes down from left to right, and
the stage is dominated by four wooden stanchions, meant for holding
firing squad victims.

Cavaradossi is escorted on stage by the guards and he starts to write
his note against one of the stanchions. Then, in a wonderful little
bit of staging, as the E lucevan le stelle prelude begins, he leans
his shoulder against the stanchion and slowly slides down it,
collapsing in despair until he is on the floor, again in an ominous
foreshadowing of his future.

The aria was breathtaking – all the thrilling passion, emotion, and
despair that breaks our hearts, culminating in that final "la vita"
that still rings in my ears.

Here, there was no pause for applause; perhaps it would have broken
the spell.

Again, Marcelo and Angela were lovely together in their final scene,
and O dolci mani was heartbreakingly tender. Does Mario really
believe Scarpia's promise? Tosca is so full of hope, yet Marcelo's
Cavaradossi looks at her with sadness, as if knowing he is truly
saying Farewell.

Her shrieks over his lifeless body are heartbreaking. As Spoletta and
the guards approach, she darts up the ramp-like parapet to nearly the
top, cries out her curse to Scarpia, turns, and is gone. Well, she
made me cry – what can I say!

The principals got huge applause at the curtain calls. Bryn looked
rather gruff on Friday night – perhaps annoyed at having to stay
through the last act, although Angelotti was there as well! – but he
seemed more cheerful on Friday.

I must say I applaud Angela for even having the guts to show up and
perform after the critical bashing she took, especially given her
reputation for canceling. Even the most self-assured, or arrogant, of
divas could hardly fail to be stung by the savagery of most of the
reviewers toward her performance. Perhaps she was determined to prove
the critics wrong, and she received ovations from the crowd (although
perhaps not as huge as those for Marcelo and Bryn!)

Unlike the professional critics, I swore I would not mention That
Other Director or That Other Soprano. Many of us did not see that
director's Tosca production, and many of us did not see that
soprano's Tosca "live." Therefore, I find such comparisons tedious.
Because one production was beautiful, should there never be another?
Because Leonard Warren was, in my opinion, the greatest Rigoletto,
should no other baritone attempt the role? Should I be writing this
little essay with a quill pen or carving it on a stone tablet?

Personally, I think this Tosca will be one for the ages, and decades
from now, critics will be comparing new productions (adversely) to
this one and writing (quite correctly!) that no new tenor could even
compare to the Cavaradossi of Marcelo Alvarez.

Bravi to Angela and Bryn, bravissimo to Marcelo, and a thousand
thanks for two spectacular performances that I will treasure forever!

Kay

Thanks, Kay, for the best review so far of this Tosca production!!!
lidia
--- In fansofmarceloalvarez@yahoogroups.com, "Kay" <kay3914@...>
wrote:
>
>
> Marcelo was fabulous!
>
> After conquering the illness that took him out of Tosca for two
> nights at the ROH, Marcelo returned on June 23 and 26 with two
> spectacular performances as Cavaradossi.
>
> He sang Recondita armonia as I have never heard it sung before,
even
> more beautifully if possible than on The Tenor's Passion. The
tempo
> was slow and sensuous, his voice caressing every note and every
word.
> The final note seemed almost visible to the eye, floating out into
> the audience in waves. How does he do that?!
>
> The conductor paused at that point for applause. I am told that no
> one clapped for the  replacement tenors, but when Marcelo
finished,
> the audience didn't even wait for the pause to burst into shouts
of
> Bravo and applause that went on and on.
>
> Marcelo's connection with the audience is truly amazing. During
> Recondita armonia, as I watched him through opera glasses, I
honestly
> felt he was looking right at me, singing just for me, and I'm sure
> others in the audience felt the same.
>
> Although I listen to his recordings over and over, when I see
> him "live" I am always astonished at the pure and creamy beauty of
> his voice, the sound that is unique among all voices. I am even
more
> astonished by the huge size and power of that voice and the ease
with
> which he floats the highest notes and most difficult passages.
>
> We have heard the power and strength of that voice evolve through
> Luisa Miller, Trovatore, and now Tosca, without losing any of its
> innate sweetness and beauty. There is steel beneath the velvet,
solid
> gold beneath the silk.
>
> Much has been written about the production in the reviews so I
won't
> go into detail except to say that the sets were quite impressive.
Act
> I is in two tiers, dominated by railings that cross the upper
level
> and define the curved staircases to the lower level. The gilded
> railings are beautiful, yet they are somehow prison-like,
ominously
> foreshadowing Cavaradossi's future.
>
> He made his entrance from the upper level (and later does
> considerable climbing of the steep ladder to the scaffolding and
also
> on the stairs) as do Tosca and Scarpia. (I'll admit to some breath-
> holding, followed by a sigh of relief when he actually appeared on
> the upper stage!) He looked handsome and dashing in a long yellow
> Inspector Javert-style coat, and he moved with grace and agility
> around the stage.
>
> So, what did I think of Angela? I am surprised to say that I liked
> her very much. She is slender as a reed, graceful as a ballerina,
and
> drop-dead gorgeous. Either she altered her performance
considerably
> to acknowledge the critics' attacks or else the critics were
> punishing her not for her performance but for her offstage
behavior.
>
> Granted, hers is a light voice, but I had no trouble hearing her
from
> either side of the house – Stalls Circle and middle Orchestra
Stalls.
> Her voice sounded beautiful and I did not hear any vocal flaws.
> Several people I spoke to afterwards on both nights also felt she
> gave an excellent performance and they, too, felt the critics were
> wrong.
>
> Of course the interpretation of a role can evolve during
performances
> (although it might have been fairer to her co-stars if she had
chosen
> an interpretation during rehearsals and stuck to it!) but I
honestly
> found no fault with either her interpretation or her singing. Yes,
> she did play the role as rather girlish and flirtatious in the
> beginning (the sort of behavior that some might find phony and
> affected in a real-life person!), an interpretation perhaps
suitable
> to her light voice, but I found her totally believable as a
jealous
> diva.
>
>  I thought the relationship of her Tosca to Marcelo's Mario in Act
I
> was cute and loving, playful and sexy.
>
> I also did not find Bryn Terfel's Scarpia as thuggish and brutal
as
> others have described. The hair extensions and facial scruff are
> rough looking but his posture and bearing were regal and elegant.
He
> is a giant of a man, towering over everyone else on stage, and
> perhaps that alone made him appear evil. He sang beautifully, but
> oddly enough, his was the only voice of the principals that I had
> trouble hearing. He was drowned out several times during the Te
Deum.
>
> Otherwise, he gave a powerful performance and there was
considerable
> dramatic tension between him and Angela in Act II.
>
> The Act II set was all brown and gloomy, dominated by a huge
statue
> in the center with the hidden torture chamber behind bookcases to
the
> left and a large window to the right.
>
> Marcelo's Vittoria, vittoria was electrifying, and his rage as he
> struggled to go after Scarpia was downright scary. It is amazing
how
> he could continue to sing clearly while being manhandled by
Scarpia's
> minions.
>
> Tosca and Scarpia, left alone, circled each other like caged
animals.
> Here, in contrast to her earlier playfulness with Mario, she was
cold
> and imperious, every bit the diva. In a shocking moment, Scarpia
> grabs her and forces her down on the table, and enraged, she
delivers
> the fatal wound.
>
> This is a hair-raising moment, but looking back, I wonder if it
> doesn't somehow change the motivations of the scene by making it
seem
> as if she is stabbing him only in response to his attack. Tosca
has
> more than enough reason to hate Scarpia for torturing -- and
forcing
> her to betray -- her lover. That, as well as a peremptory strike
> against his lustful intentions, would seem to be reason enough to
> kill Scarpia.
>
> I am still puzzled as to why Tosca would tear off the cross from
her
> neck and throw it onto Scarpia's body, leaving a rather revealing
> clue to the identify of his murderer!
>
> The Act III scenery was simple, in contrast to the ornate sets for
> the first two acts. The parapet slopes down from left to right,
and
> the stage is dominated by four wooden stanchions, meant for
holding
> firing squad victims.
>
> Cavaradossi is escorted on stage by the guards and he starts to
write
> his note against one of the stanchions. Then, in a wonderful
little
> bit of staging, as the E lucevan le stelle prelude begins, he
leans
> his shoulder against the stanchion and slowly slides down it,
> collapsing in despair until he is on the floor, again in an
ominous
> foreshadowing of his future.
>
> The aria was breathtaking – all the thrilling passion, emotion,
and
> despair that breaks our hearts, culminating in that final "la
vita"
> that still rings in my ears.
>
> Here, there was no pause for applause; perhaps it would have
broken
> the spell.
>
> Again, Marcelo and Angela were lovely together in their final
scene,
> and O dolci mani was heartbreakingly tender. Does Mario really
> believe Scarpia's promise? Tosca is so full of hope, yet Marcelo's
> Cavaradossi looks at her with sadness, as if knowing he is truly
> saying Farewell.
>
> Her shrieks over his lifeless body are heartbreaking. As Spoletta
and
> the guards approach, she darts up the ramp-like parapet to nearly
the
> top, cries out her curse to Scarpia, turns, and is gone. Well, she
> made me cry – what can I say!
>
> The principals got huge applause at the curtain calls. Bryn looked
> rather gruff on Friday night – perhaps annoyed at having to stay
> through the last act, although Angelotti was there as well! – but
he
> seemed more cheerful on Friday.
>
> I must say I applaud Angela for even having the guts to show up
and
> perform after the critical bashing she took, especially given her
> reputation for canceling. Even the most self-assured, or arrogant,
of
> divas could hardly fail to be stung by the savagery of most of the
> reviewers toward her performance. Perhaps she was determined to
prove
> the critics wrong, and she received ovations from the crowd
(although
> perhaps not as huge as those for Marcelo and Bryn!)
>
> Unlike the professional critics, I swore I would not mention That
> Other Director or That Other Soprano. Many of us did not see that
> director's Tosca production, and many of us did not see that
> soprano's Tosca "live." Therefore, I find such comparisons
tedious.
> Because one production was beautiful, should there never be
another?
> Because Leonard Warren was, in my opinion, the greatest Rigoletto,
> should no other baritone attempt the role? Should I be writing
this
> little essay with a quill pen or carving it on a stone tablet?
>
> Personally, I think this Tosca will be one for the ages, and
decades
> from now, critics will be comparing new productions (adversely) to
> this one and writing (quite correctly!) that no new tenor could
even
> compare to the Cavaradossi of Marcelo Alvarez.
>
> Bravi to Angela and Bryn, bravissimo to Marcelo, and a thousand
> thanks for two spectacular performances that I will treasure
forever!
>
> Kay
>

Kay,

Thanks once again for writing a review which makes me feel like I have
actually seen Marcelo in this production (sigh) He must have been
glorious!

Diane

Hi all. I'm a member who reads the messages but so far I haven't
posted any. Just wanted to say that I was in the queue at Covent
Garden at the crack of dawn this morning but the tickets ran out
before I reached the ticket desk.  This is the first time ever that I
have not been able to get a seat for the evening performance at the
ROH in this way. Great disappointment!   Oh well, I'll just have to
make do with the broadcast.

Many thanks for your detailed review, Kay!

I agree with you, those comparisons with the old Tosca production are
probably unfair. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that more than 40
years ago people were dissatisfied with the then new production and
were yearning for the one before. It always takes some time to get
used to something new and since the new Tosca is pretty conventional
all this comparing should be over soon.

The most important thing is, that you liked it.

TR

Did you hear it???!!! Oh, my! Totally sensational! Millions of opera
fans all over the world heard our Marcelo sing so gorgeously!

This time, the ROH audience would not let the orchestra continue after
E lucevan le stelle, and Marcelo got his second huge ovation of the
night - how wonderful! And we got a lovely little bonus, some comments -
  in English! - from Marcelo before Act III.

I'd be interested in hearing thoughts from any of you who heard this
performance - what did you think of Angela, of Bryn?

Again, bravo, bravo Marcelo!

Kay

Hi, Everyone
Can any of you tell me how to listen again to the Tosca broadcast?
I will be infinitely thankful
lidia
--- In fansofmarceloalvarez@yahoogroups.com, "Christine"
<christine_at_1999@...> wrote:
>
> On 1st of July BBC3 will broadcast Tosca directly from the ROH:
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/operaon3/schedule0506.shtml
>
> Christine
>

I put three inhouse excerpts from the June 23 Tosca in our Files
section in Sound files: Recondita armonia, Vittoria! vittoria!, and E
lucevan le stelle.

This was the first performance that I saw in London and Marcelo's
first after his illness. You can imagine, after I worried for days
about Marcelo's health, what a thrill it was to see him suddenly on
stage and to hear him burst forth with this gorgeous Recondita
armonia!

Lidia, the newspaper announcement about the Tosca broadcast said that
it would be available for seven days, but we have not been able to
find it on the BBC 3 site.

However, I will be getting CDs of that broadcast as well as an
inhouse recording and I would be happy to copy them for you (and of
course for anyone else who would like a copy - please email me
personally if you are interested.)

In the meantime, enjoy the sound files. :)


Kay