Tosca, Opera San Jose, Nov. 18 2010

I have very much enjoyed researching the background of Tosca (the Roman Republic, the Battle of Marengo, the original Victorien Sardou play La Tosca, etc.) in preparation for giving three of my “potluck preview” talks, and doing so meant that I got more out of this Tosca than ever before. For just one example, remember that the opening to Act III includes the sounds of church bells at dawn. The score marks the bells not as pp or ff, but as vicino (nearby), lontano (distant), molto lontano (very distant), etc. So for the first time, I really listened to the bells—it is a wonderful effect!

The sets were fairly modest without looking cheap. In Act I, there is the requisite statue of the Madonna to the left, and nearby the entrance to the private Attavanti chapel. Center, the sight line goes back to the church wall, with a double door. To the right, a closer wall, with a large painting of the Madonna surrounded by cherubs, and the painter’s scaffold. With the chapel to the left and the painter’s scaffold to the right, not a whole lot of room is left for the chorus to sing the Te Deum. The Act II set has Scarpia’s desk to the left, with several candles on it; behind the desk are the shutters that he can close to shut out the sounds of the cantata from the floor below. To the right, a small writing table in front of the doorway to the torture chamber. Said doorway and entrance is a structure in the room, not just a door in a side wall. In back, again a wall with double doors in the center. Act III has a walkway five feet above stage level, going all the way from left to right, with an angled ramp leading from stage level up to it. In back of the walkway is a brick wall, with cutouts, presumably for cannon. And there is a small statue of St. Michael Archangel, in the same pose as the one atop the real Castel Sant' Angelo in Rome.

The first voice heard is that of Angelotti, the escaped prisoner, expertly sung by Krassen Karagiozov. He was sounding very good that evening. Isaiah Musik-Ayala’s Sacristan was also delightful. It’s good to see Isaiah with a good close shave. Alexander Boyer’s Cavaradossi was good, aside from a badly cracked note in E lucevan le stelle. My studies had revealed that in the Sardou play, Cavaradossi is a freethinker and a Bonapartist, opposed to the government in power; even his mustache contributes to the suspicions about him. I was pleased to see that the director had indeed equipped Alexander with a mustache. Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste sang Tosca. She started out a bit rough in Act I, but cleaned it up as the evening went on. I was particularly looking forward to Silas Elash’s Scarpia. Silas in real life looks to be on the other end of the spectrum from the purely evil Scarpia—but the makeup and costuming departments can do wonders. His Scarpia sounded somewhat more gentle than the most effective Scarpia would be—but I acknowledge that I’ve been deeply into the classic Maria Callas/Giuseppe di Stefano/Tito Gobbi recording from 1953.

One bit of acting/direction that really worked for me was in the middle of Act II. Cavaradossi’s final scream of Ahime! (that leads to Tosca’s spilling the beans) was immediately preceded by Scarpia holding out his arm in the direction of the open door to the torture chamber, with his fingers clenched and his thumb up. As the music grows in intensity, Scarpia brings down his thumb, clearly directing Roberti to tighten the screws even more. Chilling.

There is always the question of how Tosca will actually “jump to her death.” Here, she runs up the ramp, runs to the left along the walkway to meet soldiers entering from the left, reverses course and runs into more soldiers entering from the right, and has no choice but to jump off the walkway through one of the cannon ports. Sorry, but I’m not privy to what she jumped onto. Presumably not a trampoline.

Good singing, good acting, decent sets, fabulous music, goosebumps in places. A solid beta.