Leo Hussain, Conductor; Christof Loy, Director; Christian Schmidt, Designer; Olaf Winter, Lighting Designer. CAST: Sinéad Campbell-Wallace, Floria Tosca; Adam Smith,Mario Cavaradossi; Roland Wood, Baron Scarpia; Msimelelo Mbali, Cesare Angelotti; Lucia Lucas, A Sacristan; John Findon, Spoletta
This was an extremely enjoyable and impressive performance, with singers who in the main I’d never heard of before…….It’s a production that’s been around for a few years in other European opera houses but this was its first outing at the ENO. I was sitting in what I think must be the best value seats for opera in London – the front of the Balcony, where you get the full blaze of the orchestra and at the same time you are nearer to the singers than you would be at Covent Garden in a similar Amphitheatre position . Behind me was an elderly Italian gentleman clearly a little bemused by the audience’s lack of responsiveness after the big arias (he carried on shouting ‘bravi’ solo, nonetheless, and said to me how good he thought the performance was). The house was pretty full and at the end it gave a very rousing and enthusiastic response to the artists. All in all, the evening made me feel more positive about ENO’s future – and in addition you could hear how the singers were giving what they were singing new edge, colour and meaning because they were singing in English.
The production had a simple set for first two acts – two walls, one with a large window, and a floor of black and white squares. This functioned very well as both the church and Scarpia’s dining room and office. The last act offered a small room where Cavaradossi was being held and then the top of the fortress tower – with a wall for Tosca to throw herself off (and she does, more convincingly than in most productions I’ve seen). The interaction between the characters was extremely well handled by director and artists and made for a gripping piece of theatre – for instance the way Scarpia came menacingly close up to Tosca during Visse d’ arte, groping her. Visually too the whites and blacks of the sets were offset by the vividness of costumes. There were some oddities – costumes were partly in modern dress, partly early 19th century and partly 18th century. Quite what that was about I am not sure – at points in each act a set of painted drapes appeared as well. I guess there was some point being made about characters being knowingly part of a self-conscious piece of theatre (Tosca does indeed commend Cavaradossi for being an excellent actor in handling, as she sees it, the execution) but these points – the drapes and the costumes – while not being coherent were also not really getting in the way of the action either.
The three main parts were tremendously well-sung. I have never heard of Adam Smith before but his voice is strong, well-grounded – infinitely better than the Radames at ROH the previous evening – capable of subtlety as well and when needed truly stentorian (his cry of ‘Vittoria’ seemed to go on for ever!). He also looks good and moves easily on stage. He was probably the best of the three – but Sinéad Campbell-Wallace was also very effective. She doesn’t have – at least on this occasion – the ability to float notes quietly, as I remember Angela Georghiou doing last year at ROH, but she has a lovely warm voice, which can also achieve dramatic intensity, and again she is utterly convincing on stage. Roland Wood didn’t overdo things and, again, has a beautiful-sounding voice, which adds a dimension to his portrayal of Scarpia.
The ENO orchestra was on great form, and Leo Hussain (again not a name I’ve come across though he’s clearly been around for a while and has numerous European and US opera productions to his name) had clearly energised them
John's musical journey 