TOSCA – REVIEW OF 2023 COC REVIVAL OF PAUL CURRAN PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas 

The Canadian Opera Company opens an amazing production of Puccini’s Tosca that together with Macbeth wraps up the current season. This is the third revival of Paul Curran’s 2008 production. It has earned its staying power and garnered a standing ovation.

Any production of Tosca requires three outstanding singers: a tenor for the hero Mario Cavaradossi, a soprano for the heroine Flora Tosca and a baritone for the despicable Baron Scarpia. There are other roles who need to entertain us such as the Sacristan who is a comic character and needs to sing, make gestures and facial grimaces to get some laughs and bass Donato di Stefano does a fine job..

There is also the desperate Angelotti of bass baritone Christian Pursell and the lovely tones of the Shepherd Boy sung by Olivia Pady from the Canadian Children’s Opera Company. If you ever wondered what a shepherd is doing in the middle of a seriously built-up area of Rome in the Castel Sant’Angelo, wonder no more. The area around the castle was not built at all around 1800, the time of the opera, and there were flocks of sheep around there.

 

Keri Alkema as Tosca and Stefano La Colla as Cavaradossi. Photo: Michael Cooper

Let me praise the singers. Tenor Stefano La Colla in his debut with the COC sang a superb Cavaradossi that was a thrill to listen to. After the insolence and comic business of the Sacristan, he breaks out with “Recondita armonia” and lets out nothing less than vocal pyrotechnics. He waxes romantic and alluring as the jealous Tosca accuses him of infidelity. He reaches for the stars when he sings Vittoria and ends with the luminous “E lucevan le stelle.”

American soprano Keri Alkema is reprising her 2017 performance as Tosca and gives a superb performance. It is a role that makes serious demands on the soprano. She starts as the jealous, suspicious and histrionic woman who loves Cavaradossi. In a nice touch, she will not let him kiss her in front of the Madonna. In the second act Alkema/Tosca meets the challenge of psychological torture leading to betrayal as Scarpia forces her to disclose the whereabouts of the escaped Angelotti.   

She is driven to the edge of despair and finds the strength and vocal beauty in “Vissi d’arte” to sing about living for  art and beauty. A gorgeous rendition. Then comes the attempted rape, the horror and the triumphant stabbing of the creep. Scarpia pleads for help and as he is dying, Tosca leans over him and says “Die with my curse! Die..die..die!” Alkema delivers these words almost matter-of-factly. I think they should contain venomous, demonic triumph as she gets even with him. It is the only disappointing moment in her performance.

Scottish baritone Roland Wood as Scarpia encapsulates lust, evil, torture and deceit. He was so convincing that some people booed him during curtain call, confusing the singer-actor with the character that he portrayed. Marvelous performance.

Curran and Set and Costume Designer Curran opt for an effective production eschewing Zeffirellian excesses. The set from the church scene to Scarpia’s office to the roof of the Sant’Angelo castle are appropriate without being ostentatious. The COC Orchestra is conducted by Giuliano Carella.   

The production does have an alternate Tosca sung by Sinead Campbell-Wallace and a Shepherd Boy sung by Zoya Avramova.

This is a truly outstanding production that does credit to the COC. In the words of Oliver “More, please.”

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Tosca by Giacomo Puccini opened on May 5 and will be performed eight times until May 27, 2023, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor – Culture of The Greek Press.

MACBETH – REVIEW OF CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2023 PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas 

Verdi’s Macbeth was last produced by the Canadian Opera Company in 2005 in its final season at the unmourned and unmissed Hummingbird Centre. The production left mixed memories but the farewell to the Hummingbird was sheer joy. The COC now has a marvellous new production of the opera with an impressive cast directed by David McVicar and under the baton of Speranza Scappucci.

Verdi famously thought that Macbeth had three roles: Lady Macbeth, Macbeth and the Chorus. You may disagree but he was not far wrong. I will pay homage to them in reverse order. The COC Chorus is a star in in the production. From the The Witches’ Chorus, to “Schiude, inferno” to “Patria oppressa” and the final rousing chorus they sing with beautiful lyricism, strength and triumphal sound. An outstanding Chorus at its best.

A scene from the COC’s production of 

Macbeth, 2023, photo: Michael Cooper

American baritone Quinn Kelsey sang an impressive Macbeth. We follow him from his first surprising encounter with the witches to his reluctant conversion into a murderer under the influence of his wife, to his transformation into an evil person and his final downfall.  Macbeth never loses his humanity completely and I am ready to blame his wife regardless of his complicity and actions. In a stunning performance Kelsey shows the evil that overtakes Macbeth but also his innate reluctance to be consumed. He is consumed but his seeing Banquo’s ghost and fainting during the banquet scene show that there is another side to Macbeth. His vocal performance is superb as he negotiates through his emotional turmoil from victorious general, to ambitious and arrogant murderer and finally to a defeated human being.   

Reviewing Bulgarian soprano Alexandrina Pendatchanska’s performance as Lady Macbeth poses a problem. We were advised that she was indisposed and we are honour-bound to respect and overlook any vocal issues. I don’t think we were short-changed because Pendatchanska did superb work in delivering Lady Macbeth’s vocal flourishes and she was convincing in the Mad Scene and in her display of ambition. The rest must be overlooked.

Turkish bass Onay Kose sang a sonorous Banquo, Macbeth’s friend who is murdered but appears at Macbeth’s celebratory dinner after the killing of the legitimate king. Canadian tenor Matthew Cairns as Macduff delivers “Ah la paterna mano” one of the most affecting arias on learning of the massacre of his wife and children.

David McVicar, one of the  best directors in the business, directs this coproduction with the Chicago Lyric Opera. The scene opens in an abandoned and crumbling church where the witches are gathered. With some changes in detail the run-down church serves as the focal point of the production.

With Set Designer John Macfarlane and Costume Designer Moritz Junge, McVicar delivers a dark, bleak, menacing and horrific atmosphere. The bleakness of the world of Scotland is not relieved by anything until the last scene when the chorus sings praise to the new king and gives thanks to God for their deliverance from evil.

Speranza Scappucci conducted the COC Orchestra at a brisk and superb pace.

This is a marvelous production and one that is worth seeing.

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Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi is being performed seven times on various dates until May 20, 2023, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press.