Germany Puccini: Tosca: Soloists, Refrain of Leipzig Opera and Gewandhaus Orchestra / Moritz Gnann (conductor). Leipzig Opera, 10.1.2024. (GT)
Manufacturing:
Director and Set design- Michiel Dijkema
Costumes – Claudia Damm
Lighting – Michael Münster
Dramaturgy – Christian Geltinger
Refrain director – Thomas Eitler-de Lint
Childrens’ Refrain director – Sophie Bauer
Forged:
Tosca – Karine Babajanyan
Cavaradossi – Andrea Shin
Scarpia – Tuomas Pursio
Angelotti – Randall Jakobsh
Sacristan – Peter Dolinšek
Spoletta – Sven Hjörleifsson
Sciarrone – Ondřej Potůček
Jailer – Klaus Bernewitz
Voice of the Shepherd Lady – Carmen Boatella
On earlier visits to Leipzig, the Thomanerchor and the Gewandhaus Orchestra have drawn my consideration – but it’s the splendid constructing of the Leipzig Opera that dominates the Augustusplatz reverse the brand new Gewandhaus. Each buildings have been destroyed by allied bombing in World Struggle II, and solely in 1960 was the theatre rebuilt in keeping with the unique structure – but with fashionable improvements. The whole construction is spectacular, permitting beneficiant room for the viewers to assemble earlier than and through intervals. The auditorium has advantageous acoustics and cozy seating, permitting everybody an ideal sight of the motion on stage.
This 2011 Leipzig manufacturing is having fun with a revival this season and drawing wholesome audiences within the first chilly weeks of 2024, and this was its 54th efficiency total. The Danish director Michiel Dijkema made his debut at Leipzig with a well-received staging of Il turco in Italia in 2009. In fact, to the good thing about Leipzig Opera is the magnificent Gewandhaus Orchestra enhanced by very good solo passages by the solo clarinet of Peter Schurrock and the cello of Vincent Lo, masterfully directed by Moritz Gnann. Claudia Damm’s costumes have been within the interval of the Napoleonic period with none concessions to Konzept theatre. No bills are spared within the costumes for Tosca, Cavaradossi and the opposite singers on this staging whereas Scarpia’s policemen are attired as sinister demon-like Hoffmannesque figures of their black costumes and hats presenting a grim presence all through.
Whereas the manufacturing employs few props on stage, Dijkema makes ample use of the revolving stage to current fairly totally different visible displays; shortly altering the wall of a thousand prayer candles to the grim wall behind Scarpia’s torture chamber. The stage transformations on the shut of the primary and third act finales are breathtaking of their great originality. The manufacturing is enhanced by the motion onstage designed by Christian Geltinger and the lighting of Michael Münster bringing out all of the swiftly altering motion on the stage and making the narrative extra pronounced.
In Act I, the entry of the fugitive Angelotti was dramatic as he seeks sanctuary by hiding away from the Sacristan in a field which has a number of makes use of in the course of the three acts, one in every of which portrays the bushy-bearded Jailor rising and strolling across the two lovers Cavaradossi and Tosca. The painter Cavaradossi’s portrait of Mary Magdalene confounds his lover Tosca main her to suspect that he has been with one other lady. Nonetheless, persuaded by Cavaradossi, she entices him to ask her to his residence, ‘Non la sospiri, la nostra casetta’. The painter sings of his constancy to her, ‘Qual’occhio al mondo’. Assured of his devotion, Tosca departs as an offstage cannon broadcasts victory over Napoleon.
The Scarpia of Tuomas Pursio was magnificent in his darkly colored baritone as he demanded the Sacristan put together for a mass celebrating victory over the French armies. The police chief is classy in his expression and facial grimaces barely disguising his lust to overcome Tosca. An innovation by Dijkema within the church scene is a larger-than-life Madonna statue above which is a suspended Christ on the Cross. The dramatic climax to the act is the spectacular Te Deum with bishops, choristers and monks rising slowly on an enormous organ above the stage. This magnificent scenic gadget of the church procession was adorned by splendidly wonderful choral singing in a sensational climax to Act I.
The scene transforms originally of Act II into Scarpia’s rooms on the Palazzo Farnesi the place the lust and greed of Scarpia makes an attempt to deceive Tosca and helps him remove Angelotti; but Cavaradossi is captured in his place and tortured. That is among the many most ugly depictions of it with a burning iron scorching the painter. The struggling continues as Tosca is stripped of her scarlet crimson gown in an try at rape, and the following scene of her killing Scarpia is brutally effected.
Act III opens on the Castel Sant’Angelo with the heavenly singing of the shepherd woman, ‘lo de’ sospiri’ offstage accompanied by a imaginative and prescient of Christ on the Cross. A vocal spotlight is Cavaradossi’s aria ‘E lucevan le stelle’, as Tosca enters and tells of her letter guaranteeing his freedom, and in an intimate scene on the ottoman couch he sings ‘O dolci mani’ and each dreaming about their joyful future. A startling gadget by Dijkema was the imaginative and prescient of ascending angels rising from the depths and their transmuting right into a firing squad as they theatrically execute the painter. Believing her lover is just appearing, Tosca sings admiringly, ‘Ecco un artista!’ Because the angels disappear, she rushes in the direction of Cavaradossi, urging him, ‘Mario, su presto!’ Discovering he’s useless; the stage swiftly transforms because the torture chamber opens up with rising smoke and Tosca climbs onto the battlements from which she falls to her dying in an astonishingly dramatic ending to the opera.
The characterisations of Tosca, her lover Cavaradossi, and Scarpia have been magnificent in portraying all of the dramatic nuances, adorned by splendid singing. From her first entry, the Tosca of Karine Babajanyan was excellent, and her ‘Vissa d’arte’ was beautifully characterised by the Armenian soprano bringing out all of the splendour and color of Puccini’s writing. She, just like the Korean Andrea Shin’s Cavaradossi, received higher all night time: Shin displayed all of the contrasting feelings of his plight, and he has an incredible lyric tenor and very good appearing expertise with each emotion portrayed on his face and by his physique actions. The Scarpia of the Finnish Tuomas Pursio was the right personification of evil and lust, and the one singer on this night who appeared within the first efficiency in 2011.
Most of all – it was the unique stage route that almost all impressed me with its novel staging providing contemporary concepts for this ever-popular opera, expressly within the stunningly dramatic transformations within the Te Deum and the ultimate tragic climax of Puccini’s masterpiece. This can be a Tosca manufacturing which is price travelling far to see and revel in for its startling improvements and visionary invention. An amazing triumph for the Leipzig Opera firm.
Gregor Tassie
