Dear Colleagues,
Opera is about voice, voice and more voice. Clothed in marvellous costumes and a
life-like Roman Catholic setting around 1940 this Tosca would satisfy the most
demanding opera goer and equally, win over any budding novice, largely on the
voices which were magnificent.
As Cavaradossi, tenor Mr Yonghoon Lee was first class. Slender, tall and ‘Bohemian’ looking, his splendid performance drew a (partial)
standing ovation at the end. His
Metropolitan and La Scala appearances were highly praised, with good reason it
seems.
Greek soprano Alexia Voulgaridou performed the title role with gusto,
flair and beauty. Her voice is enormous,
accurate and well modulated. There is
not the length of breath to emulate Caballé in her unique Vissi d’arte, yet the high tensile vocalism was extremely
effective and comparisons are odorous, as the Bard wrote. We last heard her in La Rondine with the SSO
in 2008 when she was equally impressive.
Veteran baritone John Wegner seemed slightly under-power as the evil
Nazi sympathiser Scarpia and one wondered if he was harbouring a winter
virus. He was menacing and effective
nonetheless.
Supporting artists David Parkin (Angelotti) and John Bolton-Wood
(Sacristan) were also excellent.
Direction by John Bell was sympathetic and effective, making this
opening one of the most enjoyable opera performances I have heard in Australia
for some time. Bell set the piece in the
high Nazi period but Swastikas were only used on three occasions, including a
ripped red banner used to cover Scarpia’s body. I
learned later that two incensed Jewish patrons were responsible for booing at
the end. There were a couple of
anomalies and some brilliant innovations, including Tosca’s death.
Such is opera, raising emotions of all kinds!
It was a major risk doing yet another production of Tosca in Sydney,
especially doing 19 performances. So
many subscribers have abandoned their long held seats that the company will
have enormous trouble clawing back support.
Eventually they will run out of musical comedy or else the Australia
Council will realise that its funds are not being spent on opera. Each year of late the company has simply
replaced the shrinking opera audience with musical comedy to make ends
meet. This year has yet another very
long season of South Pacific (Sept 8 to Nov 2 in Sydney and up to 12th
January 2014 in Adelaide and Perth).
That’s a
third of the year spent on ‘non-core’
opera activities for the national opera company! The once almost unobtainable Gala opening
night seats are now freely available and some people I ran into did not even
know that it was opening night.
There are only nine performances with the opening cast of lovers - then
Cheryl Barker sings with Diego Torre, both also highly competent artists.
But they are also being overworked.
On numerous occasions singers are to perform with only one day’s break, contrary to a long tradition in
serious opera houses of using two lay days between performances. During one nine day period they are to sing
five performances, a super-human feat some might think. Grand opera is akin to marathon running where
pacing oneself in a performance, a season or a career are all crucial
decisions.
So if you can get along to the Sydney Opera House I highly recommend
this cast and this new magnificent production of Tosca.
Notes by Andrew Byrne ..
