Opera is generally big: big sound, big emotions, big sets. So when Opera Australia announced it would stage Puccini’s Tosca at the Margaret Court Arena (a 7,500-seat sports stadium, but less than half are used), it didn’t seem like an entirely ridiculous proposition. But still, as the curtain fell on the great tragedy, as three people died and the smoke from the firing squad slowly cleared, the general feeling was that they had to get bigger.
Part of the problem is the opera itself. Tosca has a magnificent scene with a full chorus at the end of the first act, but it is mostly a tense and intimate chamber piece, almost a three-person scene. Its emotional scope is broad, as in most Italian operas, but its dramatic focus is brief and its psychology intense. Looking at a stage far from the arena’s handy plastic chairs, it takes a certain amount of effort to connect with the material. It’s certainly far from overwhelming.
Puccini wrote Tosca at the turn of the 20th century, and a full century earlier, during Napoleon’s tumultuous occupation of Rome. Director Edward Dick eschews period realism in favor of an ambiguous, undifferentiated setting that suggests many things at once. The painted dome above the stage dates directly from the Renaissance, and the bedroom in the second act is full of 1980s Italian kitsch. There’s a laptop on which Tosca watches the torture of her lover and a group of hired goons who look suspiciously like extras from The Sopranos.
But none of this matters much in a production that focuses so consciously on its foreground characters and the lackluster melodrama that encapsulates them. Famous singer Tosca (Karah Son), in love with the painter Cavaradossi (Diego Torre), is hot but also full of suspicion and jealousy. This is a trait that is brutally exploited by police chief Scarpia (Robert Hayward), who ostensibly uses her to get to escaped convict Angelotti (David Parkin) but actually only wants her for his own sexual pleasure.
Scarpia is one of those mustache-twirling villains, and Hayward brings a charismatic swagger to the role as well as a commanding, silky baritone. The character directly references Shakespeare’s Iago, but is actually more like Angelo in Measure for Measure, arrogant and perverted. There is a great wealth of sexual perversion in the role; A fetishistic and fascist vice that Hayward only touches upon. This Scarpia is sleazy and corrupt, but not particularly threatening. I’d be interested to see what Warwick Fyfe thinks of this role, playing it on alternate nights.
Torre is a magnificent lover, a role he has previously played at Opera Australia, and he inhabits it with great poignancy and flexibility. This horn tenor has never sounded better, effortlessly gliding through the first act’s “Qual’occhio al mondo” oath of fidelity and soaring to the heights of sensual romanticism in the final act’s “E lucevan le stelle.” This has become an important role for Torre, and she wraps it around herself like a luxurious, fatalistic coat.
Son is strong and convincing as the cursed heroine who is sometimes timid, harsh, sometimes suffering, sometimes unscrupulous. Tosca plays a large role, flawed and untrustworthy in her early interactions but increasingly self-sufficient; He’s backed into a corner as soon as he gets into the action, but once he’s in, he’s unstoppable. Although Son often throws himself into the ground, he brings a strong sense of nobility and agency to the role, and his two arias, “Vissi d’arte”, are rich and heartfelt.
The production looks smart despite its eclecticism and reduced scale. Tom Scutt’s sets, replete with the dome that hangs precariously over the opening scenes and transforms into a languid disk of stars in the final act, are ostentatious and clever. Fotini Dimou’s costumes are witty and distinctive – occasionally disorienting, in the case of a clear plastic sheet covering the tortured Cavaradossi like plastic wrap over a cooked meal – and Lee Curran’s chiaroscuro lighting design is suitably moody.
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Orchestra Victoria – under the confident direction of Garry Walker – plays this sweet, richly melodic music with wonderful feeling, but it is worrying that they are behind the sets and out of view. The logistics of the venue necessitate amplifying the sound through a sound system where musicians and singers are microphoned. It is probably unavoidable in this context, but it will disappoint serious opera lovers accustomed to the acoustics of the world’s leading opera houses. Newcomers may not care so much, happy to sacrifice vocal skills for the sake of clarity.
Perhaps the focus of this experiment, which started with the closure of the State Theater for renovations, is the newcomers. Stadium opera is a bit of a turn-off for the usual connoisseurs, who prefer their surroundings as ostentatious and expensive as their clothes, but for the uninitiated it’s hard to see how it’s particularly compelling. Tosca is a crowd-pleasing masterpiece, and Puccini’s genius survives the transition to cavernous space, but only just. These sets should feel monumental, even planetary, and the spectacular “Te deum” from the chorus should sound loud and exciting. Overall, this production feels very diminished and distant. Sometimes bigger is better in this art form.