18 October
At the end of this gut-wrenchingly emotional performance of Puccini’s masterpiece, the reaction from a packed Hippodrome was as thunderous as the production had been exhilarating – finally able to give back after a feast of superlative musical and theatrical treats.
This Opera North production, directed by Edward Dick, was first performed in 2018, revived in 2023 and luckily for opera lovers, again for the WNO tour this year. That it keeps reappearing tells you all you need to know about its impact and popularity – this is a tour de force in all respects.
A pulsating tale of life and love striving to survive repression, Puccini has managed to create a timeless piece that speaks to the present day as much as it did about the political birth pangs of Italy. That the libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica stripped down the essence of the original play, La Tosca by Victorien Sardou to its core, without unnecessary embellishment, gives the production an extraordinarily contemporary feel – the action just keeps coming, and we’re swept along with it. And on Tom Scutt’s beautiful set, inspired by the open circular ceiling of the Rotunda in Rome’s Pantheon, and lit with subtle warmth by Lee Curran, we enter an enchanting aesthetic that is as creative as it is effective. The 50-strong WNO orchestra under the baton of conductor Gergely Madaras never lacked the sensitivity or fervour to find Puccini’s most clamorous and delightful, delicate moments.
Set in Rome in 1800 at the time of the French victory at the Battle of Marengo, the plot spins around three main protagonists – the popular singer Floria Tosca, her lover the painter Cavaradossi and the immoral and generally terrifying Chief of Police, Baron Scarpia.
While Cavaradossi and Tosca warm up the proceedings with their charming and obvious infatuation for each other – Non la sospiri, la nostra casetta (Do you not long for our little house?), into their midst plunges the escaping Republican Consul Cesare Angelotti (James Cleverton). A Napoleon sympathiser and of like political persuasion to the fugitive, Cavaradossi offers to hide Angelotti, thereby setting in train a disastrous path that ends badly for all.
As the narrative freefalls into darkness, the extraordinary talents of soprano Natalya Romaniw as Tosca and Uruguayan tenor Andrés Presno as Cavaradossi never fail to convince us that it is their love that has the power to change the world, ardently evident in their aria Qual’occhio (What eyes in the world).
Bent on despoiling this idyllic tryst to satisfy his own lust for Tosca, Scarpia, given palpable malevolence by the excellent baritone Dario Solari, sees an opportunity to blackmail the singer into granting him sexual favours. The second act, set in Scarpia’s (modern) bedroom feels a very claustrophobic space in which Tosca struggles with her pride and her desire to rescue her doomed lover. Her passionate Vissi d’arte (I lived for art, I lived for life) plumbing the psychological depths of a woman facing down a misogynist predator. Scarpia surreptitiously videoing his ‘prey’ on his mobile and the use of a laptop to beam in Cavaradossi’s cries under torture gives the abuse a present-day chill.
As Tosca defies her tormenters with her last defiant act, we’re left with a sense we have been witness to something quite extraordinary. A triumph for WNO, who deserve every plaudit for an exemplary production.
***** Simon Bishop, 19 October 2025
Photo credit: Dafydd Owen