Tosca, Kent Opera, Maria Tonina, King's Theatre, Southsea, Feb 19th.I didn't expect to be sitting on the front row with a ticket for row D of the stalls but the King's remove the front three rows to accomodate the orchestra if necessary and so I was two yards from the horn player and not much further from the percussionist. That might not be the ideal mixing desk position to get the perfect sound balance but you do get a good view of the stage.
The small Moldovan orchestra could at first sound like Friday Night is Music Night and I did wonder if, with Southsea not being Covent Garden or La Scala, we might be in for an 'opera experience' for those who like to say they've been to one. But, as the production progressed, one either acclimatises to it or Vitalii Liskovetskyi as Cavaradossi convinces that he has a voice worthy of the occasion.
Tosca is partly Othello but mainly Measure for Measure set to Puccini's sumptuous melodies and thematic leitmotifs. If Tosca offers the best opportunity for a diva to play a diva and thus be opera at its most extravagantly indulgent, it still has room for some of the pathos of Boheme and Madame Butterfly. In this renewal, a Golden Eagle is used on stage which I can add to the dog and snake I've seen in Shakespeare as animal actors. I'm not convinced the theatre is the proper habitat for a Golden Eagle but in a dramatic doubling as a Scarpia lookalike, whose cruel performance, booed by myself and others at the curtain call, played by the resonantly named Vladimir Dragos, he did well. The ensemble ending of Act 1 in which the pantomime villain thinks his evil plan to win Tosca is going to work, is where the production began to succeed, both musically and dramatically.
Tosca's aria, Vissi d'arte, and Caravadossi's E lucevan le stelle were worthy of their own rounds of applause and Maria Tonina had her glorious moments hitting some high notes even if it struck me that Vitalii as the painter might be the real star of the show. The opera on tour has two singers for each part and so it depends whose day off it is when you see it as to who you get. I'm sure that's the other one on the advert.
By the third act, one is engaged enough not to fret that this might not be Maria Callas but be grateful that the King's puts on opera alongside its more downmarket product and I don't mind at all if that sounds elitist. There is some rubbish on their programme.
Anybody who can take the extravagance and hyperbole of opera and then give it a chance would find enjoyment of this easy to follow story and lurid drama readily achievable but there's no point in trying if you can't let go of irony or understatement. It is just funny otherwise.
But, as the body count rises, Tosca herself has the honour of making it three out of three for the main characters as she disappears off the back of the stage just like Don Giovanni before her.
I'm not going to pretend I don't know there have been better Tosca's than this, or better Toscas, but neither am I going to say I didn't enjoy it because it still produced some of that weird thrill that makes you know you're glad you made the effort and saw it.