Note: all photos from direct links to the Zurich Opernhaus page http://www.opernhaus.ch/d/Since I have seen two performances I will start with the impressions regarding the first one and then complete with the ones from the second, since it might be interesting to see how perceptions might change, or not, if you get a chance to inspect it closer :-)
Part I....
I’ll start with the musical bits, since it is probably what most of you would like to know about first.
It is a good performance and one can really sit back and enjoy the singing.
Jonas was good last night, maybe not as secure in the beginning, but definitely by the end of the night. He started off Recondita with a tiny bit of dust in the voice and the breathing in the long lines of the duet was a bit more laboured than usual. Not that it would be generally noticeable :-) very likely only audible if you heard him singing the role several times and have something to compare with. The spring air outside was full of pollen and spring things that trigger all kinds of allergic reactions and he felt it as well. I would also tip on the very dry wind and most of all on the hot-house inside!! That theatre is an oven! Extremely hot and very very dry. I don’t think I was ever as thirsty at the end of the night like yesterday, I felt like Manon in the desert! I could hardly speak, I can’t imagine how it must be for the singers. I wish they would think more about the singers and not only about the ladies flaunting their strapless dresses and bejewelled décolletés and turn the heating down quite a bit … (I’m quite willing to freeze a bit if it gives the singers more breathing space, after all I am used to the “fresh” air at the ROH, no chance of snoring or dozing audience there ;-) )
Anyways, by the end of the first act he seemed to have cleared his lungs and voice and from then on it flowed more flexible and agile. The Vittoria is quite something as he starts it off in the farthest corner of the stage and it reached me at the very back of the hall with incredible force. What I love about the way he does it, is that he keeps enough force left to drive the “carnefice” with a vengeance! It makes a perfect double whammy! One that few if any are capable of. The Vittoria is impressive because he stands next to the painting he made and Scarpia stole and then tore to shreds and smashes it down to stand on top of it to deliver the lines! Voice and stance deliver a perfect victorious image. And I always like the “carnefice” better than the Vittoria, and finally in Jonas I find somebody who gives them all the anger, the punch they require. His “Scarpia, carnefice! carnefice, carnefice,” gives an incredible sense of justice after all the torture. And he’s about the only one I ever heard with such good diction and control of his voice that you understand every single word there.
The third act was wonderful, I think he is mastering it better every time. Unfortunately I had a lady next to me who thought the wonderful prelude to “E lucevan” was a good moment to pop noisy candies! And in “dolci mani” her neighbour violently blew her nose! I did wish sudden death upon them… Of all the moments to be disruptive this was the worst! I am so glad I am going again and will prey for better neighbours next time. Because the third act is really beautifully staged, the stage is empty with just Mario and Tosca on it, first Mario alone and the lights really help you focus on them. The start is actually quite strange and intimidating. The stage is bare, and it looks as if you were on stage as well looking into the black emptiness of the hall with the audience in the background. And he stands at the back of the scenery, as if on the front of the stage staring into the blackness, then is lying down all alone on the floor as if dreaming an remembering both torture and his love for Tosca. Before the aria, as if in trance he energetically draws Tosca eye and half face on the wall, as if it is the last thing he wants to take with him out of life. I think it is a very touching idea and it is dual in a way, as due to the stage on the stage it makes you instantly think of how alone an artist really is there. How must he feel, left all to himself on stage, not really being able to see the audience in front. Very frightening. The Zurich stage is not a big one but it was very impressive how they managed to suggest the feeling of void and having to do a balancing act on the edge. Jonas also managed to convey a very touching feeling of fragility and frailness. Perfectly in tune with the softness and sensitive singing. I really believe he is better than last year in ROH. Maybe it is because he has more time to spend with the music and the character and really work out his own harmonies. In ROH it was already amazing what he managed to do, but what I hear now is more complete, it is more like a unique concept, than just some brilliant ideas. Now you have more power and force when required, but also more control of dynamics and variety thereof everywhere. It is not only the third act that you hear this, but from the very beginning. The Recondita and the duet with Tosca in the first Act are already more shaded. It never seizes to amaze me how lyrical and caressing his voice can be, or rather his singing can make the voice become. And since the Toscas in ROH, this has become more refined, more developed.
A pity Pappano is not in the pit, because Jonas was often carrying all the musicality and emotion in the score by himself. In ROH, as in the Butterfly as a matter of fact, I always had the feeling the music is like the wave the singers are surfing ( for lack of a better comparison…) The emotion came from music and voice together. While last night I often had the feeling I needed to hear Jonas singing to recognise the beauty of the musical line. The orchestra and conductor are by no means bad, but the music does not shine or move like something that is alive. I didn’t really get drawn in by the music, because it felt too much like background and it was often too indistinct. In ROH you were drowning in the music, it was so emotional. Yesterday they somehow left enough distance to observe bum notes, think about the hows and whys sounds happen.
Hampson I liked much better than I thought I would. When I read the reviews from he premiere I forgot how good an actor he is as well and I had the feeling that this is not really his role. But he does manage to own it fully. He has that sickening slickness and feels natural in the role. He is not a good guy trying to be bad, he is obsessed, greedy for everything, money, power, Tosca. And he manages not to overact it, there is fairly little movement or agitation, it is rather his contention that transmits the danger. And luckily he restrained from pushing too hard and the voice was warmer, rounder and the singing altogether more a pleasure to listen to than expected. Yes, there are the odd harsh edges here and there, but I think it is more the voice itself not being what it was 10 years ago. The lines are still beautiful and you could recognise there, just like with Jonas the liedersanger :-) However the voice is, he still has mostly very good control of it. He really owned the second act and I thought the applause he got in the end was well deserved.
Emily I liked as well, especially since her portrayal of Tosca was much less uni-dimensional the production had let me fear. She was adequately diva-ish but she also portrayed the woman in love quite credibly. I guess everyone interprets what they see their own way, for me she was much more a woman of passions who has to live up to her diva image, than a diva who is so self-absorbed that everything and everywhere is a stage ( as comments of the production previously suggested). She has a thrilling top and her voice has nice colours…. Unfortunately yesterday I felt like her lower register hadn’t really showed up for the night :-( There are so many lines for Tosca that sit there or end there for greater emphasis and those were just a bit hollow… It is not the end of the world, and maybe she too was suffering from the dryness and high temperature. Also, she is the one who has to be in constant movement around the stage, flowing around the men who benefit from more limited activity. And that really needs to be said, she has very gracious movements, just on the right side of theatrical for the portrayal of the role. And this makes dramatic singing while doing it all the more difficult. It would be very unfair to her not to recognise her performance just because one wishes that all that colour in her voice would extend to her lower register as well. I liked her and I felt emotionally drawn to her Tosca, while I didn’t expect to be from what I had read about the production.
There are many interesting images in the performance: Scarpia appearing from behind big columns like Mephistopheles, Mario singing in from of the painting, with the light spot on the madonna, The Vittoria on top of the shredded painting, Tosca pinned to the wall by Scarpia and a bright lightspot, which takes the horror-like image to extreme, Tosca singing Visi d’arte at the border of the stage with the rest darkened and only the golden sides of the stage lit (really draws out the image of a diva singing an aria on stage for the captivated public, beautiful!), Mario alone at the beginning of act 3 and Tosca’s eye looking upon the stage from his drawing , Tosca throwing herself from a lightspot on stage into the darkness in front of the imaginary stage. It is all very striking visually. Still I am not sure what I think of the production itself, it’s not totally different or unexpected. The image in the first act with the empty chairs arranged for the audience to attend the performance is interesting and on the empty stage effective, but once Mario, Tosca and later the chorus and Scarpia start moving in between them it becomes slightly ridiculous. Because the movements and interaction of the persons get severely hindered by the constant bumping into the chairs. Mario and Tosca especially have to keep ducking the chairs, sit on one, stand up to follow the other, sit again on another chair, poor Tosca keeps swishing her skirts in between chairs, which constantly interrupts the lovely interaction and leaves the lovers pinned to the wall in a rather less romantic fashion sometimes ;-) And then the audience/chorus turns towards us and with their back to their own stage which they are supposed to be watching for the Te deum. Understandably, they have to watch the conductor, but it totally spoils the effect of watching an audience who is in turn watching another stage. Under the circumstances, bare is better and I definitely like act 2 and 3 more.
I haven’t made up my mind fully about the production and I am not sure if I didn’t feel as emotionally connected to the performance last night because of the staging - which creates a certain distance because you are observing a stage on a stage -, or because I wish the music would have been more engaging or because I had noisy neighbours and was sitting in a back corner of the hall or just because of me :-) Most likely it is because of my own self. I am really looking forward to seeing it again and with all surprises now revealed I might get a better chance at letting myself get totally sucked into the music :-)
End of part I…
So how did it work out the second time around?
I liked Carignani better than last time but I am still slightly out off by the very brassy sound of the orchestra, which I am still unable to tell if due to the huge open pit for such a small house or simply to much brass-contribution… Still this time round I didn’t miss Pappano quite as much :-)
The performance was recorded for the local TV or maybe for a DVD and I am really looking forward because musically it was excellent! In spite of Hampson having had to pull out a couple of days before due to throat ache he was back in form and there were no significant audible signs of the illness other than a bit of strain in the second act on the more powerful phrases. Both he and Emily gave it their absolute all in terms of engagement this night and if this translated into small instances of vocal fatigue, the performance overall was all worth it. And them I could see very well and enjoy accordingly.
Unfortunately I had the bad idea to go for a second row seat in a loge on the 1st Rang. Advice to all Zurich visitors: do NOT go for these, stay as far away from the 2nd rows in loges as you can. Don’t be deceived by the lower price, the visibility is strongly impaired by the decorating baroque columns and you are squeezed among 3 high stools. The only positive point is that after some 20 min your legs will have gone to sleep and your back as well and you won’t feel any pain anymore…. Double bad luck for me, the action is strongly left-sided, at least what Mario is concerned so I had two choices: either breathing down the rich necks of the sitters in the front seats of the loge and risk toppling over rather un-elegantly from my high stool or lean back and close my eyes ( since I couldn’t see half the stage anyway) and just enjoy the singing. The latter proved after some initial struggle with balance and neck-twisting the better option. But I had to peek at least at the beginning just to be 100% sure it wasn’t some recording I was hearing and Jonas was just amazingly moving his lips to it… I mean I like his voice ( Duh! ) but I know it is not perfect or completely smooth. This night however he was not only in good form, he was in excellent form and his usually amazing control over his instrument was toned to perfection. Sometimes I look forward to the flow of the voice just for the excitement of the unknown where it will lead him. Tonight it was somehow totally different. The voce just flowed with such easiness and was conducted with such intent and grace I actually stretched around the column to see if he was breathing and then had to lean back with a satisfied and amazed smile. It is quite something to enjoy a performance totally relaxed, having a feeling of absolute certainty that whatever you would hear next would be the exact line the singers intends it to be. Of course I know there is no such thing in singing, that it is unpredictable. However I believe there are nights when the singer is in total sink with his voice and it does respond to his will and desire perfectly. Must be quite a powerful feeling that one, like Harry Potter wielding his magic wand ;-) I was obviously delighted to receive such a treat but also to watch and hear how it is done.
You would be wrong to think however that such musical quality would come at the expense of feeling and expression. Quite the contrary, it is probably why and how the voice was so powerful the other night. And not only his, but everyone’s.
I don’t know if Carsen’s production is an excellent one, the visuals I mentioned before were just as effective the second time around, so they are brilliant indeed. I am still annoyed by some elements in the first act as for me they don’t add much to the interpretation, but they can be ignored with no impact.
It is however not a Tosca to floor you or shock you, but I now believe it is not meant to do that. The music and the plot itself do that effectively enough, there is no need to overkill it. Nor is there actually much room to change Tosca fundamentally. Why would you even want it? Why change a story that in itself has perfect tension build up and strong drive. So if you can’t change Tosca, what can you do? Well, you can give it what few directors decide or care to: “Personenfuhrung”. The story is powerful, but it doesn’t mean that the characters are just there to deliver the lines. Yes Tosca has politics in it, but is really that what drives the plot? I think not, politics just provide the instruments, the backdrop and means for the human conflicts to explode. If you think about it, it is not about politics at all, but profound human emotions like love, greed, jealousy, desire, compassion. Scarpia has power in his hands but at the beginning of the story he can’t have the one thing he desires most: Floria Tosca. She on the other hand has a talented artist at her side, but in spite being the admired Diva is still an unsecure woman who doubts her lover and is plagued by jealousy. Mario is the enchanted lover, but he is also a liberal in his times and a profoundly good person, who cannot deny helping his friend, even is political engagement was never his priority. He actually tells us in Recondita armonia that his life is full with art and his love for Floria. The conflict unfolds when Scarpia recognises the opportunity to use Tosca’s jealousy and Mario’s attachment to Angelotti to finally achieve his goal, have Tosca to himself! He very effectively describes at the beginning of act 2 that he will use whatever means he can to indulge in what life has to offer.
So if we think about it, the story is not driven by external political events, but by the passions and flaws of the characters themselves. I think this is where Carsen was brilliant in his Tosca. He seemed to have sensed this and decided to put the personal conflicts in the foreground. Of course you can only do that if you have singers who are good and can spend equally as much time on creating their character as on perfecting their singing. Zurich got very lucky in this respect with Jonas Kaufmann as Mario, Thomas Hampson as Scarpia and Emily Magee as Tosca. They each managed to bring more colours and shades to their character.
I am glad I was right about Hampson... he made a natural evil and obsessed character, machiavellic indeed :-) His alternative displays of elegance, apparent friendliness and outbursts of anger, desire and almost sheer madness were chilling. Magee was perfect opponent and pray, with divaish dignity and charm but also with deeply moving femininity and anguish. The outer diva never completely overpowered the woman inside. The scenes in the 2nd act were even more compelling and captivating than the first time around. The scene where she dignified and with almost contempt takes off her dress to lie down on the shreds of Mario’s painting that Scarpia destroyed while he takes off his tie and jacket with a sickening slowness really gave me the chills.
And the whole 2nd act contrasted perfectly with the first and last, which were of unusual romantic character, due this time to the contribution of Jonas Kaufmann’s Mario. His Mario was less ironic and self-assured and just simply deeply in love with Tosca. So much so that he almost forgets about Angelotti stashed away in the hiding place in the church in the first act. In the last act his sadness and the sense of being alone is conveyed very touchingly by the way he rolls in his restless sleep while caressing the ground as if it were his Tosca. He feverishly tries to capture her image by drawing her eyes. The following duet with Tosca is the most romantic I have witnessed so far, reaching for the joy of reunion to the dream of a happy life to the endless sadness of realisation on his part that there is actually not going to be a happy end to their story. I don’t think his last “Parlami ancora come dianzi parlavi,
è così dolce il suon della tua voce!” was ever sung more emotionally than last night…
I don’t know how people see this Tosca if it was their first, but for me it was a fresh take with unexpected emotional engagement. And to touch me at this point with this opera beyond musical enjoyment is not an easy task :-) Over the last 12 months I have definitely overdosed on Puccini, and this one in particular, on top of the already existing overdose of years. It is not a Tosca of cheap thrills and in your face, it is more one where with beautiful singing and convincing portrayal of complex human emotions get you gradually enveloped and gently taken in. So I have a general feeling of warm satisfaction about it and if it does come out, I might even be persuaded to buy the DVD (if for nothing else than to prove that Puccini can be sung softly, tenderly and authentically romantic, with no cheese in sight!).
For a small video about the production see on the Zurich Opernhauspage under Opernhaus TV (http://opernhaustv.eviscomedia.com/media.1005.html)
So now it is time to lay Puccini to rest for a while and give my thirsty ears and eyes some well deserved treat of French and German music :-)
À bientôt, mes amis!
