Puccini Tosca Opera Holland Park, May 2024 Director Stephen Barlow Lighting Tim van ’t Hof

Revival of the original 2008 production

Reviews

… I can confirm that Yannis Thavoris’s gorgeous set is authentic still, and that opera singers can look like real politicians on real campaign posters. **** (Broadway World)

Set in a tensely polarised Roman neighbourhood, with an election in the offing and radicals scrapping with reactionaries under poster-plastered walls, Stephen Barlow’s smart update of Tosca from 1800 to 1968 … crisply delivered, this polished and gripping revival gives us Puccini the prophet as well as the pot-boiler. Unctuous and bullying by turns, Morgan Pearse’s Scarpia is a sharp-suited populist schemer whose election posters – stuck across the walls of Yannis Thavoris’s finely detailed set – proclaim him (in Italian) the champion of “Cleanliness, Order, Morality”…  Barlow and Thavoris make clever use of the stage’s broad expanses and evocative stonework: these run-down Roman palazzi, after all, are the actual remnants of a Jacobean great house. **** (The Arts Desk)

Stephen Barlow’s magnetic 1960s production of Puccini’s Tosca at Opera Holland Park has not been seen since 2008, so while technically it’s a revival, it’s also unknown to a whole new generation of operagoers. After a 16-year wait, it comes up as fresh as a sun-drenched dawn in Rome in the age of La Dolce Vita, seductive on the surface but seething with danger and deception.

Scarpia, the ruthless chief of police, is here a sharp-suited political populist. Posters shout “Vote Scarpia”; the Te Deum scene in Act 1 becomes an ugly rally, with 1968-style student protesters beaten and hustled away by his thuggish minions. Scarpia runs his operation not from the vaulted chambers of a grand palazzo but like a mafia boss from the tables of a seedy trattoria, its padrone one of his squalid lackeys. Attention to detail is vital when shifting an opera away from its original timeframe, and this production scores highly, maintaining the 60s vibe right to the end. Striding into this seamy world is an admirable cast. Amanda Echalaz as Tosca reprises her performance from 2008, every inch the heroine, every inch the diva. Her Act 2 encounter with the rapacious Scarpia is electrifying; she’s terrified yet defiant, vulnerable yet steely, a portrayal enhanced by designer Yannis Thavoris’s decision to dress her like Callas in her pomp. **** (The Guardian)

The single set is a church façade covered with posters, some promoting Floria Tosca, most of the rest urging us to “Vota Scarpia”… For Act 2, a corner of Yannis Thavoris' set becomes the “Trattoria Farnese” and tables and chairs allow Scarpia to conduct business (and attempt rape) in an eatery. Act 3 sees an omnipresent Fiat moved centre stage, so that Cavaradossi can be executed, Godfather style, sitting inside. In a final coup de théâtre, Tosca, lacking ramparts to leap from, stands atop the car, now doused in fuel, and we get an immolation scene worthy of Götterdammerung. **** (Bachtrack)

Transposed to the student ferment of Rome in 1968, this revival breathed remarkable life into the concept and showcased a trio of strong performances for a satisfying evening in the theatre. The brilliance of Barlow's production is that in solving the challenge of staging Tosca on OHP's stage, with a single set, he sidestepped many of the issues.

Yannis Thavoris provided a single set which combined the façade of the church with a bar, called the Farnese (!) which is Scarpia's hang-out. Everything takes place in and around the square, so that the end of Act One becomes a sort of church parade cum rally for Scarpia… Cavaradossi is doing a piece of street art in chalks on the forestage, whilst a lone Fiat car does multiple duties from a hiding place for Angelotti to the scene of Tosca's suicide.

If you are going to transpose the setting of an opera, then the new milieu should shed light on the work. Here, using the student ferment of 1968 allied to the corruption in politics meant that the audience has the right signals for the plot and does not need to read up to work out who the hell is whom and what do they support. For Tosca to work fully, audiences need to understand something of the back story and here we had it laid out for us… The results were admirable, creating a satisfying evening in the theatre and a thoughtful take on Tosca whilst never feeling like a museum piece. (Planet Hugill)

The retro design by Yannis Thavoris is both handsome and cute, and places pop-culture centre stage.

The street walls are plastered with posters of Italy’s Democrazia Cristiana, while the iconic Cinquecento adds a touch of Italian automotive flair to the period. Here, Palazzo Farnese becomes Trattoria Farnese, where rough mafia-type characters – think Scarpia and his cronies – choose to hang out. Given this is the year of revolution, the production also inevitably includes some street protests, from those wanting to push the corrupt Scarpia out of power. (Opera Wire)

Stephen Barlow’s staging of Tosca, which first appeared at Opera Holland Park in 2008, also opts for a more recent time in the form of 1960s Rome. The choice works well because it does not demand any specific changes to the story, but it does require some adjustments to the way in which it is presented, and these prove to be highly illuminating… There is, in fact, an exquisite attention to detail throughout… The venue is not well suited to depicting someone plunging to their death, but the production overcomes the resulting challenge extremely well. It would be wrong to give away exactly how the ending is presented, but it succeeds in suggesting that in falling to her death Tosca is really flying towards the heavens. (Music OMH)