CONSIDERED OPINION OF THE OPERA CLEVELAND PERFORMANCE OF TOSCA, 10/19/07

Giacomo Puccini: Tosca (Brenda Harris, Tosca; Gordon Hawkins, Baron Scarpia; Alfredo Portilla, Mario Cavaradossi; Richard Buckley, cond.)

Operatic lore is rich with stories of Tosca productions gone wrong. Candles lighting Scarpia's hair on fire...a third-act firing squad wondering which character to shoot...cannon balls-that were really just painted beach balls-bouncing jauntily across the stage near the end of Act III. One of music's most famous anecdotes features a demanding diva who, at the opera's conclusion, threw herself off the top of the set's Castel Sant'Angelo, expecting a mattress to cushion her fall. Some mischievous stagehands, however, had replaced the mattress with a trampoline. The soprano is said to have popped back above the parapet no less than fifteen times.

In Opera Cleveland's new version of Tosca, directed by Garnett Bruce and conducted by Richard Buckley, that final moment isn't anywhere near so exciting. Tosca hops off the fortress edge, stage right, while Spoletta and the soldiers stand by, mysteriously unable to grab her. There's little nobility in her action; she simply, it seems, can't think of anything else to do.

And the reasons for that vaguely unsatisfying ending go back to the production's first act, and to questions of dramatic balance and proportion. Puccini's melodramatic masterpiece is leavened by a certain amount of comedy. And one of the strains in the title character's makeup is, to be sure, a degree of naïveté. But when you play the first half of the opera's opening act too broadly, you risk trivializing Tosca's personality. That's what happened at Friday's performance. Throughout the first act, soprano Brenda Harris' Tosca was a one dimensional comic figure. Her jealousy was treated as an endearing quirk rather than a motivating force. And when the time came for Act Two's ferocious attack on Scarpia, it felt like there had been an unbridgeable gap in psychological continuity. Come Act Three, Tosca was back to seeming a relative lightweight—too flighty for the conclusion to register as deep tragedy.

Other bits of characterization also failed to convince. Gordon Hawkins' Scarpia was oddly subdued. Tenor Alfredo Portilla—the production's Mario Cavaradossi—erred in the opposite direction. His voice is attractive but not particularly robust, and during the first act his singing was irritatingly mannered. As the opera went on, his acting went overboard. Puccini's third-act showstopper "E lucevan le stelle" has sufficient passion on its own. It doesn't require an admixture of facile histrionics.

Fortunately, even in a less than ideal performance, Tosca is quite palatable. And this production does have its virtues. David Gano's set designs, for example, are strikingly effective. In the first act's Sant'Andrea, he economically evokes a sense of both solidity and space.

Still, this Tosca's ultimately like one of those storied beachballs painted to look like ammunition for the Castel Sant'Angelo's cannons. As far as appearance is concerned, it'll suffice. But examine it up close and you find that, at its heart, it's hollow.

Jerome Crossley for WCLV 104/9.

Considered Opinions is WCLV's program that reviews performances by Cleveland-area music ensembles. Commentator Jerome Crossley offers an informed and witty perspective on performances by groups that include the Cleveland Orchestra, Opera Cleveland, and Red {an orchestra}. Considered Opinions typically airs at 9.45 a.m., 12.20 p.m., and 5.20 p.m. the Friday following a Cleveland Orchestra concert, and it repeats at 9.45 a.m. on Saturday. Other air-times depend on the schedule of the ensembles reviewed.

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