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Death in Rome Parma
Teatro Regio
05/17/2024 - & May 19, 23*, 25, 2024
Giacomo Puccini: Tosca
Erika Grimaldi*/María José Siri (Tosca), Brian Jagde*/Fabio Sartori (Cavaradossi), Luca Salsi (Baron Scarpia), Luciano Leone (Angelotti), Roberto Abbondanza (Sacristan), Marcello Nardis (Spoletta), Eugenio Maria Degiacomi (Sciarrone), Sofia Bucaram (Shepherd boy), Lucio di Giovanni (Jailer)
Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma, Martino Faggiani (chorus master), Coro di voci bianche del Teatro Regio di Parma, Massimo Fiocchi Malaspina (chorus master), Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Daniel Oren (conductor)
Joseph Franconi Lee (stage director), William Orlandi (sets & costumes), Andrea Borelli (lighting)
L. Salsi, E. Grimaldi (© Roberto Ricci)
Puccini was a man of the theatre with an uncanny ability to recognize a plot that would work as an opera. After seeing Victorien Sardou’s play, La Tosca (1887), Puccini decided it would make a great opera, despite his publisher’s reluctance. Dismissed as “a shabby little shocker” by musicologist Joseph Kerman (1924‑2014), together with Il tabarro (1918), Tosca (1900) is Puccini’s most typically verismo work. Both were set after two grand‑guignol plays by French authors. Unlike his Italian contemporaries writing in the verismo style, such as Mascagni, Leoncavallo and Giordano, Puccini was able to transform La Tosca from a minor sensationalist entertainment to the affecting work of art we know today, imbued with his intoxicating lyricism and fully developed characters.
Tosca features three major characters, the opera diva Floria Tosca, the painter Mario Cavaradossi and Rome’s Chief of Police Baron Scarpia, and several minor characters. Parma’s Teatro Regio engaged three excellent interpreters for this production, though this wasn’t obvious from the start.
Erika Grimaldi is a lyric soprano whose voice is on the small side for the role. An intelligent musician, she was more than able to maneuver her voice to suit the role. Her diction is impeccable, as are her acting skills. From the moment she appeared onstage, she was Tosca – feminine and temperamental. Without histrionics, she easily convinced us she was the jealous lover in the first act. In Act II, when summoned into Baron Scarpia’s study after having sung a cantata across the street at Palazzo Farnese, she was admirable in her portrayal of the opera diva as grande dame. Her dignified deportment even under pressure and almost sexual violence was among the best I have seen. Her interpretation of “Visse d’arte” was so moving that it warranted a bis, a very rare privilege in the present day opera world.
Maria Callas’s exceptional performance of Tosca is one of the few documents of the irreplaceable singer captured on film, and most present‑day singers are influenced by her interpretation. Callas portrays a rather innocent woman, confounded by Baron Scarpia’s monstrous advances and who accidentally finds the sharp dinner knife that she uses to stab him to death. Once the deed is done, Callas is shattered and acts distraught while searching for the safe passage signed by Scarpia and haggardly leaves the scene. This is almost how most singers do Tosca Act II nowadays. Innovative in the 1950s, it suited Callas but it has become predictable and is done nowadays with mixed results. Congratulations are in order for Erika Grimaldi, who does Act II her way, and magnificently so. She is the grande dame from beginning to end in Act II.
On a humorous note, Grimaldi was so immersed in her interpretation that she threw the safe passage on the dining table and forgot to retrieve it. Initially, I thought it was an innovation by the stage director, indicating she knew she wasn’t to survive. But once she showed it to Cavaradossi in Act III, the mistake became apparent.
I’ve followed American tenor Brian Jagde’s career for years. Endowed with a powerfully virile voice, he has had a tendency to sing forte and fortissimo which appeals to many, especially those who favour “can belto” to bel canto. This style is not my cup of tea. However, Jagde has fortunately improved in recent years. His Alvaro in La forza del destino last March at New York’s Metropolitan Opera was the best thing in that unfortunate production. In the present performance, he impressed the public with his Act I “Recondita armonia,” and his Act III “E lucevan le stelle” was tender and moving. His diction was impressive for a non‑native speaker, save for a few words in Act III.
Luca Salsi is one of Italy’s present-day star baritones, frequently gracing its stages as well the world’s major venues. His timbre is not a beautiful one; his voice is rather dry and lacks warmth. But his acting is first‑rate, which explains his huge success. This is an advantage for the role of Scarpia, one of the most evil Italian opera roles, alongside Iago in Verdi’s Otello. His Scarpia was bloodcurdling, and this was not due to overacting. He equally exuded authority, arrogance and malice. Mere looks at his henchmen were sufficient to unsettle and terrify them. His Act I “Te Deum” was as much Scarpia’s self‑declaration of perniciousness as Iago’s “Credo.” The fact that it is sung over a Latin Christian hymn is reflective of Puccini’s disdain for the Church, as was common among the artists of the Risorgimento and the early decades of a united Italy.
Director Joseph Franconi Lee opted for a straightforward staging, something rarely seen nowadays. It’s vastly preferable to the now clichéd device of setting Tosca in Fascist Italy or a military regime in Latin America. Worse still, some productions play up Scarpia’s sexual obsession, and still others have Tosca and Cavaradossi as members of a revolutionary underground. All this nonsense was thankfully missing in Lee’s tasteful staging.
William Orlandi’s sets were majestic, and true to the actual setting. Act III takes place at the foot of the statue of the angel on top of Castel Sant’Angelo. The end of Act I was rendered impressive thanks to a mirror on top of the stage that showed the Te Deum procession of the Vatican’s Swiss Guards and clergy, from lowly nuns and priests to cardinals and even the Pope. It should be noted that this is historically incorrect, as the Pope, governor of Rome and the Papal States, had earlier been exiled by the French. As the Gallic forces retreated North, the Kingdom of Naples temporarily took over the city, hence Scarpia’s warning to Tosca “Ma è fallace speranza: la Regina farebbe solo grazia ad un cadavere.”
The performance was exhilarating thanks to conductor Daniel Oren, who led the orchestra with gusto and fervour, and was especially attentive to the needs of the singers. In allowing the bis of “Vissi d’arte,” he wanted a different rendition in the last part of the aria, which Erika Grimaldi deftly accomplished to his satisfaction. My only reproach would be that at times, he got carried away, with the orchestra drowning out the singers. This was apparent in the pivotal phrase by Tosca in Act II, once she’d stabbed Scarpia: “Questo è il bacio di Tosca” was almost completely obscured by the orchestra’s inappropriate dynamics.
The smaller roles in this opera were brilliantly performed. Character roles may not be demanding vocally, but nonetheless require talented singing actors who cherish these important roles. Luciano Leoni, as Angelotti, had a booming voice and great stage presence. The henchmen, Sciarrone and Spoletta, were remarkably effective in their roles. The sacristan was funny without being excessive, as is often the case. The shepherd boy had a sweet voice, beautifully evoking innocence. The exception was the small role of the jailor in Act III. This is a parlando role that has elicited cameo appearances by non‑singers such as violinist Itzhak Perlman in James Levine’s recording (1981). However, it does require the actor to be able to carry a melody, which sadly was not the case here. However, this was a small flaw in a great performance that the audience highly appreciated, judging from the roar of applause heard at the wonderful Teatro Regio di Parma.
Ossama el Naggar
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