This was an attempt to set Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca in the present day. If you have a good plot almost anything is possible and director Christopher Alden thought he could do it with the help of the singers and orchestra of Opera North. Did it work? The singing was faultless, the orchestra under the direction of Dan Ettinger was superb, but the set design of Charles Edwards was clumsy and typical of a touring production.

Now to the singing, the soprano voice Nina Pavlovska, who played Floria Tosca, made the hair tingle on the back of your neck as she convinced us that she was the only person for the part. Rafael Rojas as Mario Cavaradossi, her lover, brought his considerable tenor voice to the part. One of the characters that the audience loved to hate was Robert McFarland who over acted the part with gusto and brought his powerful baritone voice to the part of the police chief Baron Scarpia. This psychological based story is of an escaped convict Angelotti played by Clive Bayley, who arrives at the vestry of a church where artist Rojas befriends him. Then the police arrive and torture Rojas as they cannot find the convict. The brutal police chief then seduces Tosca in what she believes to be the freeing of her lover Mario. The outcome is for you to experience and not be told here. Some say the end is brutal and savage, but only the individual will know what this opera means to them. Who knows what each person in the audience will experience.

This is singing at its best hung on the music of a master. Some loss of direction towards the end with acting that could be better, but this almost goes unnoticed as the music takes over. Opera North have started to get to grips with the changing fashions and tastes of the public. Put the surtitles running in a single line above the stage and they will make watching and listening easier for their audience which can only grow if they are given what they want. A great evening at the opera. Do not miss it. © BA

“Tosca” is in Hull on the 23rd and 25th of October, 2002 and then continues a nation wide tour.