And the Shepherd Boy in Act III has become a Tosca-lookalike in Cavaradossi’s imagination as he lies awaiting execution in his cell.
Red and gold theatre curtains, descending from the proscenium or slowly obscuring parts of the set, meanwhile, suggest, a little awkwardly, the blurring of reality and illusion in Tosca’s mind. Sinéad Campbell-Wallace’s Tosca effectively shuttles between both worlds, appearing in church in Act I in a New Look dress, and donning 18th century costume when she later arrives in Scarpia’s rooms. Scarpia (acted by the indisposed Noel Bouley on opening night while Roland Wood sang from the side of the stage) and his henchmen wear ancien régime outfits, while Adam Smith’s Cavaradossi and Msimelelo Mbali’s Angelotti are in 1950s suits. At the same time, however, you can’t help but feel he’s trying to do fractionally too much with it, deploying elements of symbolism that don’t always cohere.Ī deliberate jumble of periods in Christian Schmidt’s designs underscores the ideological conflict between revolutionary republicanism and a corrupt monarchy at the work’s centre. Loy, as one might expect, carefully probes his protagonists’ psyches, often with fascinating results. Conducted by Leo Hussain, it’s a compelling, albeit idiosyncratic piece of theatre.
English National Opera opens its season with Puccini’s Tosca, in a staging by Christof Loy, new to London, but first performed by the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki in 2018.
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