Tosca moves into one concert hall in English National Opera’s new staging
English National Opera’s new Tosca replaces the opera’s separate locations with a concert hall and removes place names from its English translation. Annilese Miskimmon directs the London production, with Axelle Fanyo in the title role. Reviews question the dramatic consequences of the staging, while The Guardian praises the orchestra under Ben Glassberg and Christopher Purves’s Scarpia.
Arts··Night
Three locations become one space
English National Opera, the British opera company, has mounted a new production of Puccini’s Tosca at the London Coliseum. Its artistic director Annilese Miskimmon stages the entire work in a concert hall, replacing the three specific locations in the original text. Place references have also been removed from Amanda Holden’s English translation. The company’s previous production, directed by Christof Loy, appeared four years ago. Axelle Fanyo sings Tosca, Chaz’men Williams-Ali is Cavaradossi and Christopher Purves plays Scarpia.[1], [2]
Instruments are destroyed on stage
The set includes a small grand piano, a string quartet, a mural and an image of the Madonna. The Guardian’s critic Flora Willson writes that its first appearance suggests a church despite the programme’s description of a concert hall. She describes women being pulled by the hair and instruments being smashed, arguing that repeated violence gradually loses force. In her assessment, the single setting also weakens the first act’s confrontation between church and state and the second act’s contrast between onstage and offstage music.[1]
Glassberg leads the orchestra
Ben Glassberg conducts the company’s orchestra. Willson praises its rich sound and the engagement of the adult and child choristers, describing moments when the music overwhelms the activity on stage. She admires Fanyo’s tone but finds Williams-Ali uncomfortable in some balances with other singers and musicians. Purves draws particular praise for his rigid bearing, cold baritone and sharp diction as Scarpia.[1]
