Vienna State Opera (live stream), 13/12/2020

Puccini : Tosca

Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera

Bertrand de Billy

At over 60 years and counting, this 1958 production of Tosca, by Margarethe Wallman for Karajan, must surely be one of the longest-running operatic productions anywhere in the world.  From a production of that age, it's what you'd expect, solid, handsome sets and costumes strictly compliant to the 1800 setting of the play, and an equally standard direction of actors.  It's not really any the worse for that, when you get down to it though, easy on the eyes, clear to read, and it certainly suits Anna Netrebko perfectly well.  In turn she's well suited to this role of diva who suddenly finds herself out of her depth in a deadly game of lust and political intrigue.  As a whole, the production is perhaps a little complacent, there isn't any great psychological soul-searching going on, but it was always designed to be a melodrama. Sardou wrote the play for Sarah Bernhardt, and shrinking violets were never Bernhardt's thing.  

Netrebko is in fine voice, comfortable throughout the range, and expressive.  There were moments of imprecise intonation, mostly in the first act, but nothing to really set the teeth on edge.  In the first act she refrained from being overly kittenish, which was a blessing, and she stayed on her dignity for the most part in Act 2.  The start of Act 3 was a bit woolly, her tone spreading and the vibrato becoming intrusive, but it settled during the duet

Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov

Tosca, Act 1, Vienna State Opera 2020

(screenshot)

I don't find Yusif Eyvazov's voice particularly beautiful, and his dramatic abilities are, in my rudimentary experience of seeing him, occasionally somewhat limited.  When he's good, he can be very good, when he's bad he can be intolerable, but most of the time he falls into the 'satisfactory if limited' category.  Tonight the timbre seemed a little on the thin side, and he too had some intonation problems.  Where his slightly impassive mien really worked was in the second act, because he absolutely nailed a slightly contemptuous air of indifference, with just the occasional flare of anger, before Scarpia, which readily explained the rapidity with which Scarpia loses patience with him.  "E lucevan le stelle" was not bad, a bit slow and overwrought at the end for my taste, but acceptable, the duet with Tosca began with a nicely intimate tone.

Wolfgang Koch and Anna Netrebko
Tosca, Act 2, Vienna State Opera 2020
(screenshot)

Wolfgang Koch, in a very different register from his Bavarian Falstaff ten days ago, was the Scarpia.  His presence is good, strong and menacing, but he lapsed into parlando effects too much, and there wasn't enough resonance right at the top of the range for the best effect.  The orchestra, again under Bertrand de Billy, was in much better shape than for Werther three days ago, with more detail and more colour in the playing.  Eyvazov and de Billy were sometimes at odds for tempo, the tenor wanting to be a bit more expansive, but that was the only real problem.  Otherwise, the orchestra was a pleasure to listen to and, although an audience-less performance probably feels very strange to the artists (and they certainly deserve the recognition of applause), it was nice to hear absolutely everything - the full end of Act 2, the passage after "E lucevan..." - without audience interruption!  

[Next : 18th December]