Becoming Tosca: Final Tableau.© Peter Mould

Becoming Tosca

Puccini’s Tosca is beloved of opera fans: it contains several timeless, perfect arias, and is one of the most frequently staged. Why not? It’s a classic story of political upheaval, corruption, love, jealousy, rivalry, and ultimate death (especially death) and all the action takes place over twenty-four hours. Victoria Kingham found Becoming Tosca, staged this year by Prologue Opera, a fascinating adaptation of the original.

Prologue is a company dedicated to staging not the whole opera but the essentials, with an invented back story acted out to throw light on the main action. This approach allows maximum room for invention; for this production, though the central core of the story remained, all the periphery was changed; if I were being pedantic I might call it Only Just Tosca.

But I am not pedantic, or wedded to orthodox versions of – well anything, really. And having watched the production more than once, I can begin to see exactly how adventurous this concept is. It’s very ambitious: to stage well-known operas like Carmen and Tosca (known for their lavish performances in opera houses all over the world) in local churches or theatres with a small cast, on a minimal budget, is very much a challenge. But Anthony Flaum, the producer and founder of Prologue Opera, who also sang the lead tenor Mario Cavaradossi, is clearly a person who rises to a challenge.

So it was that the ‘becoming’ act before the interval is a fascinating mix of musical genres. Frank Moon, the composer, has produced a musical score that incorporates new songs, but also the Internationale and a little bit of Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue, and significantly Mr Cellophane from the musical Chicago, wonderfully sung by Jonathan Cooke as Spoletta, as a preamble to a selection of Puccini’s arias. Towards the end we heard Mi Buenos Aires Querido, one of those radio-popular tunes you know really well without knowing the title. Actually it’s an Argentinian tango reflecting on the beauty of Buenos Aires. All these disparate elements seemed to flow together to provide or augment a coherent narrative.

There are parallels: both stories involve attractive female murderers who kill unwanted lovers, the Internationale is about workers’ oppression: ‘producers, let us save ourselves’ and ‘the state represses and the law cheats’ from that anthem could clearly refer to the corrupt Scarpia who tells Mario at one stage, that whatever he says should happen, will happen. Rhapsody In Blue, of course, has pretty well come to represent America, its unique culture, the fusion of popular jazz and classical aspirations, the rough and the posh.

Brendan Collins as Vitelio Scarpia.© Peter Mould

This is minimalist professional opera at its best; however small the cast, the vocal reach was good, and the swelling crescendos of the lovers’ duets filled the hall. Boyan Ivanov is a great clarinettist; Lesley Anne Sammons directed the music from the piano, and the new tunes (the first three) led seamlessly into the old. There was intriguing choreography – Angelotti’s ghost comes on to the stage and beckons Scarpia to the underworld, for example (the part of Angelotti in this production was actually developed for Harry Gentry, a young but very promising singer and actor, and differs radically from Puccini’s original). The final act shows Mario and Floria (powerfully sung by Anna Sideris) dancing a splendid tango before their respective deaths. The ending is an elegant (if tragic) tableau. Scarpia’s vigorous baritone remains undeniably menacing throughout, and Spoletta, when he does sing, manages to inject a suitable note of poverty and desperation. The spoken dialogue is clear, and the acting convincing. For a great many reasons, a performance worth far more than the ticket price.

The next performances are two nights at The Stables Theatre, 23-24 July. Tickets will sell out fast.

More details: https://prologueopera.com/productions

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