At the manipulative urging of the evil chief of police, Baron Scarpia (Italian baritone Roberto Frontali), Tosca goes to Mario’s home to spy on her lover.Īt the top of Act Two, Cavaradossi has been arrested and brought to Scarpia’s apartment in the Palazzo Farnese. When a newly escaped revolutionary, Cesare Angelotti (bass-baritone Christian Van Horn), arrives at the church, Mario helps his friend flee. The plot up to this point involves diva Floria Tosca, who jealously suspects the innocent man she loves, painter Mario Cavaradossi (an appealing Massimo Giordano), of infidelity with the model for his new painting at Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome. Can you imagine the pressure? 20 minutes is not even enough time to warm-up, let alone be costumed and emotionally prepared. It came to my attention that Moore had never performed this difficult role before, although she has certainly tackled other major roles, such as Mimi in Puccini’s La Bohème and Rescoria in Theofanidis’ Heart of a Soldier at SF Opera, and Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with Los Angeles Opera. Replacing her would be understudy Melody Moore, who was given 20 minutes to prepare. In Act One of Puccini’s Tosca (1900) at San Francisco Opera, we were treated to the glorious and beautiful strains of Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, and although she grew in force as the act moved on, her voice was more buoyant than dramatic, and she seemed drowned out by the stupendous orchestra, led by the emotional and exaggerated conductor Nicola Luisotti, who almost seemed at times to be swatting at flies his conducting may have been a bit hammy, but I thought the orchestra sounded great, with the low brass resonating at a level usually reserved for Wagner (which makes sense when you consider that Puccini uses Wagnerian leitmotifs to identify characters).īut just before Act Two, the lack of spark in Gheorghiu’s performance suddenly made sense: General Director David Gockley announced that Gheorghiu was struck with intestinal flu, and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. It’s one of those instances that may just be talked about in the San Francisco opera circle for years to come.
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