[Met Performance] CID:326760



Tosca
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, December 13, 1996

Debut : Thomas Hammons




Tosca (783)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Carol Vaness

Cavaradossi
Vincenzo La Scola

Scarpia
Jean-Philippe Lafont

Sacristan
Thomas Hammons [Debut]

Spoletta
Anthony Laciura

Angelotti
Richard Bernstein

Sciarrone
Bradley Garvin

Shepherd
Andrew Jablon

Jailer
Vaclovas Daunoras


Conductor
Christian Badea


Production
Franco Zeffirelli

Costume Designer
Peter J. Hall

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Stage Director
Max Charruyer





Tosca received thirteen performances this season.

Review 1:

Paul Griffiths in The New York Times
A Night at the Opera, Or at the Multiplex

All other things being more or less decent, the star attractions at the Metropolitan Opera's current revival of "Tosca" are Franco Zeffirelli's sets, which undeniably match the music and enhance the impression this work gives of live cinema. They lead one to wonder if Puccini had some experience of the movies in their infancy, or if it is just that film composers followed his way here of using the orchestra to set atmosphere, to direct movement and even to sing, as when "E lucevan le stelle" starts out as an aria for instruments with tenor accompaniment.


Even so, the piece does not have to sound quite so much like movie music as it did at Friday night's [first] performance, when the conductor, Christian Badea, encouraged brash fortes and slovenly rhythms. The point is not that film scores are badly played, but rather that they are badly heard. This was the effect: of a bad hearing, one lacking in nuance, detail and connection.


Carol Vaness, in the title role, was altogether and characteristically more noble, to a fault. She avoided the scoops and snarls that have entered the role in emulation of Callas, but she also avoided commitment and danger. What she offered instead was, to some extent, a just and effective performance: Tosca is, after all, a professional singer, and might reasonably have more care for a well-placed high note than for Cavaradossi. But for such an interpretation to stick thoroughly would have required more vim and more size of voice. Ms. Vaness seemed not so much proud in her role as careful for herself. A lot of her singing was beautiful but aloof; the coldness needed to be brought closer, so that we could feel the chill.


The Cavaradossi, Vincenzo La Scola, had to press himself hard, except in the third act, when the prison set gave him a more enclosed space in which to sing. Under those conditions he was engaging; when he had to force, any good qualities in his singing were swamped by vibrato.


Jean-Philippe Lafont offered an unusual Scarpia, drawn as if with soft pencil. The gray clouds of his tones were bleak, but at the same time they implied a possible humanity and a more interesting character: a good man who has turned away from goodness in order to turn away from himself.


Nothing else much counts in this opera of threes: three characters, three acts, three chords. There were nice features in the bit parts, however. Richard Bernstein was an appealing Angelotti, and Thomas Hammons offered a vocally strong and for once not too hammy Sacristan.



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