Puccini : Tosca (Bd)

   in Opera Now (Feb, 2012)
Business as usual here at the Verona Arena; nothing to frighten the tourists. Hugo de Ana’s staging plays Tosca straight, just with a larger budget than most productions. So the action is easy to follow, the emotions semaphored, and the costumes compete with their wearers (sometimes literally for poor Tosca, who is often overtaken by her own train). Daniel Oren conducts a suitably generic performance, notwithstanding some pretty ropey playing from his orchestra. Fiorenza Cedolins is Tosca, generous of spirit and voice, which veers between occasional elegance and regular screeching; it’s all rather a rollercoaster. Marcelo Alvarez’s Cavaradossi is also large-scaled, but with more evenness of production and some vocal subtleties, …