SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Puccini, Tosca: at Opera på Skäret, Kopparberg, Sweden, 2.8.2008. Premiere 1 (GF)

Directed by Sten Niclasson

Video direction by Mikael Fock

Set Designer: Lars-Erik Lindén

Costume Designer: Mathias Clason

Lighting Designer: Ronny Andersson

Cast:

Tosca:Gitta-Maria Sjöberg

Cavaradossi:Petrus Schroderus

Scarpia:Thomas Lander

Angelotti / Gaoler: Marco Stella

Sacristan / Sciarrone:Johan Wållberg

Spoletta:Alexander Niclasson

Shepherd Boy:Maria Helin

Bergslagen’s Music Dramatic Chorus, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Örebro / Tobias Ringborg


After last year’s highly successful Aida, artistic director Sten Niclasson chose another sure-fire hit, Puccini’s blood-and-thunder Tosca for the fifth anniversary year. It may be a hackneyed work but there is so much dramatic potential in it and there is so much splendid music, besides the two tenor arias and Tosca’s prayer, which everybody knows, and the ten scheduled performances were practically sold out well in advance. The spacious old sawmill has marvellous acoustics, warm and detailed which isn’t a self-evident combination, fully on a par with the Drottningholm Court Theatre or even the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. Since last year they have stopped up the slits between the boards in the walls, ensuring less draught for the audience in the front rows, but there is still a decided outdoor feeling and when the rain is pouring down and the temperature creeps down to around 15-16 degrees centigrade, as it did on the evening of the premiere, one is grateful to have brought some extra warm clothes.

Good news this year is that there are now Swedish subtitles, even though they are placed to the left of the stage, which probably means that they are hard to read for those sitting to the front right. The toilets, where the water supply was a problem last year, now worked immaculately and future plans include a heating system, based on lake water pump. Another novelty, and this is nothing less than a world premiere when it comes to opera production, is the introduction of 3D staging. This is a technique to make animations, film footage and pictures to ‘hang’ in the air on the stage and interact with artists as well as the sets. The technique was used by Mikael Fock for a theatre production in Copenhagen in 2007 and Sten Niclasson jumped at the idea of employing it for this Tosca. Sometimes there are swarms of pictures in the background to create atmosphere, but the technique is also used to show off stage activities, for instance when Tosca sings outside Scarpia’s window in act II. Instead of just shutting the window, which is the traditional procedure, Scarpia simply turns the picture off with a remote control. Another screen shows a big shark swimming among other fish and we understand the symbol of course. When Scarpia turns this off the screen becomes the fireplace and in this production Tosca doesn’t stab Scarpia, she pushes him into the fire where he burns to Hell. The torture of Cavaradossi is another scene that is horrifyingly illustrated through projections and also the final scene of the opera, where Tosca throws herself over the parapet of Castel San’Angelo and falls towards death: here projections on her body produce the effect of angel wings. Scarpia went to Hell, Tosca, his murderess, goes to Heaven. This is certainly a fascinating technique and it will be interesting to see how it can be further developed.

The ‘ordinary’ sets are rather sparse but efficient: In the first act a statue of the Madonna to the left and to the right Cavaradossi’s easel with his Madonna portrait. The act opens with a woman entering the stage before the music starts. We soon understand that this is ‘that Attavanti woman’, as Tosca calls her, who is there to hide the key for her brother, Angelotti. The only props in Scarpia’s office in act two are a white, turnable armchair centre-stage and, to the right, a well-filled cocktail cabinet that Scarpia visits repeatedly. The third act plays on a practically bare stage.

The costumes are more or less timeless: Cavaradossi in black long coat, Scarpia in elegant darkish suit, but he dons a red coat when in act II he dons the role as executioner. Tosca wears luxurious robes, as befits a famous star. When she has agreed to comply with Scarpia’s wishes, she starts to undress while the Chief of Police is writing and signing the safe conduct. Having killed him she has to dress again, which seems to be a struggle with all that long and heavy silk. All Toscas I have seen have had to sweep the stage floor with their dresses. In the final act she appears in travelling costume, which of course is sensible since they are supposed to take to flight as soon as possible.

All in all this is an innovative as well as coherent performance, well conceived and well carried through and the musical level is extremely high, even world class. This definitely applies to the orchestra, The Swedish Chamber Orchestra, normally residents of the Concert Hall in nearby – well not too far away – Örebro, an orchestra that has gained international reputation since it was established in 1995 and has recorded more than 40 CDs, most notably the ongoing project to record the complete orchestral music by Beethoven for Simax under their chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard. With glowing strings, rasping brass and tight homogenous timbre they produced a dramatic and sensual Puccini sound that can’t be taken for granted in many opera houses. Tobias Ringborg, who started out as one of the foremost violinists in Sweden, has during the new century been a frequent guest conductor with symphony orchestras as well as in opera houses and since he fell in love with Tosca at the age of ten he has absorbed every ounce of the strong emotions this score is charged with. It was a strong reading, emotive but unduly sentimental. The chorus with singers from the region was impressive in last year’s Aida. In Tosca they have a more unobtrusive function but the Te Deum in act I was undoubtedly powerful.

The three leading roles are divided between two teams of singers and I have only been able to hear Team 1. (Team 1 only refers to the fact that they sang at Premiere 1). In the title role Gitta-Maria Sjöberg fulfilled all my expectations. Having reviewed her Verdi/Puccini recital on CD less than a year ago – I made it a Recording of the Month (see review) – and more recently her Sieglinde in the complete DVD Ring from Copenhagen, I knew her capacity and she was on top form this evening. As I commented on her recital she is not one to show off her glorious voice at all costs. Her singing is emotional and intense but also restrained and nuanced, the intensity coming from within and she reserves the full-throated singing for the big climaxes. In this role there are such opportunities in abundance and then her volume and brilliance is overwhelming. The only slight disappointment came, ironically enough, in her great set piece Vissi d’arte. Her reading was as inward and deeply felt as on the recital disc and the climax as heartrendingly desperate as imaginable but she sounded slightly worn in places with an impure surface layer on the tone that luckily was gone when she resumed the singing after the generous applause. Pared with excellent acting this was an interpretation to count with the very best.

Her Cavaradossi was sung by the young Finn Petrus Schroderus, who won the Timo Mustakallio Competition in 2004 and after that embarked on a professional career. He sings frequently at the Finnish National Opera, but so far in more lyrical roles. Cavaradossi may be too heavy for him at this stage but in the relatively small venue at Skäret he had no problems to project. He has a youthful, brilliant voice with no baritonal darkness – quite Nordic in fact, the type of timbre one associates with Jussi Björling or Peter Lindroos – his arias were excellently sung but the high-spot was, to my mind at least, the long scene with Tosca in act I. What I missed was a true honeyed pianissimo that would have made O dolci mani in act III even more touching.

Thomas Lander was a late replacement for an ailing colleague, but he is an experienced singer who has been engaged to several European opera houses, including Volksoper in Vienna, and he sang Scarpia with Ystadsoperan last year. His slim stature and vivacious appearance made him an unusually youthful, and thus even more sexually menacing, Chief of Police and vocally he expressed dark evil as well as yearning desire. Certain Scarpias impress through a larger-than-life approach; Lander’s Scarpia was life-size but just as threatening.

Vocal excellence a-plenty was found in the supporting roles as well, where especially Marco Stella, more bass than baritone in fact, was a powerful Angelotti and the only inconsistency here was that he probably couldn’t be so vital after so long time in Scarpia’s dungeon. He also doubled as the gaoler in the last act. Johan Wållberg was a moderately caricatured Sacristan and doubled as a slimy Sciarrone together with Alexander Niclasson’s nasty Spoletta. Maria Helin’s Shepherd Boy in the last act had a suitably rural image.

Is opera in a crisis? The genre’s grave-diggers seem to maintain this but judging from Opera på Skäret’s Tosca the state of health seems perfect and the only medication needed is support from the opera-going public. At Skäret this support is obvious as is the enthusiasm from everyone involved in this highly successful enterprise.

Göran Forsling


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