Arts & Events

For a return to live music after nearly twenty months of silence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, San Francisco Opera presented a reprisal of director Shawna Lacey’s 2018 staging of Puccini’s Tosca. Soprano Ailyn Pérez sang the title role and tenor Michael Fabiano was Mario Cavaradossi. Both were excellent. Less impressive was bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Scarpia, the ruthless Chief of Rome’s Police. Making her debut as the company’s new Music Director, conductor Eun Sun Kim led the orchestra, principals and chorus in a performance full of vivid musical imagery. In an interview conducted by Jeffrey McMillen and included in the digital program for SF Opera’s Tosca, Eun Sun Kim spoke of the need to drive the music, especially in the first act of Tosca, where Puccini’s music provides visual colors of many different hues. In this endeavour, conductor Eun Sun Kim succeeded admirably. Following upon the total success of her previous experience here as guest conductor in the 2019 performances of Dvorák’s Rusalka, Eun Sun Kim’s fluid, well-paced rendition of Puccini’s Tosca augurs well for her reign as San Francisco Opera’s Music Director. 

Ailyn Peréz, who previously sang Violetta here in Verdi’s La Traviata in both 2009 and 2014, was a sweet-voiced Floria Tosca, alternating her singing from melting expressions of love for Cavaradossi to violent outbursts of jealousy when she erroneously suspects him of consorting with the Marquesa Attavanti. Peréz’s rendition of Act II’s “Vissi d’arte” received sustained applause from the appreciative audience. Tenor Michael Fabiano, who was singing his first Cavaradossi in North America, having recently debuted this role In Paris and Madrid, was a robust Mario Cavaradossi. His Act I aria “Recondita armonia” was beautifully sung, and his spontaneous outburst of “Vittoria, Vittoria” at news of Bonaparte’s victory at Marengo, was thrillingly expressive. Likewise, Fabiano’s Act III rendition of “E lucevan le stelle” received a well-deserved round of applause. 

In the role of Baron Scarpia, bass-baritone Alfred Walker seemed outmatched by the other principals. Walker’s voice lacked the power and ferocity required for this venal character. At the August 27 performance I attended, Walker never caught fire and he failed to impress.  

Director Shawna Lacey’s staging of Tosca was impeccable, at least in Act I, where the entrances of numerous characters one after another were handled adroitly. Especially noteworthy was the strong portrayal of the Sacristan by veteran bass-baritone Dale Travis, who exhibited his narrow-minded piety by repeatedly crossing himself, covering his eyes to shun Cavaradossi’s painted images of female beauty, yet eagerly filching delectable items from the painter’s lunch basket. A bit more problematic, however, was Stacey’s handling of Act II. Together with Designer Robert Innes Hopkins, Stacey presented Scarpia’s office as divided in two areas, a spacious main room plus an antechamber divided from the main room by a translucent screen. When Scarpia orders Cavaradossi to be tortured in the antechamber, shadows are vaguely seen through the translucent screen. I am sure these shadows are meant to be ominously threatening, though they suggest nothing specific, neither on their own nor as complements to verbal descriptions of the torture provided by Scarpia in order to alarm Tosca and induce her to reveal the whereabouts of escaped prisoner Angelotti. Then, when Tosca is bullied into spilling the beans in order to save Cavaradossi’s life, there comes the moment when, just before being forced to give herself to Scarpia’s lustful advances, she discovers the knife she will plunge into Scarpia’s chest to kill him. Unwisely, director Stacey has Ailyn Peréz raise the knife high above her head, needlessly making it visible to Scarpia if he simply raised his head from the safe passage document he’s writing for Tosca and Cavaradossi. Once Tosca has killed Scarpia, Ailyn Peréz pronounced the famous line, “Davanti a lui tremava tutta Roma/ Before him all Rome trembled” in non-descript fashion as a throwaway line instead of the snarling, caustic delivery of those words made famous by Maria Callas. 

Bass Soloman Howard gave a vocally strong performance as the republican firebrand Angelotti, and tenor Joel Sorenson was an appropriately weasel-like Spoletta, Scarpia’s main henchman. Solid performances were offered by baritone Timothy Murray as Sciarrone, bass Stefan Egerstrom as the Jailer, and soprano Elisa Sunshine as the shepherd boy. The company’s chorus was adeptly led by Ian Robertson.