Music Reviews

Nov 5, 2005 - Nevada Opera opens its season with a profound and moving "Tosca"

By Jack Neal

Intrigue is what Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca" is about. Had director of movie thrillers Alfred Hitchcock directed opera, "Tosca" would have been his opera of choice.

The Nevada Opera Company opened its season Friday night (11/4/05) at Reno's Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts with a profound and moving recreation of Puccini's tale of intrigue and passion.

Set in Rome, circa 1800, opera star Floria Tosca and her lover portrait painter Mario Cavaradossi are entangled in a plot to hide Angelotti, an escaped political prisoner. Just why Angelotti is a political prisoner is never explained in Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa's libretto, but it can be assumed it deals with the thought at the time that Napoleon was actually a liberator, not an emperor to be. In "Tosca" knowing something about history isn't the point. The point is what happens to two attractive people in love whose lives are being destroyed by a cad.

The part about not knowing history and destroying lives should resonate with contemporary audiences and does with this production. With superb singing, compelling acting, deft direction, forboding sets, and a conductor who knows the score, Nevada Opera delivers a riveting and highly musical accounting of Puccini's inspired piece of dramatic lyric theater.

Scarpia, Rome's corrupt chief of police, is central to the action. He lusts after Tosca, hates Mario, and must recapture Angelotti. With all these ingredients in place, the pot quickly thickens into a tale of terror and murder. Who, including Hitchcock, could ask for more?

Kyle Marrero has staged "Tosca" and he does so with a deft sense of the drama's conflict between love, jealousy and hate. He moves the action as swiftly as the plunge of a dagger to the heart. Nevada Opera's artistic director Michael Borowitz conducts Puccini's intense, lyric score and he does so by playing to the theatricality of the composer's impeccable timing, suspenseful underscoring and wonderfully expressive arias, loaded as they are with emotion and pathos.

In the title role, soprano Deborah Raymond sings gloriously. Her "Vissi d'arte" is as exquisite as her acting. She's entrancing every moment she's on stage. As Cavaradossi, tenor Drew Slatton is the perfect complement to Miss Raymond's work. His sound is not as full-bodied as hers, but his performance grows as does the nuance and timbre of his voice as the opera progresses, reaching an expressive high with the poignant aria, "E lucevan le stelle," through the soaring final duet with Tosca, when the two lovers sing of future happiness. Their duets are sumptuous affairs steeped in the kind of passion that makes for very grand opera. They are a most attractive couple.

As Scarpia, baritone Dennis Jesse is superb. Mr. Jesse is an exceptional singing actor and provides Scarpia with all the arrogance, lust and lack of morals a great stage Scarpia must embody: he sings wonderfully in a terrific and dark, dramatic way. Making his Nevada Opera debut, Ashraf Sewailam is a compelling Angelotti - solid as both actor and a singer. Singing the role of Scarpia's spy, Spoletta, Rolund Wunderling is the ultimate loyal aide who doesn't mind playing dirty. Mr. Wunderling sings appropriately to his tasks - which means he sings well.

In such prestigious company three local singers, Lawrence D. Clawson, an excellent Sacristan, Phil Boardman, an aristocratic and poised Sciarrone, and shepherd Hannah Maxwell hold their own with high honors.

The Nevada Opera orchestra, chorus and children's chorus (Kris Engstrom, director) are all in tip-top shape. David Gano's sets are dark and sinister, just as they should be. Ray Diffen's handsome costumes are easy on the eyes. Don Smith's terrific mood-setting lighting can best be described as shadowy Rembrandt gloom with pinpoint highlights.

Puccini's "Tosca" is intimate, exciting theater. Nevada Opera's "Tosca" scores on all counts. The results for this exceptional collaboration? A well deserved standing ovation.

Nevada Opera's "Tosca" will be repeated Sunday (11/6/05) at 2 p.m. All Nevada Opera main-stage performances can be seen at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, 100 S. Virginia Street, Reno. For ticket information call 775 786-4046 or 775-686-6600. Next up for Nevada Opera: "The Pirates of Penzance" February 3 and 4, 2006.