Review: San Diego Opera’s supersized ‘Tosca’ boasts epic voices and massive scenery

Whenever someone asks my opinion on the perfect “first” opera to attend, I always pick “Tosca” or “La bohème.”

Puccini’s earworm melodies, spectacular arias and concise scoring can hook a first-time opera-goer for life. That will surely be the case for San Diego Opera’s new production of “Tosca,” which opened Saturday to a sold-out house at the San Diego Civic Theatre.

This production features three excellent opera singers with huge voices that easily fill the 3,000-seat Civic Theatre without amplification. It also features a large chorus and scenery so massive and beautiful that the sets themselves drew scattered applause when the curtain went up on the first and third acts Saturday.

Written in 1900, “Tosca” is the the tragic love-hate triangle story of Roman opera singer Floria Tosca, her lover Mario Cavaradossi and the corrupt and sadistic police chief Baron Scarpia, who tortures Cavaradossi to pressure Tosca into sex.

Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley and soprano Michelle Bradley in San Diego Opera’s “Tosca” at the San Diego Civic Theatre.

(Courtesy of Karli Cadel)

The scenery will be familiar to audience members who saw SDO’s 2016 “Tosca,” and so will one of the production’s principal singers, bass-baritone Greer Grimsley, who is playing the opera’s villain, Scarpia, for the third time in San Diego (2016, 2009). Scarpia is Grimsley’s signature role, and it’s hard to imagine a singer who’s as vocally robust in the role and as superb in acting the wicked part.

Soprano Michelle Bradley, who played the title role in Verdi’s “Aida” here in 2019, is back as Tosca, a role she debuted last year at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Bradley’s a formidable Tosca with a big sound and velvety texture that avoids the vocal sharpness that can often creep into some of Tosca’s arias, like the famed and heartbreaking “Vissi d’arte” (“I lived for my art”). She’s also a fine actress who showcases her character’s quicksilver emotions in the second act, where she bargains and fights with Scarpia for Cavaradossi’s life.

And in his San Diego Opera debut, Argentinean tenor Marcelo Puente is impressive with his muscular sound, easy high notes and gorgeous rendering of the third-act aria “e lucevan le stelle” (“The stars were shining”).

The “Te Deum” scene in Act I of San Diego Opera’s “Tosca” at the San Diego Civic Theatre.

(Courtesy of Karli Cadel)

Italian conductor Valerio Galli, a specialist in the Puccini repertoire, sensitively led the San Diego Symphony through the score Saturday. San Diego Opera chorus master Bruce Stasyna led an extra-large group of chorale singers, including 36 adult choristers and 16 youth members of the San Diego Children’s Choir.

Stage director Alan E. Hicks, who directed “Aida” in 2019 and “All is Calm” in 2018, adds some fresh theatrical ideas to the often-produced opera. Scarpia’s henchman Spoletta (tenor Joel Sorenson) is particularly gleeful in his cruelty, and in Act Three, a bored prison guard takes aim with his rifle at the singing shepherd boy (soprano Abigail Allwein).

“Tosca” can easily dip into melodrama with its second and third act finales. This production avoids those pitfalls, but there is a fair bit of less-realistic fist-shaking, stand-and-deliver singing and copious stage blood. They’re small flaws, though, in a production that looks and sounds great and is a good introduction for any San Diegans, young and old, who are ready to experience their first opera.

‘Tosca’

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Friday; 2 p.m. Sunday.

Where: San Diego Opera at the San Diego Civic Theatre 1100 Third Ave., San Diego

Tickets: $25 and up

Phone: (619) 533-7000

Online: sdopera.org

Soprano Michelle Bradley and tenor Marcelo Puente in San Diego Opera’s “Tosca.”

(Courtesy of Karli Cadel)