Review: TOSCA, London Coliseum, 3 October 2016

When Catherine Malfitano's Tosca debuted in 2010, English National Opera finally had a production of Puccini's classic to rival Jonathan Kent's long-serving version up the road at Covent Garden. Handsome, traditional, revivable - the show is everything it should be. But the extra friction that turns solid into spectacular is left entirely in the hands of the cast. With one role debut and one company debut among its principals, on paper this second revival was a bit of an unknown quantity. In practice it's an uneven affair, but the good is so very excellent that you'll forgive it much.

You don't think of Tosca as an ensemble show, but at ENO that's exactly what it becomes thanks to some superb work from chorus and orchestra, filling the Coliseum with an incense-scented Te Deum that's surely worth more than a few indulgences. The brass delight in Scarpia's musical menace, giving Puccini's villain a sonic ferocity that's almost feral, but conductor Oleg Caetani ensures that it's cushioned in a swathe of strings that preserve the lovers' music (if not the lovers themselves) from the worst of his violence. Tempos tend to the matter of fact, but thanks to the fluidity of Caetani's pacing nothing ever feels rushed.

Gwyn Hughes Jones has already made his mark in this production, and here returns at his absolute best. There's blade and brightness to the voice but also a pleasantly baritonal darkness that extends right up through the range, creating a sound that projects without ever tending nasal or becoming gripped. His "E lucevan le stelle" adds something to the patrician smoothness we've had up till this point, reaching lower for something more desperate, more primal. It's Italianate right enough, but his is the Italy of earthquakes and civil wars, not gelato and Vespas.

The other two points of Puccini's love triangle are a little less clearly defined. American soprano Keri Alkema makes her company debut in the title role here. It's a powerful voice but one that sounds like it won't linger too long in Tosca territory before moving onto something weightier. Thrilling at moments of climax, the vocal heft does distort the shape of phrases, and "Vissi d'arte" bulges uncomfortably at its musical seams. Craig Colclough's Scarpia, by contrast, could do with a bit of Alkema's power, whittling down his villain to the sharpest of points. The sound is ungenerous, not to say pinched, but dramatically the result is surprisingly effective - a sneer in the land of operatic croons, a curious child-villain who violates because he cannot woo.

The production itself has aged well. There's an ease to the opening acts, a lack of self-consciousness that just lets the music get on with it, and Frank Phlipp Schlossman's striking Act III design - perching his characters up on the ramparts of the Castel Sant'Angelo - has lost none of its punch. A certain sloppiness has crept in since the show's last appearance however, with revival director Donna Stirrup failing to pay much attention to the details of either score or stage directions. These are shouted so loudly from the orchestra pit that it seems perverse to ignore them on stage.

Quibbles aside, this is a show that will win ENO new friends as well as satisfying the old ones. The urgency and poignancy of Puccini's love story is all in the telling, and Caetani and his musicians spin a superb tale.

Tosca at London Coliseum until 3 December

Picture credit: Robert Workman