With the scheduled opening night cancelled (lack of stage crew) and the actual opening spiced by a half-time jump-in by a replacement tenor (making a major role and house debut – more of that later), the latest revival of Jonathan Kent’s warhorse of a Tosca at the Royal Opera risks having its onstage drama outdone by real life. But, now the offstage dust has settled, it’s a show still sounding brighter, bolder and more vivid than it has for ages.
That’s largely down to the British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso. Originally billed to make a quieter debut, with a few matinee and second-cast performances, the singer has now stepped up to sing the lead role of painter Mario Cavaradossi for the whole run.
The 28-year-old becomes, in the process, both the youngest singer to take the role at Covent Garden, and the first Briton since 1963.
De Tommaso is the real deal, a glorious Italianate throb animating a voice whose fate-sealing, defiant cries of “Vittoria!” in Act II set the house trembling.
Baritonal warmth at the lower end of the voice only adds to the sunburst-reveal of the top, and he’s just getting started.
A charmer finding unexpected grit in extremis, De Tommaso’s Cavaradossi makes a nice foil for Anna Pirozzi’s Tosca – a down-to-earth diva, whose practicality falls away for just a moment for the transcendent vision of “Vissi d’arte”.
It’s not the most beautiful singing we’ve heard in the role (nor the best acted, the awkward physicality that marked Pirozzi’s recent Lady Macbeth is still more evident here), but there’s enough chemistry with both De Tomasso and Claudio Sgura’s casually malevolent Scarpia to carry us along, helped by crisp tempos and careful balance (playing a long game, with Act III’s climax in sight from the start) from Oksana Lyniv’s pit.
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Revival director Amy Lane draws human detail into relief against the shadowy, large-scale spectacle of Paul Brown’s sets. A torturer arrives picking already-dried blood from under his fingernails; choirboys tease and scrap before church; Scarpia turns his back on an enraged Tosca, unable to rouse his attention as an adversary, let alone his respect or fear.
Small details and big sounds give this revival the energy of a new show. It’s a great night out.
To 22 February, Royal Opera House