It appears that Puccini’s Roman melodrama can hardly fail to fill a house or attract a new soprano - and so this evening saw the house debut of Evgenia Muraveva (a St. Petersburg ensemble member whose repertoire stretches from the Italian verismo to Strauss’ Salome, and Shostakovitch’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk - which proved a most suitable vehicle for her Salzburg Festival debut two Summers ago when she substituted for Nina Stemme).

The Russian soprano brings numerous assets, which include a svelte figure, appealing presence, and - most importantly - a fine stage instinct and play with words. Her dark-timbred lyric soprano is ample - without being particularly large - and responds well with desired inflection (Act 1’s  "Ed io venivo a lui tutta dogliosa…." after seeing Attavanti’s fan, and "Vissi d’arte" being just two examples). However, the register mix was a touch bottom-heavy here, and on this particular evening often tended to deliver under pitch above the stave (at worst in the intended fierce top C in "Io quella lama gli piantai nel cor…" (Act 3) which only stretched to a B-natural. Nevertheless, in all, a Tosca of quality and appeal - if not perhaps the most judicious choice for this particular singer’s Vienna debut.

This evening saw Joseph Calleja’s first Cavaradossi here - and one laced with an undercurrent of tension rather than confident ease, somewhat clipped phrasing, and with focus often aimed at the baton and projection to the gallery infusing much of the action. Apart from an unresponsive high B-flat in "Recondita armonia", the Maltese tenor well held his own vocally, with convincing dramatic outbursts (including a decent Act 2 "Vittoria! Vittoria!") - but essentially finding his home ground in a superbly lyrical and touching "E lucevan le stelle" - sweet in tone and phrased with sensitivity.

Towering in stature, vocal prowess, stage craft, and intelligence, Bryn Terfel returned as Scarpia - and actually eclipsed memories of his impressive first showing in the role here almost six years ago. He illuminates the character with a mélange of pregnant diction, and dynamics (spanning throwaway sotto voces with biting outbursts), and an instinctive sense of “taking time”, simply being - and claiming the stage. Any loss of youthful bloom in timbre here favours the character through a broader spectrum of colour and nuance in an operatic creation which can only be described as “Gesamtkunstwerk”.

Testifying that there are no small parts, Ryan Speedo Green returned with a more compact and well-articulated Angelotti, Alexandru Moisiuc with his now-inimitable dryly-nonchalant Sacristan, Wolfram Igor Derntl’s vigilant Spoletta, Igor Onishchenko’s noteworthy Sciarrone, Ayk Martirossian’s eye-rubbing but conscientious Jailer - and last but not least, a well-intoned Shepherd sung by Maryam Tahon.

In the pit, Marco Armiliato crashed into the Act 1’s opening chords with aplomb and maintained dramatic tension and evident affinity with both score and stage throughout the evening. 

Apart from the lacklustre and out-of-sync Act 1 chorus contribution, this Wallmann/Benois production seemed remarkably taut and fresh in this 615th performance since its 1958 premiere - with the surprising perspective from Castel Sant’ Angelo’s roof terrace as Act 3’s curtain rises still drawing subdued “wows” from evident newcomers.