Arts

Topical "Tosca"

by Jules Becker
Thursday Oct 26, 2017

Tosca, Boston Lyric Opera, Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, Boston, through October 22.blo.org or 617-542-4912


Imagine a tyrannical regime with a corrupt police chief as sexually predatory as Harvey Weinstein. Add a revolutionary artist and his opera diva love struggling for real freedom in a city where religious officials become collaborators by condoning brutality.

This is the kind of dystopia co-librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa vividly depicted and set in 1800 post-republic Rome for the Giacomo Puccini opera ''Tosca,'' first performed in the year1900. Now Boston Lyric Opera is bringing fresh and timely resonance to this prescient classic in its powerful 41st year season opener at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre.

Set designer Julia Noulin-Merat has constructed a formidable high pillar two-level façade where malevolent chief of police Scarpia-assisted by abusive henchmen-ascends a winding staircase to torture free-thinking agnostic painter Cavaradossi and harass church-attending concert singer Tosca.

Clergymen and nuns display religious devotion with no visible compassion and caring for the disenfranchised. Stage director Crystal Manich smartly blocks the escalating conflicts of what may be Puccini's most emotionally insightful opera.

The result is a staging where hypocrisy and deceit regularly face off against genuine faith and true love in the opera's nightmare scenario, one that George Orwell would admire for its honesty.

Opera Fuoco (Paris-based) founding director David Stern, now in his BLO debut, richly evokes both the irony and the dramatic highs of that face off as he conducts the production's 54 musicians-the season's largest orchestra-behind the singers.

There are particularly notable efforts from the reed and percussion sections. Stern's nuanced conducting pays careful attention to the contrasting fortissimo stretches and softer moments of the opening. Stern's sharp direction also delineates the disarmingly pleasant passages that contrast with Scarpia's lethal manipulation of Tosca.

Bringing together the riveting poetic elements of the libretto and Puccini's poignant music are the big-voiced and expressive cast members. Elena Stikhina captures Tosca's fiery will as well as her profound vulnerability. She delivers the diva's famous philosophical aria "Vissi d'arte'' with a fine blend of clarity and passion. Jonathan Burton, a sweet-voiced tenor, is totally convincing professing his love for Tosca and enduring great suffering as a revolutionary.

Adding to the strengths of this BLO winner is Stikhina and Burton's real chemistry together-whether kissing quickly in front of a Madonna statue at the church or sharing more substantial moments of romance. Daniel Sutin finds all of Scarpia's brutality and sadism without losing sight of his real if twisted feeling for Tosca.

BLO veteran James Maddalena, always a convincing actor as well as singer, catches the steely demeanor of the church sacristan in early exchanges with Cavaradossi, whose painting of Mary Magdalene he finds less than appropriate. Jon Jurgens has arresting coldness as Scarpia henchman Spoletta. David Cushing has the right fragility as escaped political prisoner Angelotti. There are strong ensemble efforts throughout-especially at moments of prayer.

Scarpia betrays Tosca. By contrast, the BLO's timely revival not only proves faithful to the diva's haunting emotional odyssey but also demonstrates how much this wise opera has to say about tyranny freedom, love and life itself.