Tosca - Opera Australia

Opera Australia excels once more with this stunning performance of Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca.
There are several elements to this production with will amaze you, the first hits you straight away. The set! The first act is in the Attavanti chapel in Rome, it looks like they have picked up part of a chapel and put it on stage - the marble, statues, frescos, iron gates, candles, chairs all just perfect. The second act is inside the Nazis headquarters and to make it look foreboding they have made these massive doors and windows and notably the staging is very grey.  Similarly, the last act is again grey and the barbed wire walkway is very effective. Michael Scott-Mitchell is the set designer and I look forward to seeing future sets from him.
Diego Torre who plays Mario Cavaradossi, for me, was the star of the show.  He has such a rich, mellow voice, very easy to listen to.  All the performers were excellent, Shane Lowrencev did an superb job of standing in, in the role of Baron Scarpia.
Tosca is directed by John Bell (Bell Shakespeare) and you can tell, it is a very dramatic performance.
The story of Tosca is simple, though if you don't know the story you will be guessing until the end as to what exactly happens.  Tosca and Mario are in love. Mario tries to help his friend Angelotti who has escaped from prison. Scarpia is searching for Angelotti and suspects Mario is hiding him and tries to make Tosca jealous by suggesting that Mario is having an affair. They follow Tosca to Mario's house where they search and take him to their headquarters. At the headquarters they torture Mario as Tosca is forced to listen;  they hope that she will help them locate Angelotti's whereabouts.  She finally gives in and Mario is sentenced to death. However, Scarpia rather fancies the ladies particularly Tosca and says that he will fake the execution if she sleeps with him. What happens next well you will have to go and see it yourself!!

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Madama Butterfly

Reviewed by Regina Su

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is now playing at the Sydney Opera House and to miss this would be more than an irreversible regret. The costuming was detailed in silk creating a sense of sensous voluptuousness. Visually, this opera was spectacular, easily the most stunning show I have ever had the privilege to watch. Subtle breezes over the stage sent white curtains billowing, the water moat around the raised stage was used to float tea-light candles. Somehow, the opera crew created a sacred and stunning space, something so breath-taking that ladies in the row in front of me were actually in tears at the performance. 

But it’s not just the staging that can evoke the use of a tissue, it’s the whole atmosphere. When the lights are dimmed, they reveal the pinpricks of a starry night, and a perfect moon overlooking one of the most romantic and tragic love stories of all time. The entire show was like witnessing a picturesque Japanese post card and the lighting was totally flawless. I was seated where surtitles could not be seen, but this was not an issue. At one point, a letter of bad news is read out. Butterfly’s face lights up with energy, passion and excitement and the stage is awash in pink. Later, the same letter reads a great tragedy for Butterfly- her beloved American soldier has since married in the US. Her face darkens, as the lighting changes dramatically to deep blues and greens and I felt a heart-breaking pain; I had invested so much emotional energy in Madama Butterfly.

Puccini’s opera is recognisable, hum-able and so very poignant. Commendation to the actor who played Madama Butterfly’s son- he was so perfect and gut wrenching in his silent performance of love for his mother. As we watch Butterfly await the return of Pinkerton that will never happen, we watch her suspense, her loving devotion and adoration. She smiles, but there are tears in her eyes. Her dedication to the dream that is Pinkerton is manic, borderline lunacy and we feel so much sympathy for this Japanese woman wronged by a marriage of convenience. We had invested so much in Butterfly’s story that when Pinkerton came to bow onstage in the finale, the audience in fact boo-ed him off, (all in jest of course). The show has a sad nostalgia, a tragic loss of a romantic ideal, a sensual and perfect night of Opera. I cannot regard this performance more highly.

Performance dates: 20^th September until the 1^st of November.

Image source: http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/whatson/madama_butterfly_2012.aspx