22 June 2017
Tosca
Grange Park Opera, West Horsley
reviewed by Adam McCormack.
If you unexpectedly inherited a crumbling country pile with 300 acres, what would you do with it? This is exactly what happened to former TV presenter Bamber Gascoigne, who was left a sixteenth century manor house in West Horsley by his aunt, and his altruistic response was to allow an opera house to be built in the grounds. Fortunately, there was a ready-made opera company in need of a new home, for whom Mr. Gascoigne’s inheritance has proved serendipitous.
The great news is that the relocation of Grange Park Opera from Hampshire to West Horsley has done nothing to undermine the impressive quality of their operas. Their first production, Tosca, brilliantly highlights the truly remarkable achievement of building a new theatre, based on the 4-tiered horseshoe shape of La Scala, Milan, from scratch in less than a year. A current lack of air-conditioning or permanent bathrooms might not be ideal given the current hot spell, but a 99-year lease should give plenty of time to sort that out (along with a £10mn fundraising programme) and tickets for productions will continue to be gold dust.
Perhaps because of the need to keep the previous regulars happy, director Peter Relton takes few risks with this production of Puccini’s Tosca, but given the quality of the performers and the auditorium he didn’t need to. The shift in setting from Rome in 1800 to one more akin to that of Mussolini works very well in conveying an environment of fear and oppression, and the drama is played with maximum pathos. Francis O’Connor’s set utilizes the impressive stage perfectly; shifting from cloistered church, to grand offices of state, prison and those perilous battlements. When one looks at the cast it is no surprise that the singing is top notch. Securing Joseph Calleja to play Florian Tosca’s true love, the painter Caravadossi was an undoubted coup, but Roland Wood more than holds his own as a suitably malevolent rival Baron Scarpia. Ekaterina Metlova certainly looks the part of Tosca, which she sang beautifully, although at times her hand gestures seemed a little self-conscious and wooden. This is a very minor criticism in an otherwise excellent production and the pacing, by including a second interval between acts 2 and 3, helps the audience sustain their enrapture on a sweltering evening.
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