It is one of the grandest scenes in grand opera: a full-throated Te Deum in Rome's Sant'Andrea della Valle church while the city's villainous chief of police, Baron Scarpia, plots his conquest of the beautiful Tosca. Deceipt, lechery, torture, hypocrisy: there will be no end to Scarpia's cruelty, even after his death. Puccini's potboiler, pulp-fiction operas (Tosca, Butterfly, Bohèm,e) give audiences plenty of Fox-News musical moments of tension and catharsis, and this season's reprise of Tosca is no exception.
Greer Grimsley (at lower left) returns to the role he sang here in 2001 and in 2008. When dies at the hands of a desperate Tosca in Act II, the audience actually applauds; when he took his curtain call on opening night, he was roundly booed. Now, that's a successful performance!
One is tempted, in the face of a treacherous character like Scarpia, to note similarities to the most reviled figure in American public life, Dick Cheney. But Cheney, as far as we know, did not gratify specifically personal needs (emotional or physical) by approving the torture of fellow human beings, no secret lust or spiritiual hunger that might redeem or explain his ultimately pointless and ineffective actions.
He should have paid attention to Scarpia, who bends Tosca to his will not by torturing her, but by inflicting pain on her lover. She gives in when she can no longer tolerate hearing him scream in agony.
Then again, Puccini was writing about art, not politics. And it's worth noting that the magnificent sets for this production are resurrected museum pieces, designed and manufactured decades ago by artisans in Milan. Hand-made, old-fashioned workmanship, looks just great.
Seattle Opera presents Puccini's Tosca Jan. 10-24 at McCaw Hall. Tickets $77 to $241. Photo © Alan Alabastro.
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