by: JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
10/8/2007

Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca" was famously dismissed soon after its premiere as "a shabby little shocker" of an opera.

But there's nothing at all shabby about what Tulsa Opera has done with Puccini's lyrical thriller, which opened the company's 60th season Saturday at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.

If anything, "Tosca" brought out the best in the myriad artists brought together to make this story of revolutionary politics, perverted desire and doomed romance come to life.

And there's nothing shabby about "Tosca" itself. True, the story has its lurid moments -- transfer the action to 1940s America, and it sounds like something Cornell Woolrich would have dreamed up for one of his feverish suspense novels. But what opera doesn't?

Tosca Set

What makes "Tosca" so effective is that Puccini and his librettists take care to present their characters -- through music, through words, through actions -- as believable human beings, rather than two-dimensional figures in a musical landscape.

There is a great deal of depth and complexity in this story and the people caught up in it, and this production does one of the best jobs we've seen of bringing out that richness.

Stage director Robert Swedberg has guided the action and helped craft the performances with an appealingly light and naturalistic touch. No emotion is overplayed; no character allowed to devolve into mere caricature.

That is especially true of Isabella Mederi, who is making her U.S. debut in the title role. Her dark-hued soprano -- she has a throaty lower register that is as "come-hithery" as any torch singer -- and her assured acting combine to give her Tosca a remarkable depth.

As Mederi presents her, Tosca is a much more confident person rather than a flighty artiste ruled by her insecurities. There is a knowing playfulness in her early scenes with Cavaradossi. She knows she's over-reacting to the portrait her lover is painting of another woman -- her protestations of jealousy, the plea that he "make her eyes dark" comes across as a joke, a tease, romantic rather than psychotic.

Tosca's extended confrontation with Scarpia in Act Two is handled with wonderful subtlety. Again, Mederi makes Tosca's anguish at her lover's torture, her revulsion at the touch of a monster's hand, the fear and hate that drive her to murder absolutely believable.

And she sings "Vissi d'arte" as if it truly were a prayer. Her phrasing and control here were impeccable, which made the aria all the more heartbreaking in its quiet simplicity. Swedberg wisely staged this as if it were a moment out of time, like a Shakespearean soliloquy. It came close to stopping the show at Saturday's performance.

Johann Valdimarsson, also performing in the U.S. for the first time, is a vigorous Cavaradossi. In his first few recitatives with the Sacristan, his voice showed a pronounced vibrato -- almost a wobble. But once he started the aria "Recondita armonia," this quaver disappeared and the rest of his performance combined an Italianate lightness and flexibility with almost Wagnerian power.

He was most affecting in the Act Three aria, "E lucevan le stelle," as Cavaradossi contemplates his unjust fate, with a carefully nuanced performance that cradled the lyrics' emotions rather than flaunting them to that unheeding sky.

As the show's villain Scarpia, Peter Lindskoog did an extraordinary job of conjuring up the character's casual malevolence. He sings the role with commanding authority and conversational ease.

His aria "Va, Tosca," in which Scarpia happily imagines how he will bend her to his sadistic will, is tossed off almost nonchalantly -- a confident, condescending chuckle at the start, then quietly building it to its blasphemous climax amid the chorus' performance of the "Te Deum."

Lindskoog makes Scarpia's presence so dominating that one almost expects to see him show up some where during the final act, to laugh derisively over the final twist in his plot to destroy his romantic rival and the woman who dared to defy him.

Richard Sutliff brings a fine comic sensibility to the Sacristan, Jeffrey Bachman does well in a unique bit of double-casting -- playing the escaped convict Angelotti and his pursuer Spelotta. Christine Price, a member of the Tulsa Youth Opera, sang the Shepherd's Song that opens Act Three.

Tulsa Opera artistic director Carol I. Crawford conducted the Tulsa Opera Orchestra in a performance that was as detailed and sumptuous as Jean Pierre Ponelle's sets that recreated three Roman landmarks.

Under Crawford's direction, the orchestra's playing (outside of some wobbles in the strings early in Act Three) was as much a character as those on stage. Crawford's control of dynamics and dramatics could not be faulted. Every phrase of Puccini's masterful score was perfectly crafted for its maximum impact.

"Tosca" continues with performances 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. For tickets, call the PAC ticket office at 596-7111, or online at www.myticketoffice.com.

Jean Pierre Ponelle’s sets are among the many highlights for the opera “Tosca” during its run at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.