‘Tosca’ by Giacomo Puccini
Kungliga Operan, Stockholm, 21/9/24
Royal Swedish Opera, Royal Swedish Orchestra, Royal Swedish Opera Chorus, Knut Hendriksen, director, Daniele Callegari, conductor, Malin Byström, soprano, David Junghoon Kim, tenor, Karl-Magnus Fredriksson, baritone
This was a wonderful ‘Tosca’, properly set in its intended time and place (Rome, 1800). The sets (by Björn Brusewitz) are loyal to the opera. The marble clad church of Sant’ Andrea della Valle is spacious enough for a substantial artist’s scaffold, with space around for the choirboy Chorus to teem in happy anticipation of their performance, and space too under the scaffolding for the choristers to scramble out of sight of the dreaded Scarpia. At the Farnese Palace, Scarpia’s chamber is grand and stately, but directly above the dungeon where Cavaradossi is interrogated and tortured – in a chilling innovation the stage rises so that Cavaradossi’s fate is visible under the scene of Scarpia’s attempted seduction of Tosca, and the trapdoors lifted so that his anguished cries are heard by both audience and by Tosca. In Cavaradossi’s place of execution on the roof of the Castel Sant’ Angelo, the stars are indeed shining, but the scene is sufficiently austere to remind us that, particularly in tyrannies, tragedies happen in back yards and alleys and in this case on the remote roof of a prison.
Director Knut Hendriksen has assembled a distinguished cast, foremost among them the Swedish soprano Malin Byström, who has sung Tosca many times in many contexts, has developed her own interpretation of the balance between diva, woman in love and devout Christian. She sings the part with great beauty and considerable authority. Her ‘Vissi d’arte’ in Act 2 (‘I lived for art, I lived for love’) is one of the best and was rightly met with a spontaneous ovation from the Stockholm audience. As Cavaradossi, the South Korean tenor, David Junghoon Kim sings with power and melodic sensitivity. Kim has been faulted in the past for his acting skills, having proved something of a wooden (though musically accomplished) Alfredo in Welsh National Opera’s ‘Traviata’. This performance was not dire; Kim persuades us of his sincerity and his integrity. He sings ‘E lucevan le stelle’ ( ‘The stars were shining’) on the night of his execution with great beauty, and goes to his death with courage, showing no sign that he believes in the promised ‘reprieve’. But his relationship with Tosca leaves something to be desired. There is maybe a lack of reciprocal tenderness; he shows to my eyes more annoyance that she has tried to negotiate his release – at the expense of her own purity – than desire for their continuing love. By contrast the baritone Karl-Magnus Fredriksson as Baron Scarpia impresses. Almost gentlemanly at the outset (if always cold and unbending in his use of power against ‘enemies of the state’), he is driven to abuse by jealousy and anger at his rejection. In the end Tosca’s violent self-defence is both understandable and justified. Karl-Magnus Fredriksson, whilst less well-known outside Sweden, has a distinguished career in Sweden as Lieder, concert, oratorio and opera singer, and was appointed Court Singer in 2004. He brought great musical and dramatic skill to his performance of Scarpia.
At a time when we are waiting to hear more of the great Lisa Davidsen and Freddie De Tommaso, who are travelling the world this autumn singing in four varied productions of ‘Tosca’ in Berlin, Munich, New York and Vienna, we can only hope they will be as well served by those productions as the Stockholm has done to its own performers, including a very accomplished Royal Swedish Orchestra, conducted at this performance by Daniele Callegari.
