Tag Archives: Tosca

Top ten operas 2022

Posted on December 26, 2022 by Mark Pullinger

This was the year that opera houses got back to something approaching “normality” post-pandemic. It’s easy to forget that at the start of 2022, Covid restrictions were still very much in place: visiting Vienna in January, one needed proof of … Continue reading →

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Scarpia stabbed, Tosca smothered by Livermore’s La Scala staging

Posted on December 8, 2019 by Mark Pullinger

Puccini: Tosca Teatro alla Scala, 7th December 2019 A stone lion pins down its prey in Scarpia’s study, symbolic, no doubt, of the cat-and-mouse game the Chief of Police plays with Tosca in Act 2. But it could also represent … Continue reading →

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“Ecco un artista!”: melodrama aplenty in ROH Tosca revival

Posted on May 28, 2019 by Mark Pullinger

Puccini: Tosca Royal Opera, 27th May 2019 “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.” Like Norma Desmond, Tosca is no shrinking violet. Forget small screen acting. It’s an opera that requires big performances, singers able to depict larger-than-life … Continue reading →

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Swans, severed heads and a deerstalker: 2018 in review

Posted on December 30, 2018 by Mark Pullinger

“Wow! That’s some year you’ve had!” was a message written in one of this year’s Christmas cards. “Aiming to top it in 2019?” I’m not sure I have the energy! My outstanding operatic experience of the year was easily Salome at … Continue reading →

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Time-travelling back to 1900: an eye-popping Tosca in Rome

Posted on April 8, 2018 by Mark Pullinger

Puccini: Tosca **** Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, 7th April 2018 For decades, “historically-informed performance practice” has given audiences the chance to hear music as the composer may have heard it. But in terms of opera, why not what the composer saw? Alessandro … Continue reading →

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