Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Tosca at Royal Opera House

I’ve just returned home from seeing Tosca at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. 

It was a wonderful cathartic opera, and it was terrific.

A thriller with a shock ending.

The first act of Tosca was the best act. Music incredible and it ended with so much tension. My hair was stood on end as the curtains closed. 

This opera is all about tension and than grief or lost love.

Natalya Romaniw, as Floria Tosca, performed exquisitely. Her singing of the “visse d’arte” aria was just divine. She poured out her heart in that performance, and made me feel like I was floating.

While SeokJong Baek - as Tosca’s idealistic painter, Cavaradossi - captures his protagonist’s despair and melancholy quite beautifully leading to the heart-wrenching climax in “e lucevan le stelle”. I love the fact that Baek feels every word he sings, giving the character a depth of emotion, was wonderful

A special shout-out to the Welsh baritone Sir Bryn Terfel. Outstanding singing and acting. His sudden appearance at the top of the steps gave me chills.

The music. Puccini reigns. Music was in my blood. What a composer. I was excited to read about Eun Sun Kim as the new conductor.

Rating: 5 ★★★★★


With my friend Karen during intermission. 😊
Covent Garden in the background.

12 comments:

  1. It's pleasing you enjoyed Tosca. Such a dramatic and emotional opera and a popular one too. Unfortunately, we don't get to see operas down here, too small a population in Tasmania that would like opera. This is why I would have had to leave the Island and go to a Conservatorium elsewhere to continue my opera studies etc. I chose another profession.

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    1. Thanks Margaret.
      oh no, sorry to hear about the lack of opera @ Tasmania. That sucks. :(

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  2. This is the type of opera I would love to watch. The costumes look fantastic

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    1. Nice one👍 .
      Yeah, the costumes were pretty good.

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  3. Wonderful place to see live opera. I'm pleased you appreciated it so much.

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  4. How wonderful to hear Bryn Terfel sing live! Once more I'm green, positively green, with envy, LOL. I've got some of his recordings, and especially love his wonderful performance as Wotan in the Met Opera's production of Wagner's Ring Cycle.

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    1. Oh haha. Well Terfel was terrific. He got a huge ovation.
      Thank you for commenting. So nice to see someone else into opera too :)

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  5. How wonderful, I'm quite envious :)

    All the best Jan

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  6. It sounds like it was a wonderful evening. I am sure that the Royal Opera House only added to the experience!

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