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xpect lavish costuming and stunning sets backed by the operatic powerhouses of three of the biggest names in the biz when the New Zealand Opera brings Tosca back to Christchurch this month for its only South Island production this season. While Puccini’s dark opus didn’t have the most auspicious of beginnings when it was performed for the first time in Rome in January 1900 (political unrest and fears of an anarchist bombing of the theatre pushed the premiere back a day, and much of the immediate critical and press reaction was lukewarm at best), in the centuryplus since it’s become one of the world’s mostperformed operas, and the NZO’s spectacular staging is bound to enthral and delight. Reprising the titular lead and ultimate operatic diva Floria Tosca from the NZO’s hit 2015 production is inimitable Irish soprano Orla Boylan. She’s treading the boards alongside Kiwi operatic superstars Simon O’Neill, also reprising his 2015 role and re-unleashing his inner Italianate hero as Mario Cavaradossi, and Teddy Tahu Rhodes, who’s perfectly cast (as those who saw him as demon barber Sweeney Todd in his last local performance with the NZO can attest) as the brutal Baron Scarpia (see our interview on page 38). Tosca 2018 sees former Canterbury lads O’Neill and Tahu Rhodes both back in action in their old hood at the
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Isaac Theatre Royal and vying for Tosca’s affections. It’s a classic tale of love, lust and political intrigue (it wasn’t dubbed a “blood and thunder” thriller for nothing!), but with a bit of a twist: the NZO has transplanted the original setting of Rome during Napoleon’s invasion in 1800 to the Italy of the 1950s, trading one turbulent period of Italian history for another, with the country politically divided and bankrupt in the wake of World War II. It’s an appropriately fraught era in which to re-home Puccini’s tale (itself based on an 1887 play by French playwright Victorien Sardou), which follows the passionate and celebrated singer Floria Tosca in a time of extreme political tension. When her lover, painter Cavaradossi, is imprisoned by police chief Baron Scarpia (an all-timer character on the operatic villains roster) for helping an escaped political prisoner, Angelotti, Tosca takes matters into her own hands with dramatic consequences (of course – it's opera!). Don’t miss your chance to see the restaging of a production that was universally praised on its initial reception in 2015; “If you've ever wondered what the fuss about opera is all about, you will find the answer in this Tosca,” wrote reviewer Penny Dodd. With the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra down in the pit conducted by Italian maestro Marco Guidarini and the spectacular production values we can always expect from NZO on show once again, this looks like another can’t-miss from our national opera company. NZO: Tosca, Isaac Theatre Royal, Mar 8 – 16, nzopera.com CITYSCAPE.CO.NZ March 18