Since being appointed music director of Welsh National Opera, Lothar Koenigs has had two notable successes, conducting revivals of Strauss's Salome and Berg's Wozzeck. In this repertoire, he was authoritative and impressive. The same cannot be said for his handling of Puccini's Tosca. Koenigs seemed to be approaching the piece as though it were a work of German expressionism, but verismo even at its most forceful should never lose its essential Italian lyricism and flow. This performance lacked the overall integrity that makes the piece a cornerstone of the repertoire and, more to the point, a crowd puller, presumably the reason that WNO continues to flog this Michael Blakemore staging, first seen in 1992.
Not that Koenigs was helped by his cast. The Portuguese soprano Elisabete Matos was a feisty if manic Tosca, a prima donna as the libretto requires, but not particularly likable and generally loud and harsh-sounding. Her Cavaradossi was Geraint Dodd, reserving his most stirring voice for his declarations of political loyalty, and touching in his nostalgia as he faces death. More often, though, he was unfocused in tone and characterisation.
The malevolence of Baron Scarpia, the chief of police, rather eluded the stalwart baritone Robert Hayward, suggesting that it is simply not enough to look the lascivious sadist in velvet breeches and with a diamond-buttoned crotch: he has to exude evil. Hayward sounded as though he were struggling to square his conscience with portraying such an unconscionably vile man. WNO's staff director, Benjamin Davis, appeared not to have made any great impact on the acting, yet it says much for Puccini's music and its vivid theatricality that, despite everything, the opera itself should remain indestructible.
In rep until 5 March (029 2063 6464). Then touring.
