Jonathan Kent's 2006 production, already in its sixth Covent Garden revival, delivers an effective rather than a visceral Tosca. Act one puts the principals front stage and allows Scarpia a dramatic entrance, but misses the sense of the church grandeur that the climactic Te Deum demands. Act two, the core of the drama, ticks most of the boxes but lacks the claustrophobia that makes the drama between Scarpia and Tosca so taut. Act three is all a bit perfunctory and short on atmosphere.
Chief credit in this latest revival belongs to Daniel Oren in the pit, who conducts a big-boned and suitably sinister reading, the speeds on the slow and occasionally indulgent side but making the discordant climaxes all the more effective. The Covent Garden orchestra is terrific, and Oren finds some really atmospheric sounds in the score, notably in the rushing climax when Scarpia's death is discovered in the final pages.
Vocally, things are more mixed. Martina Serafin is a sympathetic Tosca but she struggles to convey the impulsiveness and melodrama that are second nature to the part, and she is encumbered by some weighty frocks. She is better in the coquettish moments in the first act, and in the duet with Cavaradossi in act three, than in the grand guignol confrontation of act two.
The American baritone Scott Hendricks, making his house debut as Scarpia, was altogether more gripping and credible here, with lots of the requisite snap and snarl in his voice, and a suitably venal stage presence.
Alexandrs Antonenko, a memorable Luigi in Il Tabarro here two years ago, failed to repeat the trick as Cavaradossi. His tone was big and heroic but unremitting and unstylish, and his acting was wooden. In act three, Cavaradossi should surely try to convey the feeling that he is about to be executed. All Antonenko conveyed was that he was about to sing his famous aria.
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