Jim in China

19.04.2009

Last night’s closing performance of Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” featured an all-Chinese cast, under the baton of Li Xincao, conducting the Shanghai Opera House Orchestra, the China National Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and the Women and Children’s Chorus of CNSO, with Zhang Liping in the title role as Floria Tosca, Dai Yuqiang as her lover Cavaradossi, and Liu Yue as the lecherous Baron Scarpia, with stage direction by David Li.

Despite the occasional musical glitch, and odd distractions from unusual staging, set, costume, and lighting choices, the performance of this new production, whose première opened this 2009 Opera Festival of the National Center for the Performing Arts, was very affecting; it was received warmly by the audience.

The beautiful Ms. Zhang, already well-known for her Cio-Cio San, commanded the stage. Her acting, her sense of bearing, and her stage presence illuminated the evening. Ms. Zhang portrayed Tosca’s yielding to Scarpia with a convincing balance between vulnerability and determination. Ms. Zhang’s voice is not huge, but there were many moments went it sailed over the orchestra with great beauty. Her “Vissi d’arte” was exquisitely sung, with the dark edges of her voice adding a thrill to her spinto sounds. Her portrayal of the jealous Tosca was also quite energetic and compelling.

Dai Yuqiang sang the role of Cavaradossi on closing night, following the previous night’s portrayal by Marcello Giordani. Dai Yuqiang did not sound healthy at first. His voice in “Recondita Armonia” seemed too broad, needing more cover and focus. Yet he gained strength steadily through the evening, so that by Act III he sang with beautiful intensity. Mr. Dai’s “E lucevan le stella” was rich, full of resonant legato, with anguish and desire blended in exciting proportion. The audience erupted as he sang the last words, “E non ho amato mai tanto la vita!” The audience demanded an encore, and received one. This was one in which Dai Yuqiang sang again with great intensity, but this time so piano, so delicate that one could hear the weeping of the audience as he sang “Oh! dolci baci, o languide carezze”. Many more cries of applause followed the close of the aria. Mr. Dai also sang with tenderness and elegance in ”O dolci mani”.

Scarpia was sung by Liu Yue, a 1988 graduate of the Tianjin Conservatory of Music. In a different venue, Mr. Liu, who as a youth in 1985 made a fine impression as finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, might have been able to fare well, but his voice was difficult to hear in this house, and suffered from too dark a color. However, when he could be heard, particularly in Act II, Mr. Liu’s voice was clear and appealing.

There were other moments of great beauty as well. Huang Ronghai sang exceptionally well and acted ably as the Sacristan. Cui Zongshun’s Angelotti was another inspiration in the performance. Dai Ziyi sang the Shepherd Boy’s pastoral “Io de’ sospiri” - wrttten in Romanesco, Rome’s local Italian dialect - with clear, bright, sweetness.  Li Xiang sang Spoletta with a chilling menace.

The ringing of the morning bells in the churches of Rome at the beginning of Act III was performed by members of the chorus, dispersed through the audience, each with a tubular bell and a mallet. The result was quite effective.

Some of the orchestral playing could have been stronger. Intonation problems in the viola section in Act III, coupled with the occasional ensemble problem, especially in Act II, were the small handful of flaws in the orchestra, which generally played strongly under the excellent leadership of Maestro Li.

The set was designed by Chen Yan, with lighting designed by Sha Xiaolan.

There were some strange moments in the production.

A large giant figure, who appeared to be at least a foot taller than anyone else on stage, draped in dark gray from head to toe as if he were a cross between The Mummy and Il Commandatore from “Don Giovanni” -  a deus ex machina figure - lurched across the stage in the Act I finale and made itself at home among the members of the chorus; it re-appeared in the last scene of Act II in order to hand-deliver the instrument of Scarpia’s murder to Tosca.

There was no parapet from which Tosca could leap, so her demise was arranged in another fashion. Tosca made her way to the mirrored cross which dominated the set, cried “O Scarpia, avanti a Dio!”, after which she tore off her outer robe, revealing a stunning brilliant red dress underneath. At this point the mirror slid up, revealing Gigantor in his gray body wrap, who embraced her, and carried her off to her judgment with the Baron.

The set was so barren that at times it was necessary for the principals on stage to mime their actions. The Sacristan’s mimed rope work in the church and Tosca’s hand-washing in imaginary water after her dispatch of Scarpia were unconvincing.

Ms. Zhang’s declaration, made after Tosca dispatches Scarpia to the grave (”E avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma!”), was both triumphal and sneering, but it was marred by the bizarre underlighting - with blazing white light! - of Scarpia’s corpse on the cross-like walkway leading  into the interior of the Palazzo Farnese. The lighting was so strong that it seemed to lend more of a carnival atmosphere than a sepulchral one.

The costuming, full of stark contrasts of black and white - except for Floria Tosca’s brilliant red gown revealed only at her death at the end of Act III - had its moments of weirdness. Scarpia’s silent but deadly spies looked like Darth Vader,  with masks of silver. The chorus of ragazzi entering the church at the end of Act I sang well enough, but each of the young girls in the chorus was dressed in what appeared to be a school uniform, with a large glow-in-the-dark cross mounted on her forehead, while a large white veil billowed from the peak of the glowing cross like a sail. Seeing this mob of ragazzi, most of whom were well under 120 cm tall, dart around the partially lit stage with these glowing crosses affixed to their foreheads was bewildering.

Premature ejaculations of “Bravo” from the audience spoiled two moments. The start of the unison duetto between Tosca and Cavaradossi (”Trionfal, di nova speme”) was inaudible, because the audience, not recognizing the absence of a cadence,  had started to clap and shout at the pause before the duet, drowning out the two singers. During the ruckus, their voices drifted, and the two were flat when the orchestra entered a few bars later. And the ominous final chords of “E lucevan le stella” were never played, even in the encore, after members of the audience yelled with enthusiasm even before Dai Yuqiang had dropped his stance.

The performance closed, after many bows and curtain calls, with a tribute to the composer, during which the curtain rose and the drop at the back of the stage was lifted to reveal a large open space with the chorus, still in costume, flanking its sides, as the orchestra played “Recondita Armonia” with both Dai Yuqiang and Li Xiang singing. Images of the composer were projected onto the back wall, while the audience seemed unsure whether to clap, to stand, or to leave. We stayed until the curtain dropped the final time, not wanting to miss a moment.