Is THERE any more powerful and emotive theatre in Puccini's operas than Act 2 of Tosca? Certainly the way it has been portrayed since 1980 in the late Anthony Besch's pungent and persistently recurring production for Scottish Opera, now in its seventh revival, together with Peter Rice's majestic sets, leaves you in no doubt of that it is opera at its most exhilarating and moving.
Nothing is lost of the moment Scarpia taunts Tosca with the full extent of his evil before terrorising her into murdering him in this latest revival, redirected by Jonathan Cocker with due respect for the integrity of Besch’s original concept which updates the action from Napoleonic Rome to Fascist Italy of the... read more