Puccini opera la scala
The main components of the church were present in the scenes of the second and the third acts too. But the architectural components were in some way desegregated the columns and the walls sloping so to give a distorted perspective, as if the audience were on the ground of the church and looked at the frescos of the ceiling. He chose this church because its baroque style. Ronconi in the first act reproduced the church of Sant’Ignazio (not of Sant’Andrea della Valle). The scenes agree very well with the modernity of the conduction. I think that the overall way of conducting by Bychkov is a very interesting one, and I enjoyed it very much. The criticisms may be right, but the succession of lyric and acting times was well displayed. Some other aspects (criticised by some reviewers) of the Bychkov’s way of conducting was the sound dynamics, especially in the use of the brasses and the time too slow, that has put the singers in some trouble. A clever Italian musicologist, Fedele D’Amico, said that sooner or later one must have the courage to catalog Tosca in the list that includes Salome, Elektra and Wozzeck. In other words, I had a feeling that Bychkov have cleared the score by a patina of dust, and recovered its modernity. So it is as if the orchestra was a further main character of the events in the play. This way is, IMHO, more in accordance with the modern liking, and better expresses the complexity of the drama.
This, in my opinion, is a new, interesting and a modern way to conduct Puccini’s orchestra. The orchestral sound was rendered crisper and fresher and brighter by the emphasis that he gave to the dissonances, that in the Puccini’s score are well present. I want only point out some aspects that I found very interesting.įirst. All of us know Tosca very well, and, I think, all of us love Tosca, perhaps the most popular of the Puccini’s operas. The cast was the same of the first performance. It is not my aim to do a complete review. The main characters were sung by Galina Gorchakova (Tosca), Neil Shicoff (Mario) and Ruggero Raimondi (Scarpia). It was the third performance. Semyon Bychkov was the conductor, and Luca Ronconi the stage director. I attended the past Thursday Tosca, a new La Scala production of the Puccini’s opera.