photo by Marty Sohl
Sondra Radvanovsky & Marcelo Alvarez as Floria Tosca & Mario Cavaradossi
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Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” returned to the Metropolitan Opera repertory this month, in the obnoxious production, directed by Luc Bondy and designed by Richard Peduzzi (sets), Milena Canonero (costumes), and Max Keller (lighting), that opened last season, but with several performers new to key assignments. The season premiere was on January 10 and I heard the second performance, on January 14.

Marco Armiliato was, surprisingly, conducting his first Met performances of “Tosca.” When the singers sang carefully, deliberately, he sensitively kept the orchestra’s volume at a level that was comfortable for them to sing over, but also helped ensure that the dramatic confrontations of the second act, among his cast’s Scarpia, Cavaradossi, and Tosca, were marked musically by the necessary tautness and tension.

Sondra Radvanovsky, consummate Verdian bel canto soprano, who has favored us with, among other roles, her Elena in “I Vespri Siciliani,” Elvira in “Ernani,” and Leonora in “Il Trovatore,” is singing her first Floria Toscas here, her vibrant, tangy, chiaroscuro tone certainly an asset in Puccini’s music. The exposed high Cs were all in place, as she delivered a true dramatic soprano’s rendition of the heroine’s every travail, torment and turmoil in Act Two, but also made “Vissi d’arte,” once commonly called ‘Tosca’s Prayer,’ every bit the lyrical legato oasis of peace that it should be. That Radvanovsky is good for Tosca is of little doubt. If Tosca is ultimately good for Radvanovsky, or if its verismo demands could come to blunt her precision in florid music, remains to be seen.

Marcelo Álvarez, the Mario Cavaradossi of the production’s premiere, was evidently over the cold that kept him from the first night this year, when Roberto Alagna went on, on short notice, in his stead. Álvarez’s tenor rang out clearly and formidably in the aria “Recondita armonia,” in the first act, and the outburst “Vittoria! Vittoria!,” in the second, and he offered graceful moments in the solo “E lucevan le stelle” and in “O dolci mani,” in the duet with Tosca, in the third.

Falk Struckmann, the new Baron Scarpia, was suitably sturdy and menacing, the first act “Va, Tosca” and “Te Deum” finding him and the chorus in impressive full cry, and his stroking the face of the statue of the Madonna, in Act One, as repellent as his lewdly fondling Tosca’s cape, not to mention all but mounting her on the floor in his quarters, in Act Two. After Struckmann confirmed, with his opening monologue, “Tosca è un buon falco,” and immediately ensuing music in the second act, the fine impression he had made vocally in the first, his bass-baritone came to sound somewhat pressed as the tessitura rose later in the act.

Bass Paul Plishka, veteran of 43 years of Met performances, contributed a vivid, fittingly fussy Sacristan. Peter Volpe, Dennis Petersen, James Courtney, treble Yves Mervin-Leroy, and Harold Wilson took the other roles.

The drab brown brick walls, of what suggests more a parking garage than the magnificent Roman Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, seem mostly to be less illuminated now than they were last season, and that’s a good thing. The scaffolding and Cavaradossi’s portrait of Mary Magdalene, with a bare breast, appear to have been thrust into greater prominence, putting the singers closer to us, which is to their advantage, but also making nonsense of the fact that Tosca doesn’t notice the painting until after she’s been singing in front of it for 10 minutes. And, yes, she still physically attacks the canvas later in the act. The setting for Act Two has more the aspect of a dingy hotel lobby than the lavishly-appointed apartment of the Chief of Police, and a sleazy hotel it must be at that, which might explain why a trio of ladies of the evening plies their trade there, pleasuring Scarpia. The spare set for Act Three remains the most successful, proving that, in this case, less really is more.

The cast considered here performs again on January 17, 21 and 25 at 8 p.m., and 29 at 1 p.m., when “Tosca” is broadcast live on the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. In the spring, Violeta Urmana, Salvatore Licitra and James Morris take over the three principal roles, with Richard Bernstein, Neel Ram Nagarajan, and David Crawford replacing Volpe, Mervin-Leroy, and Wilson, for performances on March 25 and 31 and April 4, 8 and 16 at 8 p.m., and 12 at 8:30 p.m. For tickets, from $17 to 420 apiece, visit www.metopera.org, call 212/362-6000; or visit the Met box office at Lincoln Center. A fee of $2.50 per ticket is added for ongoing maintenance of the opera house. Rush tickets are available on the day of performance for $20 during the week and $25 on weekends.

By the way, the night I went to “Tosca” was TheMenEvent’s ‘Boys Night at the Met Opera,’ as is January 21, which meant that there were plenty of us in attendance. And what made this different from any other night at the opera?