TOSCA
Krainik knew that the opera public would go nuts at this news (his last scheduled appearances here two years ago were also canceled at the last minute, as have been almost half of his Lyric commitments since 1981). Though known for her theater background and expertise, she suggested that Pavarotti could perform from a stationary chair. Understandably, Pavarotti declined. However ridiculous opera may sometimes be, the action of Tosca, which includes Cavaradossi’s torture and execution, would make little sense if he sat in a chair. Thinking of allowing this, let alone requesting it, raises some fundamental questions about Lyric’s aesthetic priorities: is the company committed to art or to selling tickets?
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Scarpia was in the very capable hands of Siegmund Nimsgern, who picked up the role in the ’88 production after Sherrill Milnes began in it. I heard only Milnes’s chilling interpretation then; but if Nimsgern was unable to evoke quite the same deliciously hypocritical and subtly sadistic nature of the police chief, he was still a foreboding presence and sang the role with great technique and style.
Luckily, this is a Tosca that is extravagant in much of even its minor casting, and it was a particular pleasure to hear veteran bass Italo Tajo recreate his internationally renowned interpretation of the sacristan. The role of the young shepherd heard at the beginning of act three, often sung by a woman mezzo-soprano, was given to the remarkably gifted boy soprano Jedidiah Cohen, who most recently stunned locals with his stirring account of the national anthem at Mayor Daley’s inauguration at Orchestra Hall. The ever fruitful Lyric Opera Center for American Artists was well represented by two fine young voices: bass Henry Runey as the escaped political prisoner Angelotti and bass-baritone Michael Wadsworth as the jailer.
