Va, Tosca!
Mar. 4th, 2023 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nineveh_ukI had a lovely last weekend in Leeds with antisoppist, who was very nice about being taken round the city centre primarily guided by my nostalgia (though we did also go to a fabric shop and she was very impressed by the tiles of Leeds Central Library). The main purpose of the trip was to see Opera North's Tosca, this production of which was first done a couple of years ago and had had terrific reviews and I'd been disappointed not to see. I was therefore determined to see it this time and it marked a return to theatre for the first time since 2020, so it had a lot to live up to, which happily it did. Definitely recommended if you're in the vicinity of any of the remaining performances. We also had a couple of very nice meals, and most remarkable of all I didn't come down with a cold/other virus afterwards, despite it being February and my not wearing a facemask for the aforementioned meals and the performance. Though without a weekend rest I've been unsurprisingly tired this week.
Tosca is one of my favourite operas, and the best bit of Tosca is of course the Act 1 Te Deum. Alas, Opera North has not put its excellent version up on YouTube and I don't like the ROH Bryn Terfel one, so have a completely different staging of it sung by Sherrill Milnes, for me the ur-Scarpia thanks to the cassette recording I had as a teenager.
In my skating around various Toscas on YouTube, I discovered that the most enticing production of all - the one in Quantum of Solace, by far the best bit in that particular Bond film, and which I had thought to be original to the film - appears to actually exist. Here is its take on the Te Deum. I have to say, I prefer my Scarpia's to keep the Big Black Coat of Evil on during Act 1.
Opera North gave him a very good black coat with scarlet lining, so full marks for that.
antisoppist, who was very nice about being taken round the city centre primarily guided by my nostalgia (though we did also go to a fabric shop and she was very impressed by the tiles of Leeds Central Library). The main purpose of the trip was to see Opera North's Tosca, this production of which was first done a couple of years ago and had had terrific reviews and I'd been disappointed not to see. I was therefore determined to see it this time and it marked a return to theatre for the first time since 2020, so it had a lot to live up to, which happily it did. Definitely recommended if you're in the vicinity of any of the remaining performances. We also had a couple of very nice meals, and most remarkable of all I didn't come down with a cold/other virus afterwards, despite it being February and my not wearing a facemask for the aforementioned meals and the performance. Though without a weekend rest I've been unsurprisingly tired this week.Tosca is one of my favourite operas, and the best bit of Tosca is of course the Act 1 Te Deum. Alas, Opera North has not put its excellent version up on YouTube and I don't like the ROH Bryn Terfel one, so have a completely different staging of it sung by Sherrill Milnes, for me the ur-Scarpia thanks to the cassette recording I had as a teenager.
In my skating around various Toscas on YouTube, I discovered that the most enticing production of all - the one in Quantum of Solace, by far the best bit in that particular Bond film, and which I had thought to be original to the film - appears to actually exist. Here is its take on the Te Deum. I have to say, I prefer my Scarpia's to keep the Big Black Coat of Evil on during Act 1.
Opera North gave him a very good black coat with scarlet lining, so full marks for that.