It is doubtful that Jonathan Kent's Tosca will ever escape the shadow of its predecessor at the Royal Opera House - Franco Zeffirelli's 1964 Tosca had a 40-year run, which is a pretty good innings - but this production, now on its third revival, has qualities of its own. Puccini's opera overflows with dangerous passions and darkest crimes as it twists and turns its way through a doomed love affair and, in Kent's production, an "unnerving" (The Guardian) atmosphere pervades the action. Paul Brown's designs, sitting between a backdrop of politically-charged Rome and sinister imagery, play a part in this - the top of Castel Sant'Angelo in Act III is "strikingly atmospheric" (The Stage) - but it is Puccini's theatrical score, capturing Tosca's light-hearted first entrance and then plunging to the dark depths of Scarpia's evil, that releases the tension. To do it justice, American soprano Deborah Voigt brings her rich voice and staying power to the title role with Marcello Giordani (Cavaradossi) and Bryn Terfel (Scarpia) in tow.
(Image: Catherine Ashmore)
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It is doubtful that Jonathan Kent's Tosca will ever escape the shadow of its predecessor at the 
![English [Out There!]](/lycos/assets/MN089802_85x142.jpg "English [Out There!]")
