Director spoils Karita Mattila’s Tosca party at Metropolitan Opera

Karita Mattila was a success, but Luc Bondy was greeted with derisive boos; cuts made to "lewd" production after dress rehearsal

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By Vesa Sirén in New York
      ”Mario, Mario, Mario!” calls Tosca.
      This is where the first act of the season-opening new production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca begins.
      Clad in an ugly dress, the black-haired and jealous Karita Mattila appears on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and sings - very well!
      Three and a half hours later, Tosca leaps to her death, crying:"O Scarpia, we shall meet before God!"
      The curtain comes down.
     
Karita Mattila in the title role receives ovations, but when she calls out the Swiss director Luc Bondy to join her on stage at the final curtain calls, the audience erupts in loud and vigorous booing.
      Such strong negative reactions are rarely heard at the Metropolitan Opera - only two or three times a year, American opera-goers say.
     
The previous Tosca production seen at the Metropolitan Opera was an extremely popular, "nice" spectacle version by the Italian director Franco Zeffirelli.
      The Bondy version replaced that of Zeffirelli, which had been performed in revivals at the Met ever since its first incarnation in 1985.
      The harsh booing by Zeffirelli’s fans is revenge on Bondy for the replacement of the well-liked previous version by a new austere and dramatic direction.
     
However, Bondy also has his supporters, and there are cheers among the jeers, too.
      In one row, one opera-lover is booing while another next to him is cheering, and the two almost start a well-dressed scuffle.
      Zeffirelli himself has denounced Bondy’s direction, calling him ”a third-rate director”, according to The New York Times.
      The reason for the catcalls is not the first act of the opera, where the religious heroine gets upset at seeing her lover Cavaradossi working on a painting of a bare-breasted Mary Magdalene in the church.
      The painting makes the gala audience giggle, and so does the playful fooling around by Cavaradossi and Tosca, a scene that is successfully directed.
     
Mattila’s voice sounds amazing. Her low-register has become very much deeper, and it sounds like some of that genuine Italian Amarone wine had been spilled into her voice.
      The tone is more Italian and even more beautiful than back in 2006, when Mattila performed the title role of Tosca at the Finnish National Opera.
      A rising star, the Argentine tenor Marcelo Álvarez also sings very well in the role of Tosca's painter lover, even though he is apparently still trying to save his voice.
     
The Georgian baritone George Gagnidze appears as the villain Scarpia, replacing the Finnish bass-baritone Juha Uusitalo, who was originally scheduled for the part but had to withdraw at short notice for medical reasons. Gagnidze does not seem to get a grip on his role.
      Gagnidze has also refused to suck the breasts of the statue of the Madonna in the Te Deum scene, even though he agreed to do so at the dress rehearsal.
     
The reason for the booing is probably the second act of the opera, where the evil Scarpia is enjoying some lascivious women performing simulated oral sex on him.
      At the dress rehearsal, the women were still in various stages of undress, but apparently the director self-censored the scene prior to the opening night by covering the women’s breasts.
      Baron Scarpia orders his officers to commit sundry atrocities, while indulging himself in lewd carnal pleasures with the women.
      One might wonder whether the New York audience understands the nod towards [Silvio] Berlusconi, as the direction has staged the opera in the Napoleonic era.
     
The scene where Scarpia sends Cavaradossi off to be tortured, whereupon the police chief attempts to rape Tosca, is a challenging moment that all sopranos fear.
      Mattila’s singing is now better than in Helsinki. Her high C notes hit the mark fairly well amidst the great drama going on.
      She does not attempt to produce bel canto, but sticks to extreme emotions. She uses her chest register boldly in lower voices in order to produce dramatic variation.
      Tosca's Vissi dárte aria in Acti II begins beautifully, but once again, Mattila is not after mere beauty but psychological credibility, which is why some of her high notes are turned into groans of despair.
     
It would be equally justified to try to soften Scarpia’s hard heart by simple beautiful singing, as more conventional sopranos do. But to be sure, a Scarpia does not obey anything but a knife in the ribs.
      After the murder scene, the director makes Mattila fan her face in a slightly odd way.
      Several better ideas than this for post-murder acts could be derived from the libretto. I do not much like the way Bondy has directed his characters in the second act. Mattila is again wearing an ugly gown, and the direction forces her to take huddled, cramped positions on the stage.
      However, poor Gagnidze is the one to suffer more from bad direction. He is overacting and jerky. His Scarpia is not a formidable villain, but more of a dangerous clown.
     
The tortured Alvarez warms up well in the second act. However, the staging with its red couches does not work, and the lighting is uniformly bleak all night.
      The short third act is the most conventional of the entire direction, and there is nothing to boo at there, either.
      Mattila shines throughout, while Alvarez comes through splendidly on E lucevan le stelle, Mario Cavaradossi’s aria in the third act.
      Tosca leaps into emptiness at exactly the same instant as the curtain drops. Mattila - or a doll supported by a cable wire - is seen in silhouette leaping forward, frozen in mid-leap. An effective sight, no doubt about it.
     
Mattila and Alvarez received a standing ovation, while George Gagnidze met with rather less enthusiastic applause.
      Juha Uusitalo was a much more impressive Scarpia in Helsinki in 2006, and would I think also have evoked admiration here, if he had not had to withdraw because of illness.
      Music Director James Levine conducted Puccini’s masterpiece with vitality after having himself been ill just before, even though his Tosca was not particularly powerful.
      The orchestra played the few quite episodes extremely beautifully, albeit lacking much fire.
     
Compared with last year's action in New York, there was a huge difference.
      Thanks to the good direction, the premiere of Richard Strauss’s Salome at the Met in September 2008 was a total triumph for Karita Mattila, who received a lengthy and enthusiastic standing ovation.
      Such a success was not possible this time, and director Luc Bondy is to be blamed for that.
      Bondy has a dramatic eye, but he lacks the frenzy and passion of the Italian verismo, an opera style which was mainly inspired by French naturalism.
      Bondy’s halfhearted direction left Tosca in limbo, somewhere between American conservatism and the Central European director-driven theatre.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 23.9.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mattila sings well, but Met audience rails against Tosca direction (23.9.2009)
  New York is ready for Karita Mattila´s bold Tosca (21.9.2009)
  Soprano Karita Mattila takes on challenging title role in Tosca (29.8.2006)

See also:
  Mattila and Uusitalo´s Salome great success at Metropolitan Opera (25.9.2008)

Links:
  Metropolitan Opera
  New York Times review

VESA SIRÉN / Helsingin Sanomat
vesa.siren@hs.fi