"TOSCA"

 Tosca thrills sold out audience at Borghese Winery.

By: Roy Bradbrook.

Thanks to the wonderful ongoing patronage of Ann Marie and Marco Borghese, the Opera of the Hamptons returned for the fourth year to their Cutchogue winery, this time to perform Puccini�s �Tosca�, one of the most loved of the grand opera repertoire. 

Before the main performance, the capacity audience thrilled to the sonorous baritone voice of Steven Pollack, this years recipient of the Franco Gentilesca Young Artists Program, founded in honor of the company�s much loved and respected Stage Director who, sadly, died a few years ago. Steven showed the quality and range of his voice with arias from Carmen, La Fancuilla del West and �When You Walk in the Room� a delightful piece by Sigmund Romberg. Based on this sampling, one can only hope to see this multi-talented artist back playing major roles in future productions. 

Tosca is intense in the truest sense of the word. Forget the romanticism Puccini wove into the score of La Boheme, tragic though the final outcome is. Here, this is a very different Puccini exploring the depths of depravity that humans will resort to achieve their desires using Baron Scarpia the chief of the secret police of Rome back in 1800 as a prime example. Many opera buffs believe that the opera should have been named �Scarpia� and indeed the role is key. Stephen Fredericks is a bass baritone with both the stage presence and the voice to do justice to this role and it was easy to imagine how Scarpia would be regarded as �the man before whom all Rome trembled�, to use the words that the beautiful singer Floria Tosca uses when, as the recipient of his unwelcome advances, she desperately stabs him to death in a futile effort to save her lover. Cavardossi, who is madly in love with Tosca, is a painter who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and hiding a friend who is a political fugitive from Scarpia and his men proves to be his downfall. 

Derrick Alton made his debut with the company as Cavardossi and absolutely thrilled the audience with his voice and intensity. From the first act where in the aria, �Recondite armonia� he compares the differing beauties of Tosca and the Magdalene he is painting, to the drama and pathos of the aria, �E lucevan le stelle� in the final act, where he is overcome with grief as he awaits his execution and writes a final farewell to Tosca, Derrick Alton showed why he has built an acclaimed international reputation because his beautiful voice and acting were compelling and magnificent. 

This is probably the only major opera with only one female role. But what a role. Floria Tosca is a very complex emotional woman and Rosa D�Imperio who sang the role with the Opera de Puerto Rico to rave reviews showed exactly why this role is considered one of the plum but very demanding and defining operatic roles. After all, if one of the all time greats such as Maria Callas will always be linked with Tosca, it really indicates why. Rosa D�Imperio both looked and sang the part with incredible emotion and the audience felt for her as Scarpia used his powers to get her to betray the fugitive�s hiding place in a misguided attempt to stop Cavardossi�s torture. When she discovers that Scarpia wants her body as the price for her lover�s life she protests, in that beautiful aria, �Vissi D�arte�, that she has dedicated her life to art and love. When this does not dissuade Scarpia, she stabs him to death in a struggle. Her subsequent remorse and heartrending sorrow when she discovers that even after his death Scarpia has tricked her and Cavardossi has been executed kept the audience spellbound. 

One of the strengths of this production was the quality of the supporting artists. Stephan Kirchgraber as the fugitive Angelotti, Anthony Tolve, Santo Trapani and Riverhead�s own Ishan Arvell Johnson as sinister members of Scarpia�s secret police plus Haley Willis as the shepherd boy all made major contributions to the success of the evening. A special mention must be made of Charles Bosselman�s cleverly played and excellently sung cameo role as a nervous and very camp Sacristan, a role which interjected a welcome small dose of light relief into the high  tension and drama of the plot! 

To stage an opera is very demanding and to stage one away from a conventional theater setting is much more so. Hayden de Witt, the Stage Director for this production, did a superb job in making such good use, not only of the central stage but she also used the aisles and the exterior of the building to excellent effect in making the performance flow very convincingly. This, coupled with the intimacy of the setting, really drew the audience right into the middle of the action. 

Barbara Giancola, the Artistic Director, gave her customary and always welcome erudite and witty synopsis, which helped every one appreciate the story line. Atarah Hazzan provided a truly wonderful accompaniment on a magnificent Steinway grand piano specially loaned by Steinway and Son especially for this performance. Steinway�s dedication to the performing arts together with ongoing support New York State Council on the Arts helped make this a wonderful evening for the packed audience, who now will be looking forward to the return of opera to the beautifully restored Vail Leavitt Music Hall in Riverhead when, on Saturday July 31^st, the melodies of La Boheme will bring opera back to that theater for the first time in over a hundred years. 

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