Tosca at the Met was AMAZING!

Categories: Featured, Opera, Performance, Take a look

Many people that know me, know that Puccini’s opera, Tosca, is my favorite opera of all time. I got a chance to see it last night at the Metropolitan Opera House last night, live, for the first time in my life.

It was breathtaking.

While I was getting my Master’s degree in Opera, I started to lose the love and passion for music. It took 2 years after to really start to come back to why I loved it, why I chose to take this difficult path. We go into this field for one reason and sometimes we are fed so much information, not always accurate, often conflicting and after awhile we are left with a bitter taste in our mouth.

My fiance had to deal with my loss of love for music and depressed state of mind for a long time. Bless him, serious!

Last night when I was watching the performance. For the first time in OH SO LONG, I remembered why I loved it so much. The music swept over me, deep into my soul. The first few chords were played in the orchestra and I was crying. The tenor started to sing and I was crying with his vulnerability. I was completely there. Tosca is my favorite opera and will always be. It reminds me why I love music. Puccini (the composer) was a genius.

We were lucky that we got to see such an all star cast. James Levine (conductor) was sick and so was Karita Mattila (she was supposed to sing Tosca) and originally I was so upset but the conductor Fabio Luisi did an amazing job and Patricia Racette showed us that Tosca was one firecracker! The staging really was not as bad as people say, I actually liked it. Am I now officially blacklisted in the opera community?

Bryn Terfel was Scarpia. ANYBODY that knows how Bryn Terfel performs knows that he would do an amazing job at that. Well, he did. He played a man that was definitely addicted to women/sex and there was no way that he was not going to conquer the body of Tosca. He was cold and yet sometimes soft -showing that he KNEW how to seduce a woman. It was pretty risky because in one of the acts, there were 3 prostitutes surrounding him. Yes, he was definitely in “character”. There was one scene in which one of the prostitutes was on his couch and she spread her legs open and he went in for the kill with his face. Yes. I KNOW. He stopped right before. Opera sometimes needs to be risque to wake up this generation of audiences. I can guarantee a lot of people in the audience did NOT expect to see THAT at the opera.

I was sitting next to an old man, that was in his 80′s FOR SURE and when that scene came up he laughed. I have to admit. That grossed me out a bit. You should have heard that laugh. ha ha. Well, he wasn’t always 80…

There was another singer that I had NEVER heard of that I will never forget, Jonas Kaufmann. He even had Jacob’s energy up (he is VERY picky). His voice was so beautiful that no matter how quiet he made his voice, you searched through the orchestra to find it and there it was. A beautiful piano note, batting it’s eyelashes at you. I am serious, it was exactly like that. He is a vulnerable performer(which is rare) and he knows how to use that beautiful voice of his. It was nice to see that fiery acting as well. I haven’t seen a guy let that kind of energy off since I saw Rolando Villazon sing. Hallelujah!

Patricia Racette did an amazing job as well. I really wanted to see Karita Mattila sing and I was upset about it but I was very impressed with Racette. She was a fiery Tosca and her voice had no difficulty being heard. I felt nervous for her because I think that Tosca is a hell of a role that comes with a lot of pressure. I am glad that I was there to see her first Tosca at the Met. Pretty cool. It definitely will not be her last.

If you haven’t been to the Metropolitan Opera House, you have to go. You can get $20.00 tickets, you sit pretty far up there but you can bring binoculars if you would like. Here is a picture of the opera house. The chandeliers hang down inside the opera house and when the performance starts it raises up to the opera heavens(well, to the ceiling of the opera house):

The old man that I was sitting next to was a real character. He hung his cane on the seat in front of him and when people came back from intermission he kept saying ” Watch out for my cane, watch out for my cane, watch out for my cane..” I thought, YES, OK. I get it, you like your cane. Then a heavier man went through the aisle of seats and the cane got stuck to his belly. OH, so that is why he says it all the time. Luckily, the priest that was sitting next to the heavier man, sent it back his way. I guess that requires another Hallelujah.

See, the opera is not that boring!!

Go and see an opera.

Look at what the opera is playing and then youtube the singers. See which singers you like and then you can go and see a performance and feel that electricity. Check out what the opera is about and let yourself be transported. I really do believe that you can tell when somebody has that “it” factor or not VERY easily, whether you have a musical ear or not. Come on, you can tell who sucks on American Idol, right? Opera singers are disgusted with me now. I am actually disgusted with myself. I am definitely going to be black-listed now.

If you have a chance to see this production of Tosca, GO! It made me remember why I love opera so much. The music will sweep over you and you will forget your worries for those 2 hours.

Tosca.

What an AMAZING opera. I really feel like I saw a historic production. How often do so many wonderful singers get together and light up the stage? Rarely ever.

I can still see and hear it right now.

It was an awakening for me.

Here is a NY Times review by ANTHONY TOMMASINI of the production that we saw:
Read the GREAT review

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