Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Tosca at San Diego Opera

A black-hearted force of throbbing nature

Greer Grimsley as Scarpia.
Greer Grimsley as Scarpia.

Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca was the best thing San Diego Opera has produced in years. This production had it all, especially where it counted the most. Competent, seasoned, opera singers who knew their business performed the three leading roles.

The set and costumes were from the correct time period according to what Puccini composed and intended as a consummate man of the theater. The direction of the singers supported the story that was being told as opposed to distracting the audience from the story and toward some ill-conceived social commentary that has no place in the opera.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Tosca itself is the social commentary. It is a story about the abuse of power by the police. We don’t need to have it suddenly set in Ferguson, Missouri during the summer of 2014 and have Scarpia sing “Va Tosca” from the window of his police cruiser. If audience members want to have that conversation amongst themselves at intermission or after the show, that’s one of the rich traditions of attending an opera. Audiences don’t need to be directed to such conversations by the production and this Tosca behaved itself.

Video:

Greer Grimsley sings Scarpia

Speaking of Scarpia, Greer Grimsley was about as good as it gets in this role. Vocally, Scarpia is difficult for a baritone on the bottom end and almost impossible for a bass on the top. It takes a very special singer to be heard in the role because of how it sits in the voice.

Being heard has never been a problem for Grimsley. At the end of the first act, the chorus sang its guts out, the orchestra blasted away with what sounded like a scorched-earth take-no-prisoners policy, and yet Grimsley prevailed—his voice smashing through the Te Deum as befits Scarpia. The voice and the role go together. Scarpia is a menacing, black-hearted force of throbbing nature. Grimsley has a voice to match.

Michelle Bradley, in the title role, was vocally more than capable of standing up to Grimsley’s vocal onslaught. Her chest register hails from a bygone golden age of opera singing when sopranos dug into the blood and guts of the role on the lower end. There was a sternness to Bradley’s lower register that filled the role out in a way I didn’t ever expect to hear. Of course, all the top notes were there too. Any soprano can cut through an orchestra with a high note. The real opera singers do it from top to bottom.

The role of Cavaradossi forces the tenor to make a choice immediately. The first set of repeated “F’s” in the first act aria “Recodita armonia” usually determines how the rest of the role is going to go. Tenor Marcelo Puente decided to just leave them alone. He knew that the audience won't remember Act I if he crushes “Vittoria!” in Act II and “E lucevan” in Act III. Crush it he did.

Valerio Galli conducted this production. He is a singer's conductor. When the conductor understands the singers, which Galli does, it holds the entire structure of the opera together in a way that is hard to describe but I know it when I hear it.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tuna within 3-day range Back in the Counts

Mind the rockfish regulations
Greer Grimsley as Scarpia.
Greer Grimsley as Scarpia.

Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca was the best thing San Diego Opera has produced in years. This production had it all, especially where it counted the most. Competent, seasoned, opera singers who knew their business performed the three leading roles.

The set and costumes were from the correct time period according to what Puccini composed and intended as a consummate man of the theater. The direction of the singers supported the story that was being told as opposed to distracting the audience from the story and toward some ill-conceived social commentary that has no place in the opera.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Tosca itself is the social commentary. It is a story about the abuse of power by the police. We don’t need to have it suddenly set in Ferguson, Missouri during the summer of 2014 and have Scarpia sing “Va Tosca” from the window of his police cruiser. If audience members want to have that conversation amongst themselves at intermission or after the show, that’s one of the rich traditions of attending an opera. Audiences don’t need to be directed to such conversations by the production and this Tosca behaved itself.

Video:

Greer Grimsley sings Scarpia

Speaking of Scarpia, Greer Grimsley was about as good as it gets in this role. Vocally, Scarpia is difficult for a baritone on the bottom end and almost impossible for a bass on the top. It takes a very special singer to be heard in the role because of how it sits in the voice.

Being heard has never been a problem for Grimsley. At the end of the first act, the chorus sang its guts out, the orchestra blasted away with what sounded like a scorched-earth take-no-prisoners policy, and yet Grimsley prevailed—his voice smashing through the Te Deum as befits Scarpia. The voice and the role go together. Scarpia is a menacing, black-hearted force of throbbing nature. Grimsley has a voice to match.

Michelle Bradley, in the title role, was vocally more than capable of standing up to Grimsley’s vocal onslaught. Her chest register hails from a bygone golden age of opera singing when sopranos dug into the blood and guts of the role on the lower end. There was a sternness to Bradley’s lower register that filled the role out in a way I didn’t ever expect to hear. Of course, all the top notes were there too. Any soprano can cut through an orchestra with a high note. The real opera singers do it from top to bottom.

The role of Cavaradossi forces the tenor to make a choice immediately. The first set of repeated “F’s” in the first act aria “Recodita armonia” usually determines how the rest of the role is going to go. Tenor Marcelo Puente decided to just leave them alone. He knew that the audience won't remember Act I if he crushes “Vittoria!” in Act II and “E lucevan” in Act III. Crush it he did.

Valerio Galli conducted this production. He is a singer's conductor. When the conductor understands the singers, which Galli does, it holds the entire structure of the opera together in a way that is hard to describe but I know it when I hear it.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Will Trump’s Baja resort be built after all?

Long-stalled development sparks art exhibit, gets new life
Next Article

The greatest symphonist of them all

Havergal Brian wrote over 30 of them
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader