Tosca

Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Welsh National Opera

Venue Cymru, Llandudno

October 11, 2025, 2 hrs 40 mins (two intervals)

Natalya Romaniw as Tosca in WNO's production. Pics Dafydd Owen

Tosca might originally have been thought a "shabby little shocker" by one stuffy critic, but as we know, it's a description that doesn't carry much weight among enthralled modern audiences - to the extent that Welsh National Opera has imported Edward Dick's Opera North production to bulk out its autumn season with a known crowd-pleaser.

For those new to the work - there can't be many of you, admittedly - Tosca is a passionate, layered drama focusing on the relationships of the three main characters, singer Floria Tosca, passionately in love with artist Mario Cavaradossi, but in the sights of cruel, manipulative chief of police, Baron Scarpia. When Scarpia realises Cavaradossi is harbouring an escaped prisoner and freedom fighter, he manipulates Tosca to find her lover and reveal the whereabouts of the fugitive.

The story is set in Rome in 1800 - a time of political turmoil preceding Napoleon's occupation of the city.  In this chaotic environment, the leads, all of whom are well defined characters, have to make difficult choices. Tosca is loving, passionate and jealous, yet vulnerable while Cavaradossi is a symbol of idealistic integrity. Scarpia has allowed power to go to his head and revels in exercising it cruelly and mercilessly. The opera reaches its height as their decisions are made within a dramatic score that portrays the events with a crushing intensity.

The key to the work is a terrible dilemma: Tosca either returns Scarpia's affection and will see Cavaradossi released, or refuses him and will see Cavaradossi die. She extracts from Scarpia a promise of release and safe passage for them both, but stabs him to death while he attempts to seduce her. Thinking that Cavaradossi is subsequently going through a mock execution before being granted freedom she watches him as he is executed by a firing squad and subsequently kills herself. It is the combination of dramatic storytelling and Puccini’s passionate score that make the opera as a whole memorable, whether one considers it shabbily shocking or merely a little melodramatic...

The whole is of course wrapped up in some of Puccini's most glorious arias, from the first act-ending choral Te Deum to the likes of Tosca's beautiful Vissi d'arte and Cavaradossi's stirring E Lucevan le stelle.

The work needs strong performances from Tosca and Cavaradossi, and a sustained, ruthless edge in the voice of the Baron. Soprano Natalya Romaniv and tenor Andres Presno provide this with rich, powerful voices, while Dario Solari offers a wonderfully sinister, arrogant and cynical Scarpia in the seduction scene. The three are strongly supported by the rest of the cast, all admirably buoyed by the orchestra under Frederick Brown, the layers of meaning revealed on a visually striking set (designer Tom Scutt) with stunning musicality. It's a powerful night's entertainment.

More info here