Tosca
Making her Lyric debut as the beautiful, doomed Floria Tosca was Romanian soprano Doina Dimitriu. The top of the vocal range of too many Toscas is often the only thing that holds up, but Dimitriu’s middle and bottom are especially beautiful: sweet and clear in tone, not at all darkened, and expressive. It’s an agile, ringing voice, and I never had to lean forward to try to catch it.
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The scene was a little cramped because the church set had to be herringboned into the Civic’s smallish stage. But the sets, which the Lyric recently bought, are gorgeous–Franco Zeffirelli designed them for Maria Callas’s 1964 comeback at Covent Garden. At the time they were seen as surprisingly realistic, which is ironic given his later cast-of-thousands designs and given that they create pretty, static tableaux rather than intricate spaces that allow for fluid, verismo interactions. The third-act Castel Sant’Angelo pushed things right to the edge of the stage. But the main problem here is always getting Tosca over the parapet without looking like she’s going to bounce back, and this one let her stay put.
Where: Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker
