A Memorable Rendition

On Saturday evening 18 May 2013, Los Angeles Opera presented a new production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca by John Caird that had already been seen in Houston. The sets were unconventional and they did not always relate fully to the actual Roman buildings named by playwright Victorien Sardou, composer Puccini, and his librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa as the sites for the action. Act One took place in a church with a side chapel for Angelotti, but the main feature was a three story split painting of a woman's face on which tenor Marco Berti as Mario Cavaradossi applied an occasional brush load of paint. Berti's best notes are sung forte, and most of this role suited him well...