After a gangbusterly early season - good-to-excellent productions of
"Cosi fan tutte," "La Traviata" and "Billy Budd" - reality has caught
up with the San Francisco Opera.  The exceptional run of "opera is fun
again!" came to an end with whimper, not a bang, at the revival premiere
of a listless, indifferent "Tosca" tonight.

Miroslav Dvorsky's company debut, in the role of Cavaradossi, was perhaps
the worst of a bad deal: underpowered, unmusical, wooden.  The other two
major roles were just disappointing - weak performances by two proven
artists.  Merola/Adler alumnus Mark Delavan, the SF Symphony's sensational
Dutchman last year, sang well enough as Scarpia, but definitely under
par against his previous appearances here.  His costume and acting
combined to present an unpleasant footman, not the scarily evil potentate.

It was not a good night for Carol Vaness in the title role: her vocal
performance was barely adequate, quite without the passion and grandeur
one expects.  Even more disappointing was a tentative stage presence
from a singer, who should be able to be a grand Tosca even in her sleep...
and that might have been the problem: was she awake?  Her strange
awkwardness tonight did pay off at one point, during the second time she
was stabbing Scarpia, with a little convulsive motion that was, for lack
of a better word, "interesting."

The one bright spot at this first of nine performances was the orchestra,
Donald Runnicles conducting in a clear, transparent manner, a chamber-music
approach that allowed the passion to come through, but none of the usual
gushing.  In fact, I found myself focusing on the orchestra time and
again, not because it called attention to itself, but for the far better
musical value it offered than anything heard from the stage.  Ever since
Runnicles' diaphanously radiant "Butterfly" here almost a decade ago,
I've been convinced that he is a master of Puccini's music - and tonight
amply confirmed that.  The three principals could have done superbly if
they only floated quietly on the magic carpet emerging from the pit;
alas, they didn't.

The production is the 1997 Lotfi Mansouri/Thierry Bosquet recreation of
the 1932 Armando Agnini original, used to open the War Memorial Opera
House.  It's a large, dramatic, pretty setting, with one near-fatal
weakness: it relegates the chorus to the backstage during the Te Deum,
allowing only a meager march of extras way upstage, putting Scarpia alone
front and center.  A Te Deum without a visible chorus? A terrible idea.
Ian Robertson's fine chorus labored somewhere far away, but even with
amplification (tsk, tsk!) it sounded like a mere shadow of its glorious
self.

Janos Gereben
www.sfcv.org
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