A Tosca For Our Times

First things first: this was the best performance of Tosca at Covent Garden in years. Jonathan Kent´s 2006 production was originally staged as a vehicle for Angela Gheorghiu, Marcelo Alvarez and Bryn Terfel and has been revived several times since, featuring stars such as Violeta Urmana, Jonas Kaufmann and Marcello Giordani. For anyone familiar with the Royal Opera House, the current run has a peculiar feeling of déjà-vu, combining as it does the cream of previous performers into one star-spangled package. A word of clarification, however. The first eight performances of this run featured Martina Serafin, Marcello Giordani and Juha Uusitalo in the principal roles, with the cast in question only dropping in for the last two - shows recorded for later cinema broadcast. This raises the inevitable question of at what point an opera…