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Show Tosca plays at Kingsbury BY JANE CONTTRELL Entertainment Writer Blood, guts, and sex were around in 1900 just like in 1970. And in 1900 an opera called Tosca Tos-ca premiered in Rome. It was blood, guts, sex and most importantly, impor-tantly, music. Tosca opened in Kingsbury Hall Wednesday night and was as exciting as ever. Ariel Bybec, familiar to Utah opera buffs as Violelta in Verdi's La Traviata, stars as Floria Tosca, a singer in Rome about 1800. Her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, is played by local tenor Glade Peterson. Baron Scarpia is viciously rendered ren-dered by Don Watts. Puccini's action opens in a church in Rome. Cavaradossi, a painter who has been commissioned commis-sioned to do a painting in the church, discovers his old friend Angclotti, a political prisoner who has escaped from the malicious chief of police, Baron Scarpia. Cavaradossi agrees to help his friend escape. Tosca arrives, full of love, which becomes jealous' when she identifies the madalcna in the painting with the beautiful Countess Count-ess Attavanti. Mario quiets her fears and she leaves. That night at the Farnese Palace Pal-ace Scarpia dispatches his agent to Cavaradossi's villa to ascertain the whereabouts of the escaped Angclotti, and policemen arrest Cavaradossi, convinced that he knows where Angclotti is hidden. Tosca is forced to witness the torture of Mario while the police try to learn Angclotti's whereabouts. where-abouts. Unable to bear her lover's cries of pain, Tosca reveals Angclotti's hiding place. Angered by what he considers to be Cavaradossi's continued un-surrectionist un-surrectionist attitude, Scarpia orders or-ders the painter's execution. Tosca Tos-ca makes an impassioned plea for her lover's life, to which Scarpia replies, be mine, and Mario will go free. Tosca consents, and Scarpia writes orders for a mock execution. execu-tion. But when he tries to approach ap-proach Tosca, she stabs him. Mario awaits death in prison. Tosca arrives to tell him that Scarpia Scar-pia is dead and that the execution will be a phony one. The current production by the University of Utah Opera Company Com-pany is high-caliber, complemented comple-mented by the sets and costumes of Inter-Opera of Milan. Ardean Watts and members of the Utah Symphony do more than justice to the' score, and the singing is powerful and moving. Tosca will be performed Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in Kingsbury Hall. |
