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Show Broad head's 'Tosca' is a blemished but brave beginning Watts projects a believable; villainous villain-ous Scarpia, using his rich baritone to advantage in his ruminations on his lecherous desires for Tosca. by RICK BROUGH Record staff writer and CHARLES LATTERNER Record contributing writer "Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini. Directed by J. Paul Broadhead, with Lee Broadhead as Floria Tosca; , Don Watts as Baron Scarpia; Evan , Call as Mario Cavaradossi; Richard Aiken as Sacristan and Jailer; J. Paul Broadhead as Angelotti; Don Mar as Spoleta; Dennis Lee as Sciarrone; Mary Aiken and Mimi Broadhead as the Shepherd Boy. "Tosca" is a courageous project by the Shakespeare Festival Opera Company and its parent, the Inter-mountain Inter-mountain Actors Ensemble (IAE). Unfortunately, we cannot say the production shows us what opera is or should be. It is a start towards that end. The production encounters problems from undertaking such an ambitious production; from artificial staging; and from the problems of adapting the opera form to the limited space of the Egyptian Theatre. But we should also say it is often capable in its singing the most important department in an opera. And the company showed resourcefulness resource-fulness working in the Egyptian a space not only small but unfamiliar. One source at the theater told us the company had rehearsed only one technical run-through due to production produc-tion delays. The story is a romantic triangle set in Rome in the early 1800s, when the forces of Napoleon threaten the established order. Tosca is a passionate singer, strong in her jealousy of her lover Cavaradossi, but also fervent in her love for him. Cavaradossi is a painter, with just enough political sympathies to get him in trouble for sheltering the fugitive Angelotti. And the police chief, Scarpia, seeks to persecute Cavaradossi, while using him as leverage to satisfy his lust for Tosca. In "Tosca" or any other opera, a requisite for a singer is a voice of sufficient capacity to soar over a symphonic orchestra and be heard in the corners of the theater. The principals here, Lee Broadhead, Don Watts and Evan Call, are big voices. In fact, they are better than what one gets in productions done in the hinterlands of U.S. opera territory. Watts projects a believable, villainous Scarpia using his rich baritone to advantage in his ruminations on his lecherous desires for Tosca. His duets with Tosca, revealing him planting the seeds of jealousy and pursuing his desires, are effective. And his long scene in the second act (despite a bout with hoarseness) is skillfully sung. It would be interesting to hear Watts as another Baron Baron Ochs in the comic opera "Rosen-kavalier." "Rosen-kavalier." In fact, the only big flaw to be part of a directorial pattern set by Paul Braodhead, in which "Tosca" is not giving us so much a story, but a performance of the music directed at the audience. When Tosca delivers the aria "Visi D'Arte," she's supposed to be pleading with Scarpia. Yet in the staging here, she's singing to the audience, while Scarpia is behind her with his back turned. And in the final duet, Broadhead and Call don't sing to each other, but face the crowd as if they are on a bandstand. The minimal set was dictated by the size of the Egyptian Theatre, and this leads to problems. During instrumental portions, the action grinds to a halt and the actors (even Watts' Scarpia, at times) look lost. They can't work up much in the way of stage business, since there are few props or detailing in the sets to work with. The actors move uneasily around the set because they had little time to become accustomed to the space. (The state-.wide blackout reportedly caused a bottleneck in rehearsals.) Perhaps we saw this most clearly in director Broadhead' s timid appearance appear-ance as the convict Angelotti. He moves around the chapel set as if afraid he might knock something over. . As for the superscript English titles that appear on a screen above the stage purists might dislike the device, but it works well, although the titles are too dim to read and are flashed a little too soon or too late in the action. William Maiben, the pianist who was the entire orchestra, performs heroically, as does Henry Maiben as conductor. This brings up the major musical problem of the evening the difficulty diffi-culty of performing an opera in the grand style without an orchestra. "Tosca" was not conceived with piano accompaniment it requires instruments. One wonders why something of more appropriate size, , scope and appeal, with a minimum of instrumentation, was not selected. We should stress a few-things. First, the opera company is performing under heroic conditions tackling a major opera in a small space new to them. On top of everything else, they are selling it to an audience on a Wednesday not exactly the biggest theater night of the week. "Tosca" has its rough spots. But we recall that IAE's Shakespeare plans started on equally wobbly legs " in 1981 and their productions have unquestionably advanced from that shaky start. It is important to bring opera to Park City, not just for the sake of the buffs, but because Park City needs a climate in which a wide variety of art forms can grow. "Tosca" may not command unqualified praise, but it deserves encouragement. in this production's costuming is that the unkempt wardrobing of Scarpia made him , look like a comic character. Watts also gives the best acting performance, as a man of pure evil who relishes his own nastiness. He summons up a superficial charm when he needs to and displays an absolute confidence that he has the right to satiate his desires. Lee Broadhead as Tosca has a voice of considerable range, color and brilliance. She is a singer in the grand style, obviously accustomed to using her large sound in larger halls and with more robust accompaniment. accompani-ment. Tosca is not an easy role to project there are many subtleties to cope with and, on balance, Broadhead Broad-head met the challenge. "Visi D'Arte," the famous aria where Tosca begs for her lover's life in baffled despair, is of course what the audience waits to hear. We were not disappointed, vocally. As Cavaradossi, Evan Call has the unenviable task (as do all Cavara-dossis) Cavara-dossis) of facing one of his biggest moments in the opera almost as the curtain opens. His aria "Recondita Armonia," is sung in typical Italianate tenor style with brilliance of tone on the top, including the B flat at the' climax. The two very short arias in the third act call for soft, reflective singing not full voice. They are melodramatic arias, but call for far more subtle vocal technique than merely sobbing at particular points. ' The two principals deliver emotional emo-tional impact at important moments as in Tosca's murder of Scarpia and Cavaradossi's aria before facing fac-ing the firing squad. Generally, however, the acting of Broadhead and Call is very pose-y. They tend to stand around like people waiting their turn to sing Call pacing about, pivoting on his heels and looking into the heavens, and Broadhead clasping her hands and bowing her head. Let's put that in context. It seems |