Same Lady - Different Dress..

Tosca’s Historical setting is very specific - June 1800, in the aftermath of Napoleon’s victory ant the battle of Marngo. Puccini took great care in researching and reproducing this period on stage.
This being the case some comentators think this setting for Tosca should not be messed with.

Stephan Barlow’s Opera Holland Park Tosca, does just that however, and updates the background turmoil to Rome, 1968, a year filled with violent student demonstrations and extremist clashes…

For the main part it works, because Puccini for all his attention to detail ended up writing an opera that is all about interpersonal relationships and the real significance of the context is general social turbulence.
The set is very interesting and is set entirely outside in a piazza, and incorporates the backdrop of Hollands houses wall into a church and cafe plastered with Scarpia’s election posters and Tosca’s concert flyer’s.

Intermezzo says:

Amanda Echalaz was a stunning Tosca, with a big, creamy sound and plenty of stamina. She was far more effective in the role than the unsubtle Micaela Carosi in Covent Garden’s recent production. (Amanda Echalaz and Jonas Kaufmann - now that would be a team…..).

Seán Ruane can certainly act, but his workmanlike tenor couldn’t last the course, and his Cavaradossi was rather monochromatic and dare I say it, English (even though I’m guessing from the name he’s Irish). Nicholas Garrett’s Scarpia was so menacingly persuasive that it was easy to overlook the fact that his bantamweight baritone is a complete miscast. Other than his voice getting lost now and again, there were few drawbacks. And when Scarpia is several degrees hawter than Cavaradossi, Tosca’s choices are cast in a completely different light. The other parts were very solidly cast too - I particularly liked Simon Wilding’s Angelotti and John Lofthouse’s meddlesome Sacristan. A sturdy, unshowy reading from Phillip Thomas in the pit completed the musical side most effectively.

It sounds like an interesting and worth while production, that if possible, I would happily attend.