Indeed, how could this end any other way? The very final scene, which opens with a freeze-frame, is hauntingly nightmarish. It returns to shield the lovers for their climactic Act three duet, though then it represents Tosca’s delusions about what is going to happen when the soldiers open fire playacting isn’t a match for bullets, at the end of the day. A richly-embroidered theatrical curtain sweeps around the Act two set – the whole thing is designed in obliquely angled rectangles that shrink and confine ever more with each act, ending in Cavaradossi’s prison cell – to remind us that theatricality is an important substance in both Tosca and Scarpia’s world. Loy retains the core performing traditions of the piece – candles are placed by the murdered Scarpia Tosca removes the crucifix from the wall (though doesn’t place it on the body) – but introduces a more dreamlike and symbolically saturated mise-en-scene in place of the expected naturalism. Loy’s production of this piece represents a something of aesthetic and intellectual break with both Maltifano’s show and Jonathan Kent’s production down the road at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, both of which bend towards naturalism and relative faithfulness to Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa’s text and Puccini’s relatively circumscribed dramatic vision.

The production sees Leo Hussain return to the Coliseum pit – a distinguished Music Director of Opéra de Rouen and Salzburg Landestheater – with Richard Farnes, former music director of Opera North, stepping in for two performances at the end of the run in November. Christof Loy’s new production of “ Tosca” for English National Opera, which first appeared in Helsinki in 2018, replaces Catherine Malfitano’s show, which received two revivals during its tenure and last appeared on the Coliseum stage in 2016.

Tosca opera cd