News & Blog
Loving Tosca
Date: 5/16/2012 By Anthony Mariani, Fort Worth Weekly
Fort Worth Opera kicked off its 2012 festival on Saturday at Bass Performance Hall with a performance of Puccini’s Tosca, a three-act work that epitomizes grand opera: lots of romance, politics, art, violence, and death. And ornate sets and costumes. And choirs. And epic music. The company’s production was superlative in every aspect –– vocally, musically, technically, emotionally. The worst that could be said is that at the beginning of Act III a concertgoer’s cellphone rang for a brief moment.
This Tosca is the festival’s only grand opera, underlining the company’s mission to provide a varied program each year. The other three productions range in style from opera buffa (Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro) to contemporary (Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers) to a contemporary take on a classic yarn (Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata). Tragically hip observers may believe the company continues serving up the classics year after year to satisfy richer, older supporters –– FWO performed Tosca in 2005. But the classics are classics for a reason.
--Anthony Mariani, Fort Worth Weekly
Read the full Fort Worth Weekly review by clicking here.
Date: 5/16/2012 By Anthony Mariani, Fort Worth Weekly
Fort Worth Opera kicked off its 2012 festival on Saturday at Bass Performance Hall with a performance of Puccini’s Tosca, a three-act work that epitomizes grand opera: lots of romance, politics, art, violence, and death. And ornate sets and costumes. And choirs. And epic music. The company’s production was superlative in every aspect –– vocally, musically, technically, emotionally. The worst that could be said is that at the beginning of Act III a concertgoer’s cellphone rang for a brief moment.
This Tosca is the festival’s only grand opera, underlining the company’s mission to provide a varied program each year. The other three productions range in style from opera buffa (Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro) to contemporary (Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers) to a contemporary take on a classic yarn (Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata). Tragically hip observers may believe the company continues serving up the classics year after year to satisfy richer, older supporters –– FWO performed Tosca in 2005. But the classics are classics for a reason.
--Anthony Mariani, Fort Worth Weekly
Read the full Fort Worth Weekly review by clicking here.
