Intérprete: Catherine Malfitano

Après sa création au Festival d’Aix-en-Provence cet été, la production de Tosca de Christophe Honoré arrive à l’Opéra de Lyon, dans une mise en scène puissante mais parfois écrasante pour les chanteurs.

This revival of Catherine Malfitano’s excellent 2010 production features some splendid singing from Gwyn Hughes Jones as Cavaradossi – but is let down by some poor diction and varying drama.

For many people, to repeat a commonplace, opera is about those "wow" moments, the times when music, voice and staging come together to lift you onto a different plane. In ENO's Tosca last night, a "wow" moment happened more or less whenever Gwyn Hughes Jones opened his mouth: his Cavaradossi had total heroism, total artistry and effortless, silk-smooth phrasing.

"It was a dark and stormy night …." Chuckling whenever I hear these lines, I can see Charles Schultz’s beloved Snoopy staring intensely at his typewriter, vigorously typing away what he would consider his magnum opus novel.

What a thrill it was to experience the recent production of Puccini's powerful opera at The Coliseum. Directed by Catherine Malfitano, herself a great Tosca, and conducted by Edward Gardner the performance gripped the packed auditorium throughout. The large orchestra responded magnificently to the maestro's direction adding considerably to the drama.

Puccini's Tosca is one of the stalwarts of the repertoire, with its soaring music and a showstopping number in each act: the evil Scarpia expounding his wicked plans to the background of the Te Deum, Tosca's Vissi d'arte awakening to the harsh world around her and Cavaradossi's lament on death row E lucevan le stelle in Act III.