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Tosca at the Royal Opera

Yes, it's all about Tosca. So it was good to have Amanda Echalaz as Floria Tosca in this recent Royal Opera revival - a strong voice, wide range of vocal colours with fairly good acting. Massimo Giordano took a long time to warm up to the role of Cavaradossi - and the opening sequence in Sant'Andrea della Valle looked a bit haphazard (not enough rehearsal time?) Michael Volle was an adequate Scarpia - the voice was fine but I didn't really get enough evil from him.

Puccini's music was still gripping after all these years, and the afternoon (yes, 1pm start on a Saturday) turned out to be fine.

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