Princeton Festival production effectively conveys the essence of Puccini’s ‘Tosca’

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Toni Marie Palmertree as Tosca, with Victor Starsky as Cavaradossi, in The Princeton Festival’s production of “Tosca.”

Opera-goers were treated to all the passion, tragedy and torment of Giacomo Puccini’s three-act melodrama, “Tosca,” in an attentive and faithful new production, featuring stage direction by Eve Summer, at this year’s Princeton Festival. It struck the perfect balance between drama and verismo.

A trio of heroic leads — Toni Marie Palmertree as Floria Tosca, Victor Starsky as Mario Cavaradossi and Luis Ledesma as Baron Scarpia — plus a romantic treatment of the score by music director Rossen Milanov and The Princeton Symphony Orchestra kept Puccini’s blood-soaked tale above the bleak edge.

The fully staged production — presented on June 13, 15 and 17 — was part of the PSO’s annual summer performing arts series held in the outdoor performance pavilion on the grounds of the picturesque Morven Museum & Garden in Princeton. This year’s edition runs through June 21.

After two consecutive years of comic operas by Rossini and Mozart, the Festival switched gears to the verismo terrain of late 19th century Italy. By the time Puccini’s work premiered in 1900, the Italian bel canto school of florid coloratura and vocal ornamentation was on its way out.

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Eric Delagrange, left, as Angelotti, with Victor Starsky as Cavaradossi, in “Tosca.”

Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica’s Italian libretto, set in Rome in 1800, revolves around Tosca, a famous opera singer, and her lover, Cavaradossi, a painter, who is harboring the political refugee, Cesare Angelotti. When Scarpia, the chief of police, tortures Cavaradossi for intel on Angelotti, Tosca offers herself to him and then kills him. After Cavaradossi is killed in a mock execution gone wrong, Tosca kills herself.

Based on French playwright Victorien Sardou’s 1887 play of the same name, Puccini’s version, unlike Sardou’s, is historically exact: It begins on June 17 and ends at dawn the next day. This narrow and specific time frame shapes much of the work’s verismo character.

Summer’s storytelling did not shy away from the brutalism, though there were plenty of Romantically tinged gestures by heroically painted characters to balance out the libretto’s cruelty and gloomy subject matter.

Milanov took a similar approach to Puccini’s sophisticated score with an ear toward the warmer and more sentimental aspects of musical Romanticism. The range of tonal color was maximized, and a nice blurring of the vocal sections kept the action unfolding smoothly.

The PSO used Frédéric Chaslin’s edited version. The sound was large but not lavish. At the June 15 performance, Milanov and the musicians had to compete with falling rain on the pavilion roof during the first act. Though the orchestral ensemble was smaller in size, it still maintained the dynamism of Puccini’s descriptive score, including the organ and celeste, both played on keyboard.

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Luis Ledesma as Scarpia in “Tosca.”

Special effects included the sound of cannons at the end of Act I. But for some reason, the gunshots fired by the soldiers of the supposedly mock execution were omitted, which lessened some of the impact of Tosca’s knowledge that Scarpia had tricked her.

More than 30 singers from both the Princeton Festival Opera Chorus and the Children’s Chorus added an ambitious choral element. This included the offstage choir (plus Tosca) singing the “Maria Carolina” cantata; Aubry Ballarò (who starred as Fiordiligi in the Festival’s “Così fan tutte” in 2024) as the offstage Shepherd Boy; and, of course, the showstopping Te Deum procession in which the chorus of priests, friars, pupils and choir singers made their way from the stage to the aisles and sang stationary in the audience.

Exacting and detailed scenography by Ryan McGettigan faithfully recreated all of the libretto’s Roman landmarks: Act I’s Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, Act II’s Palazzo Farnese and Act III’s Castel Sant’Angelo.

All of the opera’s classic and familiar iconography was included without felling like prototypical props: Cavaradossi’s painting of Mary Magdalene modeled after the Marchesa Attavanti; and the crucifix and two candles that Tosca used for impromptu funeral rites after murdering Scarpia (here with a very large chef’s knife).

Marie Miller’s rich and historically informed costumes ensured that every character was detailed to the last button. Lighting by Paul Kilsdonk also sought realism, including casts of golden sunlight inside the church and the quintessential Roman blue dawn light of the finale.

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Toni Marie Palmertree as Tosca, with Victor Starsky as Cavaradossi, in “Tosca.”

Tosca’s libretto is unique in that it is driven by duets; the second act is all duets (with the exception of the torture scene) and the third act is almost one single duet. This can lead to monotony if not held together by a Tosca who is both a virtuosic singer and an exceptional actress. Luckily, Palmertree was commanding in artistry, stamina and versatility. Her well-balanced Tosca felt relatable and real. (She brought the same full lyric soprano voice, powerful and beautiful, to the role as she did in a 2023 Opera at Florham concert of challenging Verdi and Donizetti roles.) She sang Act I in a sweet and flexible voice with gorgeous ornamentation and then dipped into the high drama of Act II by transitioning into a bigger and resonant voice of fuller and rounder tonalities.

Tosca’s famous confrontation aria “Vissi d’arte,” in which she weeps for shame and says she has devoted her life to art and love, was both operatic and self-reflective, and sung in clean and clear Italian pronunciation.

The duets felt genuinely warm. Palmertree’s Tosca was coy and flirtatious against Starsky’s Cavaradossi; he left tender little kisses on her cheeks following their big love duet. In duos with Scarpia, she retained a sense of pride and courage.

She threw herself into the curtain-dropping ending, literally. Some productions simply strike off the lights to simulate the opera-ending moment in which Tosca climbs up the parapet of the castle and leaps to freedom and death. This one asked its diva to swan dive. And she did. Palmertree climbed up onto a high ramp and, like an Olympic diver, took a running start into a swan dive and disappeared, landing on what one assumes was a thick crash pad hidden on the stage below. How could one not be moved?

Cavaradossi also had his own heroic and operatic moments, including the famous Act III aria “E lucevan le stelle” in which he has been told he has only one hour to live and sings his final farewell to his dreams of art and to his beloved Tosca, accompanied by the lamenting clarinet.

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Victor Starsky as Cavaradossi in “Tosca.”

Starsky’s rendition, open-hearted and impassioned, made good use of his voice’s dramatic and fully shaded tonalities with a consistently attractive tone. During the applause, he collapsed and trembled as if crying, affecting the hopelessness of his character’s situation.

Dressed in a blood-splattered white shirt, well-fitted breeches and tall boots, he looked straight off the cover of a high romance novel. He captured all the moral strength and noble poise that the character demands. He sang a warm and flowing “Recondita armonia” in the opening scene without the slightest strain in his voice. Every note seemed effortless, from his natural highs to his darker and powerful lower range.

Scarpia, the central figure of the power struggle, was played by Ledesma with an upper hand. He was less of a repulsive, lustful, sadistic tyrant and more of an arrogant snob. He made a thrilling entrance in the church toward the end of Act I, slinking in with his entourage.

Coldly calculating, a feeling of restrained violence lurked beneath the surface; he knocked over a chair in rage in hearing that the news of Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Melas was actually a mistake. Duets with Tosca showed off his cantabile and flexible baritone with lyrical shading and a nice ping.

One really felt the heat for Angelotti, Scarpia’s political opponent who is on the run. The small but memorable role was sung by Eric Delagrange in a velvety bass that was beautifully defined and resonant, with a pleasing edge. While some directors play up the criminal element of his character (after all, the escaped political prisoner is the cause of all of Tosca and Cavaradossi’s dire troubles), Delagrange cut a heroic figure in the role.

Scarpia’s claque either radiated menace or was coldly stoic. His top policeman Sciarrone, sung by Jacob Hanes, was eager with his fists with great thuggish swagger. He shoved Cavaradossi in his Act II entrance and then pummeled him after his stirring “Vittoria!” cry.

Scarpia’s other top henchman Spoletta, sung by Nicholas Nestorak (who also sang Count Almaviva in the Festival’s 2023 Barber of Seville), made a slippery and villainous sidekick.

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Stefano de Peppo, center, as Sacristan in “Tosca.”

Of humble dress and presence, Stefano de Peppo’s Sacristan represented a gentle and provincial officer of the church. His dulcet baritone and kindly gestures — as opposed to a comedic and servile approach — brought more heart to the role.

While the last two years of The Princeton Festival were devoted to comedic operas, any doubts about its ability to handle dramatic works have been put to rest with a “Tosca” that was striking and persuasive, in the hands of an observant director and cast.

For more on The Princeton Festival, visit princetonsymphony.org/festival.

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