She arranges to meet Mario that evening at his villa. He gains Mario’s help in hiding from the police just as Tosca is heard outside the church doors. Angelotti enters and recognizes Cavaradossi as a friend. Cavaradossi enters and looking at his new painting of Mary Magdalene, he compares the blue-eyed Magdalene to his beloved, dark-eyed Tosca.The Magdalene has been inspired by an unknown young woman who has been coming to the church daily to pray, whois the sister of Angelotti–the Marchesa Attavanti. Angelotti hides in his family’s chapel in the church, in which his sister has secretly left him food.The comic Sacristan enters, cleaning up the brushes left by the painter, Mario Cavaradossi. This is immediately followed by furious music, representing the exhausted Cesare Angelotti, consul of the fallen Roman Republic, who has escaped from Castel Sant’Angelo. As the curtain rises on Puccini’s fifth opera, the orchestra introduces three of the most famous chords in all of music–the theme that represents Baron Scarpia. The Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, Rome. Tosca is at Crystal Palace Bowl until 29 August.ACT 1. These could easily be sorted out next year, if ENO decides to make this enjoyable experiment an annual fixture. From the stage to the back of the audience is a long way, and it was hard to spot pick out characters wearing dark colours against the black-clad orchestra. Surtitles would have helped so, too, would camerawork that better anticipated the entrances and exits. No soprano should have to sing the first, pianissimo phrases of Tosca’s Vissi d’Arte – Love and Music, in Edmund Tracey’s serviceable, occasionally old-fashioned translation – into a head mic, yet even when she had to scale her voice right back her control never slipped. Then there was Natalya Romaniw’s Tosca, who had real fire beneath her haughty exterior, and often sounded glorious. It was similarly easy to relish Roland Wood’s deliciously evil, suavely sung Scarpia. It was easy to root for Kim, a real rising star his singing was sweet-toned and beautifully shaped, but with power in reserve. The musical success was partly down to the urgency and liveliness Richard Farnes’s conducting brought to the music, and partly to the quality of the cast. Enjoyable ENO experiment … David Junghoon Kim and Simon Shibambu in Tosca.
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