Tosca review: the Royal Opera House may be playing it safe, but it still sounds good

Jonathan Kent’s production is back for another crowd-pleasing revival, with first class performances and one of the finest stage designs in opera

Ausrine Stundyte (Tosca) and Marcelo Puente (Cavaradossi) in ‘Tosca' (Marc Brenner)

When in doubt, play safe, particularly if you are in charge of an opera house in London. The terrible plight of English National Opera is a warning of what can happen if an opera house loses its way artistically – as ENO has done over the past 15 years – and if philistine politicians taste blood, as Nadine Dorries and her friends did last year, pronouncing on ENO what was in effect a death sentence.

ENO’s current revival of The Handmaid’s Tale may be a brilliant ensemble performance, but there’s no sign yet of a reprieve for the company: as the opera economists all agree, the sums underpinning ENO’s hypothetical move to Manchester simply don’t add up.

The Royal Opera, meanwhile, are playing safe by bringing back Jonathan Kent’s production of Tosca for its umpteenth revival. Its strongest suit is the design by the late Paul Brown, the most gifted opera designer of his generation. Enormously prolific, he stamped every show with his bold originality. His church of Sant’Andrea della Valle is a turbulent panorama with robed and veiled figures lit by candles and wreathed in incense, the iron bars of the chapel suggesting established religion’s cruel exclusivity. His conception of Scarpia’s lair is grim and louring, and his presentation of the denouement is dusted with mist and stars.