Tosca

Giacomo Puccini

“Ludovic Tézier’s Scarpia should not be missed if you get a chance ever to see him in the theatre,” an international review site writes. Our visiting soloist in summer 2022, baritone Ludovic Tézier, is not only the world’s best chief of police Scarpia – presenting a maddeningly skilful exploiter and manipulator – but also one of the truly big names of the opera scene. Besides Tosca, we’ll have the amazing privilege to hear him sing in his own recital on 17 July.

Miina-Liisa Värelä is said to be on the very cusp of a stellar international career. She is paired with tenor Matthew Polenzani, a regular guest of the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, and the Bavarian State Opera, who is making his much-anticipated debut as Cavaradossi.

“In the last century, Tosca has thrown herself down from great heights and fallen at our feet time and time again. She seems to change with the times and never ceases to impassion and agitate audiences,” says director Keith Warner. The tangle of raging jealousy captivates the mind, while Puccini’s effortlessly flowing music reveals the true feelings of the threatened lovers. To Puccini, opera was a world of emotions and dreams, in which even the deadly wounded would keep singing until their very last breath.