Even if you are not a fan of the opera, you may have heard a note or two of controversy about The Metropolitan Opera’s current production of Tosca, which we were fortunate enough to broadcast in high definition at our Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts earlier this month.
Tosca, by Giacomo Puccini, is one of the world’s most beloved operas, set in Rome against the backdrop off the Napoleonic wars. It tells the story of a pious and faithful singer, Tosca, who is in love with a painter, Cavaradossi. Without giving away the story — as I know you will want to find it out for yourself — the painter is imprisoned by the Chief of Police, Scarpia, after a bit of political intrigue, and Scarpia, whose eyes have fallen upon Tosca, promises to release the young painter only if Tosca will submit to Scarpia’s wishes. A lot of treachery ensues, impassioned by wonderfully lyrical music.
The controversy about this Tosca concerns the staging by Swiss-born director Luc Bondy. Audiences had become very attached to the 1985 production of Tosca designed by Franco Zefferelli, which really sought to recreate the Rome of the period with lavish sets and fidelity to the libretto. I have been fortunate enough to see that production several times, and remember well the set for Act I, which takes place in the Church of Sant’ Andrea Della Valle in Rome, and reproduced the church’s interior almost entirely. In the new production, by comparison, everything is stark, spare, and at times, some of the vital religious and cultural contexts get lost in all the gloom.
Of course, you would need to see it for yourself and decide the merits of this new production. It is such a great pleasure for us at Fairfield University to be in our second year of broadcasting the MetLive in HD series. When we started the program last year, we had no idea whether it would be well received. So far, it has been a great success, and as an opera lover myself it is wonderful to be able to have these presentations so close to home.
A critical dimension of our mission as a University is that we hope we serve as a source of entertainment and cultural enrichment for the entire community. Certainly, we are always thinking about ways in which we can serve in this capacity, and the response to the MetLive series has been very encouraging in this regard. This season promises to be a very good one indeed. Aida will be presented this Saturday, Oct. 24 at 1 and 6 p.m., followed by Turandot in November and Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann in December, so there is much to look forward to. I refer you to our Web site for more information if you are interested.
The introduction of high definition technology at our Quick Center for the Arts has also allowed us to introduce two additional series of programs. The first is TimesTalk Live, a program of conversations between literary figures and journalists from the New York Times. John Irving, author of The World According to Garp, will be presented live on Oct. 28, and we will be presenting an interview with Stephen King on November 11.
We have also introduced live high definition presentations of Britain’s National Theatre. The next one will be in January, a play by Mark Ravenhill based on a novel by Terry Pratchett, and then in April we will be presenting “The Habit of Art,” a new play by Alan Bennett, which is an imagined conversation between W. H. Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten.
These are just a few of the programs that we present at the Quick Center. It is our ongoing hope that we can find new and exciting ways to engage as a University with all of our neighbors. I invite you to come to campus and enjoy all these intellectually and artistically stimulating programs.
