Mercury Opera’s 'Tosca' steamy and wrenching

Anna Reguero, Staff writer

(January 16, 2009) - If opera is all about melodrama, the Mercury Opera Rochester’s production of Puccini’s Tosca succeeded tonight in providing a night of good opera with its steamy, wrenching version of one of the most dramatic of all operas.

And if opera’s melodrama can find a way to be convincing, this production can give thanks to its lead roles, Jill Gardner (Tosca), Dinyar Vania (Cavaradossi) and Jake Gardner (Scarpia).

Gardner, in her first Tosca, delivered a nuanced and virtuosic performance; it’s a role that seems to fit her personality as a strong, commanding woman. If anything, one has trouble believing her as innocent and pious in the first act.

But it was the incredible match between her and Vania, who played her on-stage lover, that added to the dramatics of their fateful deaths. Vania emerged as the strongest singer on stage. His tenor rings clear and his vibrato wrings out emotion.

I fully expected the on-stage romance of Tosca and Cavaradossi to be outshined by the dynamics between Tosca and her antagonist, the evil police chief Scarpia, who are married in real life. Such was not the case. The connection between Gardner and Vania in their love scenes won out over any possible romantic tension between the married couple.

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