This Te Deum is the only visually over-the-top moment in the whole performance. It all looks very minimalistic – that is until the act concludes with a Te Deum (spoiler alert) featuring a staggering tableau vivant of a triptych of damned souls descending into Hell. In Act 1, the elegant sets imagined by Rufus Didwiszus aren’t therefore specifically recognisable as Sant’Andrea della Valle but they are unmistakably the elegant stone-tiled floor of a church. Of course, the Australian director was never going to try and recreate the iconic Roman landmarks specified in the libretto. Sets are perhaps dominated by shades of grey, but the costumes designed by Klaus Brun add bright touches of colours. There is actually no attempt to reproduce a black and white film noir aesthetic on stage. Those expecting an iconoclast transposition of the action after hearing this message will however find the final results very respectful of the plot, albeit with a modern twist. Admittedly, the libretto contains all the elements of menacing psychology, violence, political intrigue and eroticism that characterise the genre. The main message that transpired from press reports and the company’s PR machine and social media accounts was that director Barrie Kosky, inspired by the overall pessimism of the piece and the cinematographic character of Puccini’s music, was going to treat Tosca as a film noir. Understandably so, as the house’s last production dates back nearly a quarter of a century (1998 to be precise, with Riccardo Chailly conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra and what I believe was a role debut for Bryn Terfel as Scarpia) making this favourite of the standard repertoire somewhat of a rarity in the Dutch capital. There was quite a lot of interest in the Dutch media for this new production of Tosca at Dutch National Opera in the days prior to the premiere.
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