Opera is big, generally speaking: big sound, big emotions, big sets. So when Opera Australia announced it was going to stage Puccini’s Tosca at Margaret Court Arena – a sports stadium with a 7,500-seat capacity, although less than half of that is utilised – it didn’t seem a totally ludicrous proposal. And yet, as the curtain descends on the grand tragedy, with the three leads dead and the smoke from the firing squad slowly clearing, the overarching thought is that they should have gone bigger.
Part of the problem is the opera itself. Tosca does have a single, glorious scene with a full chorus at the end of the first act, but for the most part it’s a taut and intimate chamber piece, almost a three-hander. Its emotional sweep is expansive in the way of most Italian opera but its dramatic focus is concise and its psychology compact. Peering at the distant stage from the arena’s utilitarian plastic chairs, it takes a certain effort to connect to the material. It’s certainly far from overwhelming.
