SENSE AND SENSIBILITY – REVIEW OF 2025 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The Stratford Festival has taken the bold step of adapting Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility for the stage and putting it on at the Festival Theatre. Austen’s novels have been the basis of many art forms but capturing her ineffable prose and the rituals of Regency England has never been easy. The current production by Kate Hamill is “based on the novel by Jane Austen” and is not referred to as an adaptation. There may be a clue there as to what we should expect.

You may recall that Sense and Sensibility is about Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters who are left destitute by virtue of the law of entailment. On the death of Mr. Dashwood, his property can only be inherited by a male heir, his son, and nothing goes to his wife or daughters. The decent Mr. Dashwood has his son John promise to support Mrs. Dashwood, and he intends to do it until his wife objects and forces him to give nothing to them.

Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters move to a cottage provided by Sir John Middleton, a generous cousin and live in genteel poverty searching for husbands for Elinor, the eldest, and her younger sister Marianne. Margaret is too young for that mission.

The eligible bachelors are Edward Ferrars, John Willloughby and Colonel Brandon Thomas. Complications arise with all three to keep us watching for about two and a half hours until things are sorted out in a true Austen form. The young ladies do find husbands and we all live happily ever after.

That is the barebones of the plot that we read about in Austen’s elegant prose accompanied by the graceful rituals and civilized manners of Regency England. Hamill and Director Daryl Cloran pay scant attention to Austen and try to provide us with a production that is partly farce, partly brisk theatre and a result that can generously be classified as unsatisfactory.

Cloran uses 15 actors to play 22 roles. Of these roles 5 are called Gossip #1 to #5. The five Gossips are kept very busy. They are on stage for much of the performance and chatter, run on and off the stage, move furniture, engage in dialogue, scream, screech, and make other noises. They also crawl on the floor pretending to be dogs. In short, they provide more annoyance than one can bear. They have colourful costumes with feathers on their hats and if you can imagine all the acts enumerated in the previous sentence have been done numerous times you may conclude that they have no place in a play based on Austen and ask why in the world they are on stage. 

(l to r) Jade V. Robinson as Margaret Dashwood, Jessica B. Hill as 
Elinor Dashwood and Glynis Ranney as Mrs. Dashwood. Photo: David Hou 

They deserve credit for doing what they were supposed to do, and their names are: Christopher Allen, Jenna-Lee Hyde, Ashley Dingwel (on the night that I saw the performance but usually played by Celia Aloma), Jesse Gervais and Julie Lumsden.

The centre of attention are Elinor (Jessica B. Hill) and Marianne (Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane). They are romantic, innocent and lovely except when Cloran makes them act idiotically. Elinor falls in love with the honorable Edward Ferrars (Thomas Duplessie who also plays Robert Fearrars) who is shy and awkward. Cloran unfortunately makes him into a stuttering and bumbling fool, almost strictly a comic figure. John Wlloughby (Andrew Chown who also plays John Dashwood) is the cad that misleads Marianne into falling in love with him. But we do have Colonel Brandon Thomas (Shane Carty), the upstanding gentleman who wins Mariane’s heart.

We have seventeen characters to deal with aside from the five Gossips. Seana McKenna doubles as the garrulous and funny Mrs. Jennings and the almost speechless but comic Mrs. Ferrars.  Steve Ross plays Sir John Middleton, and he is not given much of a chance as a comic and the Doctor and there are no laughs in him. Glynis Ranney plays Mrs. Dashwood, the mother of the three girls as well as Anne Steele. Jade V. Robinson gives an exuberant performance as Margaret, the teenage sister.

There are a number of settings for the play, from the Dashwood cottage to Sir John’s residence, to London and some outdoor scenes. People go for a walk and instead of having them stroll around the stage, Cloran has them bop up and down in one spot. There are numerous frames for people to step in and out of rooms or doors and they are not always clear or necessary. During the outside walks the Gossips walk around the perimeter of the stage holding stalks of flowers.

Set and costume designer Dana Osborne provides numerous pieces of furniture on wheels which are easily wheeled on and off the stage by the Gossips or other characters. The costumes are fine except for the three sisters wearing very similar dresses in the early scenes. Presumably it is mourning attire and as far as we can tell their father just died. His corpse fell on the tea table from above and startled everyone. It is wrapped in a sheet and tossed off the stage.

There it is, a confusing production that strives for laughs and does get some. To be fair to Hamill by basing the play on the novel rather than adapting it for the stage, she may have had no intention of being faithful to Austen at all. That may be fair enough, but I suspect many people were drawn to the play because they thought they were getting Jane Austen’s novel in a different form. If that was Hamill’s intent, she should have warned us with changing the title to, say, Sense and Sensibility, Maybe or some such variation.
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Sense and Sensibility by Kate Hamill based on the novel by Jane Austen continues until October 2025 at the Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

OLD TIMES – REVIEW OF 2025 SOULPEPPER PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

Has Harold Pinter gone out of style? It seems that productions of his plays are infrequent and it may just be a cyclical thing that happens to most writers.  In any event Soulpepper has produced a fine production of Old Times, his fourth full-length play and we are grateful for it.

The title tells us that this is a play of reminiscences and in a play by Pinter that means a lot. Memory is very tricky. What we remember may have happened but what we retain of events may be different from the actual or we may think we recall but the events may not have happened at all. There are many variations of this.

Old Times has three characters, Deeley (Christopher Morris), his wife Kate (Anita Majumdar) and Anna (Jenny Young). We meet all three in Deely and Kate’s house in the country where Anne is visiting them. She was Kate’s best and only friend twenty years ago and they have not seen each other since then. Anna is living in a posh house at the top of a hill in Sicily, a volcanic island she tells us. Both women are attractive, in their early forties and smartly dressed.

(l to r) Jenny Young as Anna, Christopher Morris as Deeley and 

Anita Majumdar as Kate. Photo: Dahlia Katz/Soulpepper

Director Peter Pasyk captures the Pinteresque atmosphere of silences, mysterious looks and the air of the unidentified that pervades the action of the play. We can never tell if the “events” that the characters recall are real or imaginary or perhaps both. Everything that we hear leaves us uncertain as to its veracity or its intended effect on the listeners and for that matter the audience.

Anna, a stunning blonde, shared an apartment with the brunette Kate, and she recalls a carefree life including enjoyment of the cultural life of London. The two spent late nights of friendly intimacy. More than friendly intimacy? Kate told her husband that Anna stole her underwear but the latter tells us that she lent it to her. Deeley recalls that he met Anna in a bar and describes how he looked up her skirt and could see her underwear. He was looking at his future wife’s intimate apparel. The description is sexually charged as are other scenes in the play.

The soft battle lines are drawn up as Deeley and Anna try to top the other about who has known Kate best. Who is entitled to her affection? In the opening scene Kate and Anna looked at each other attentively, perhaps mysteriously, maybe affectionately. Anna describes Kate’s love of long baths and she advises Deeley about how to dry Kate with a towel after her bath. All these seem like attempts to see who can come out on top. Kate does not give anyone the upper hand.

The performances by Majumdar, Morris and Young are impeccable. Morries scores his points but Young, despite what she did in the past, including her presence in a bar where someone stares up her skirt, maintains her composure and her serene appearance. Majumdar maintains her composure and mystery.

The set and costumes by Snazana Pesic are perfect. For the first act living room, we have a couple of sofas, side tables and a comfortable armchair. For the second act we have the same furniture turned around for the bedroom. The dresses for the two women are stylish 1960’s. The play was first produced in 1971.

Carol Reed’s 1947 film Odd Man Out is mentioned several times, especially actor Robert Newton. He plays the small role of an eccentric painter in the film and I am not sure why he is glorified in Old Times. Does the title of the film give us a clue to Deeley’s final position in the play.

Pasyk crafts a marvelous production with meticulous attention to details. The play has some humour and Pasyk did not bring more than a smidgeon of it. Nonetheless. I thoroughly  enjoyed the production. 

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Old Times by Harold Pinter continues until September 7, 2025, at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca.

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

The Norman Conquests (2013)
Photos by Cylla von Tiedemann

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE - REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival once again tips its hat to Broadway by producing Sunday In The Park With George, the 1984 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine.  The musical has won a carload of awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985.

George of the title is French painter Georges Seurat who painted A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte between 1884 and 1886. The island is in the Seine and was frequented by ordinary Parisians on Sundays and Seurat wanted to capture them promenading there. The plot of the musical is fictional so don’t try to learn anything about Seurat from it.

In the opening scene of the musical, George (John Riddle) tells us what a painter faces: "White, a blank page or canvas. The challenge: bring order to the whole, through design, composition, tension, balance, light and harmony." It is a tall order for the painter who is sitting in front of an easel and sketching his model Dot (Marina Pires). She is bored and frustrated (and very funny) at having to get up early every Sunday and stand still and pose as ordered by George. She is also his mistress. Parisians start arriving on the island.

An Old Lady (Lauretta Bybee) comes with her Nurse (Taylor-Alexis DuPont)and the latter plops her on the ground with some difficulty. The Old Lady turns out to be George’s Mother. The musical has 36 characters played by 17 singers/actors but many of them are inconsequential.

The action picks up and we see numerous vignettes. Artist Jules (Marc Webster) and his wife Yovonne (Claire McCahan) opine that George’s painting has “No life,” Dot befriends Louis, the baker, the two Celestes (Angela Yam and SarahAnn Duffy) argue over who will get the better-looking soldier and so on. George continues painting. 

John Riddle as George with the painting A Sunday Afternoon on
 the Island of La Grande Jatte. 
Photo by Brent DeLanoy/The Glimmerglass Festival

A pair of American tourists Betty (Claire McCahan and Bob Greenberg (Marc Webste) represent one view of the stupid American tourist from the South and they are very funny.

The plot complications recur and develop while George and Dot reach an impasse. She is carrying his child and she wants to marry Louis (Sahel Salam) and go to the United States. Jules sneaks away for a bit of fun with Frieda (Viviana Aurelia Goodwin) and his wife Yvonne finds out about it. Oops. Mayhem breaks out on the island. George takes control, after all it is his painting, and its subjects take their place in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which will end up in the Art Institute of Chicago.

That is the first act of the musical with some humour, drama and numerous complications and the appropriate ending with the completion of the work.

But Sondheim and Lapine add a second act that takes place 100 years later, in 1984. with George’s great-grandson also called George. The latter has a machine called "Chromolume #7" and he is showing his great-grandfather’s work with that machine and with the help of his 98-year-old grandmother Marie (Marina Pires), the daughter of Dot. Marie tells us what her mother told her on her deathbed.  Then Marie speaks to her mother in the painting.  Then a vision of Dot appears and by that time I have lost almost all interest in what is going on.

There are excellent performances by the cast. John Riddle is a dedicated, serious minded almost obsessed artist. He is lithe of foot and voice and a distinguished performer. The Americans provide good humour and Julius and Yvonne are notable for their work.

The sets by John Conklin are minimalist but effective. He set the standard for set design for all the season’s operas and deserves a standing ovation.

Director Ethan Heard does a fine job in the first act but I got diminishing returns in the second act that all but killed it for me.

Conductor Michael Ellis Ingram led the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra for an enthusiastic audience.  
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Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Lapine (book) is being performed six times until August 17, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. More information www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto

THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas 

The House On Mango Street is a new opera by Derek Bermel (music) and Sandra Cisneros and Derek Bermel (libretto) It is based on Cisneros’ novel and it had its premiere at the Glimmerglass Festival in July of 2025.

The opera has thirty characters played by 22 actors/singers and is set in a poor, immigrant neighborhood of Chicago. The opera, like the novel, is episodic and deals with an array of events and personal stories in the lives of the residents of the community.

The main character is Esperanza (Mikaela Bennett), a young woman and aspiring writer. The opera opens with her at an old-fashioned typewriter pecking away stories about her life. The novel was published in 1984 and predates computers but the central message of the opera and the novel is Esperanza’s desire to get out of the hellish neighborhood.

Sally (Taylor Alexis-Dupont) is an adolescent who wants to have fun with the boys of the neighborhood but the two sides may have different ideas about fun. Sally, we learn, wants to keep the boys at bay but her real problem is an abusive father that she keeps as a secret.

We have Lucy (Samantha Sosa) and Rachel (Kaylan Hernandez) who are prepared to be Esperanza’s friends forever. But that will only happen if she gives them five dollars to buy a bike. Are they from Sicily?

Cast of House on Mango Street. 
Photo by Kayleen Bertrand/The Glimmerglass Festival.

Geraldo (Angelo Silva), a young, undocumented street vendor has the most tragic end. He is killed in a street scuffle and the people  who witnessed the shooting “saw nothing. 

As I said, the opera has some thirty characters and the plotline becomes  unfocused and confusing. It would be pointless to name them all. The music seems to emanate from numerous styles that I could not recognize. More focus would have been better.

Set Designer John Conklin went to market in his set design. Two brightly lit towers represent two houses or whatever else you want. Extensive use of lighting patterns, projections by Greg Emetaz and by Lighting Designer Amith Chandrashaker provide a dizzying kaleidoscope of effects. Is there such a result as too much of a good thing? We get the life of a poor immigrant community, individual stories from many of them, an array of musical styles  -  it is too much to absorb on the first viewing of a new opera.

Costume Designer Erik Teague provides costumes that represent poor teenagers as well as more elaborate costumes for some who have different tastes. There is no issue with his designs.

Director Chia Patino manages the thirty characters in the two towers and on stage with efficiency. She does a fine job with the street fight and handling the emotional and humorous parts of the opera.   

Conductor Nicole Paiement conducts the Glimmerglass Festival Opera through the many musical styles that the score calls for.

It may seem that I did not enjoy the new opera at all. That is not entirely true and totally unfair for a new and thus unfamiliar work. The Glimmerglass Festival deserves kudos for commissioning the work and Bermel and Cisneros for creating an opera from her novel. There was exceptionally high-quality singing and some of stories were moving, tragic and funny. Unfortunately, I found the work as a whole disappointing.
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The House on Mango Street by Derek Bermel (music) and Sandra Cisneros and Derek Bermel (libretto) is being performed six times until August 16, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. More information www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor Culture of The Greek Press

A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN – 2025 REVIEW OF ALMEIDA THEATRE PRODUCTON

Reviewed by James Karas

The Almeida Theatre is a very small venue in London but it stages some of the finest productions in London. It tackled Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon For The Misbegotten with mixed results. I should mention at the outset that the play is so creaky that it almost guarantees mixed results.

O’Neill finished what turned out to be his last play in 1943. It has been produced a handful of times including a production at the Shaw Festival in 2009 but producers have stayed clear of it most of the time. The production Directed by Rebecca Frecknall with a talented cast attempt to bring the play to life but it must work with their hands tied behind their backs.

The play is set in a farmhouse in Connecticut where Josie Hogan (Ruth Wilson) and her father Phil Hogan (David  Threlfall) live. Don’t look at the script if you can avoid it. But if you did check it, you will note O’Neill’s description of Josie as “so oversize for a woman that she is almost a freak – five feet eleven in her stockings and weighs around one hundred and eighty.” He adds that “she is more powerful than any but an exceptionally strong man …. But there is no mannish quality about her. She is all woman.” No need to imagine the freak because in this production, Josie is played by an attractive Ruth Wilson who has none of the attributes described by O’Neill.

That is positive but the play itself is dominated by verbosity and booze and by characters who are largely incapable of any meaningful contact or communication. Phil is a foulmouthed drunkard, who is so violent at times that his daughter has to use a stick to protect herself. His son Mike (Peter Corby) escapes furtively from the farm after stealing some of his father’s money and runs away to freedom. Phil is capable of some affection towards Josie and plots a way to get title to the farm, but overall, he is an unsavory and disgusting person.

Ruth Wilson and David Threlfall. Photograph: Marc Brenner

Josie is the central character and she is sexually active and very proudly permissive with sexual wares. If she looked like O’Neill describes her, she would have very few takers. Despite her foul mouth and slutty habits, she does have a positive side and she probably does fall in love with James Tyrone (Michael Shannon), the would-be owner of the farm (waiting for the probate of his mother’s will). But she and Tyrone are so inarticulate or beyond the ability to express affection that the only thing that comes out of their relationship is boredom.

Tyrone is usually stone drunk and spends a night with Josie who is trying to have him seduce her so she can claim the farm. One does not know what to make of the two emotional losers.

In fairness I should mention that Phil does show affection towards his daughter and Tyrone’s drinking may be the result of his feelings of guilt. But the writing is so turgid that not much comes across to the audience.

The set by Tom Scutt  shows a dilapidated house with a raised platform that may be a bedroom. There are ladders and boards around the stage indicating the lack of an orderly house.

Director Rebecca Frecknall  could not save the production from its booze and verbosity and in the end, we applauded because it was over.
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A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O’Neill continues until August 16, 2025,  at the Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, Islington, London, England. https://almeida.co.uk

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

THE RAKE’S PROGRESS – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

  Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival has staged a powerful and stunning production of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress during the 50^th anniversary season at the Alice Busch Opera Theatre in Cooperstown, New York. The production features a strong cast directed by Eric Sean Fogel and the Glimmerglass Festival Opera and Chorus conducted by Joseph Colaneri.

The Rake’s Progress was a series of paintings by the eighteenth-century English painter Thomas Hogarth who charted the life of Tom Rakewell, “the rake.” Progress is meant ironically because Tom went from the heir to a large fortune to a life of luxury, waste, prostitution and loss of everything including his sanity. The aptly named Anne Trulove, the beautiful woman that he loved and abandoned continued to love him to the bitter end.

Igor Stravinsky was quite taken by the paintings and he decided to turn them into an opera. The libretto based on Hogarth’s paintings was prepared by the august W. H. Auden and Chester Simon Kallman  and was first performed in 1951 in Venice.

The Glimmerglass Festival production features Canadian tenor Adrian Kramer as Tom Rakewell. (The Glimmerglass Festival Program says he is from New York, New York! This is not the time to make mistakes like that.) He is from Toronto). Regardless of his origin, he turns in an energetic performance physically and especially vocally. He fulfills Rakewell’s complex role with superb singing and acting through the many stages of the rake’s life. It was a delight to hear and watch him

The lovely Anne is the antithesis of Rakewell and I pay tribute to soprano Lydia Grindatto. She plays the faithful and pure lover of Rakewell and pursues him until his bitter end. She sings the arias and duets with beauty and splendid vocal finesse. She makes the most difficult phrase appear simple, natural, and beautiful.

 

Aleksey Bogdanov (Nick Shadow), Adrian Kramer (Tom Rakewell)

Photo © The Glimmerglass Festival | Kayleen Bertrand

And we have the Mephistopheles of the opera, Nick Shadow (baritone Aleksey Bogdanov). He has the attire and manners of an English gentleman and tells the lazy lout Rakewell that he has inherited a large fortune. He invites him to enjoy the life that money can provide and Rakewell follows him to London to a “better life” in a brothel. Bogdanov has a sonorous and convincing baritone voice and manages to control Rakewell to the bitter end when he asks him for his soul in payment for his services. A marvelous performance by Bogdanov.

The first step that Rakewell takes on his way down is at the brothel where he meets Baba the Turk (mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel). She has a big voice and a pronounced presence on the stage. She may be considered nasty but she has, as they say, about members of her profession (and I mean prostitutes and not singers), a heart of gold. Baba marries Rakewell but when Anne shows up, she speaks well of him. I have no doubt that Deborah too has a heart of gold and she gives a grand performance.

Anne’s father Trulove (bass Marc Webster) sings with gorgeous sonority and sensitivity as the concerned parent who finds a job for the wastrel Rakewell. He has a relatively small roll but he makes the most of it. Well done.

The set by John Conklin is minimalist and unrealistic. The lighting by Robert Wierzel features generous use of projections illustrating certain events. They do the job. In the opening scene we see a cutout of the Venus de Milo statue, the one of the goddess of love with the missing arms. It disappears when Rakewell goes astray but at the end of the opera he thinks he is Adonis, the beautiful youth that Venus loved passionately.

Director Fogel handles the complex plot and characters with an eye to detail and drama. He gives us a coherent and splendidly done production.

Colaneri conducts the Glimmerglass Festival Opera and Chorus through Stravinsky’s multifaceted and complicated score brilliantly. We are left with a production to remember.
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The Rake’s Progress by Igor Stravinsky is being performed six times until August 15, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information at www.glimmerglass.org/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press 

TOSCA – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

 The Glimmerglass Festival is celebrating its 50^th anniversary season and that speaks of its longevity and the high quality of its productions. For those who have not been there, it is held in the Alice Busch Opera Theatre on the shores of Lake Otsego in upstate New York. Doesn’t ring a bell? How about it is next door to Cooperstown, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame? That’s better.

 This year the Festival offers four operas among other events. The operas represent the usual eclectic choice this year of the effervescent Artistic and General Director Rob Ainsley. Puccini’s Tosca is the staple. Sunday In The Park With George is the American classic musical. Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress is the adventurous 20^th century classic  and The House on Mango Street with music by Derek Merkel and libretto by Sandra Cisneros and Bermel is a new opera.

Director Louisa Proske and Designer John Conklin offer a unique, imaginative and brilliant production of Puccini’s masterpiece. They have their own take on the opera and despite some aspects that may strike us as unorthodox or head-scratching the result is a marvelous production.

First, the singers. You can’t have a Tosca without a highly qualified soprano. American soprano Michelle Bradley delivers a stunning performance in the lead role. She has a big, brilliant and expressive voice that simply knocks you over. She can be the jealous woman who goes crazy over the idea that her lover Cavaradossi is painting another beauty, a passionate lover in her duets with the same man and a fury when confronted by a sadistic would-be rapist. She can belt out her phrases and express tender memories as in “Vissi d’arte”.    

The other essential part of the opera is the sadistic Scarpia sung here by American bass-baritone Greer Grimsley. Scarpia relishes his lust and tells us he prefers force over consent. He is a rapist. He has the great scene with Tosca where he tries to seduce her and rape her. He thunders his joy at torturing people and at his absolute control over them. We watch with delight as Tosca stabs him to death on the bed in his office where he had a woman before Tosca arrived.

 

Greer Grimsley as Baron Scarpia, Yongzhao Yu as 

Mario Cavaradossi, and Kellan Dunlap as Spoletta. 

Photo Credit: Kayleen Bertrand/The Glimmerglass Festival

American tenor Yongzhao Yu sings a fine Cavaradossi. He sings a sound E lucevan le stelle but he is out sung in his duets with Tosca.

Proske and Conklin put their own stamp on the production. As the lights go on, the set appears and it seems that the monumental interior of the Church of St. Andrea where the first act is set is being renovated. There are tarps and scaffolding all around except for the back of a large easel and a small Madonna on a pedestal. We never see what Cavaradossi is painting. The tarps do fall for the Te Deum at the end of the act but there is no spectacular splendor.

The second act is in Scarpia’s presumably opulent office. The furniture is ordinary to cheap and there is a bed with a women getting dressed after having finished the obvious. There is a table, a bathroom with a shower and a cheap desk. The torture room is in the back.

All the furniture from Scarpia’s office is removed for the third act which is supposed to take place atop the Castel Sant’Angelo. It does not. There is no parapet for Tosca to jump off and Proske solves the problem with a gun. Tosca shoots herself.

We may miss the Zeffirellian grandeur but surprisingly the changes do not take away from the drama and effectiveness of the production. There are many nice touches. When the sacristan Sergio Martinez sees Cavaradossi’s painting he is startled and when he sweeps the floor, he pushes the dirt under the tarps. Funny.

For the Shepherd’s Song, Proske develops a scene with a small angel, a priest and a ritual with the Madonna (I think) appearing. It is cute and necessary for the stage to be cleared for  the following scene.

Proske along with Conklin gives us an original and stunning production of an old chestnut.

Conductor Joseph Colaneri leads the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus to a rousing performance that earns them all a standing ovation.

The Glimmerglass Festival strikes a significant note for freedom and democracy. The cover of its impressive 158-page program shows an unprepossessing picture of a wall. In fact, it is the space where Cavaradossi will be killed and Tosca commits suicide. The photograph on the program is not an accident. Tosca is about political oppression, abuse of power and murder and torture of people.

Before the opera begins, we read projected on a screen the words Prof. Timothy Snyder about tyranny. I do not recall the exact text but these words from him give you the idea: We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. He is talking about America today and the Festival shows guts where many Americans cave in to despotism.

Bravo Glimmerglass Festival.

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Tosca by Giacomo Puccini is being performed ten times until August 16, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto