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| | | Tosca review – gloriously sung and full of grand passion, this is gripping theatre | | by Tim Ashley Oct 1, 2022 | | Coliseum, London
Christof Loy’s atmospheric staging of Puccini’s opera doesn’t always cohere, but its psychological probing proves powerful and Adam Smith is a tremendous Cavaradossi English National Opera opens its season with Puccini’s Tosca, in a staging by Christof Loy, new to London, but first performed by the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki in 2018. Conducted by Leo Hussain, it’s a compelling, albeit idiosyncratic piece of theatre. Loy, as one might expect, carefully probes his protagonists’ psyches, often with fascinating results. At the same time, however, you can’t help but feel he’s trying to do fractionally too much with it, deploying elements of symbolism that don’t always cohere. A deliberate jumble of periods in Christian Schmidt’s designs underscores the ideological conflict between revolutionary republicanism and a corrupt monarchy at the work’s centre. Scarpia (acted by the indisposed Noel Bouley on opening night while Roland Wood sang from the side of the stage) and his henchmen wear ancien régime outfits, while Adam Smith’s Cavaradossi and Msimelelo Mbali’s Angelotti are in 1950s suits. Sinéad Campbell-Wallace’s Tosca effectively shuttles between both worlds, appearing in church in Act I in a New Look dress, and donning 18th century costume when she later arrives in Scarpia’s rooms. Red and gold theatre curtains, descending from the proscenium or slowly obscuring parts of the set, meanwhile, suggest, a little awkwardly, the blurring of reality and illusion in Tosca’s mind. And the Shepherd Boy in Act III has become a Tosca-lookalike in Cavaradossi’s imagination as he lies awaiting execution in his cell. Continue reading... | | | | | The Woman King review – a thunderously cinematic good time | | by Wendy Ide Oct 1, 2022 | | Magnificent Viola Davis heads Gina Prince-Bythewood’s ass-kicking, thought-provoking epic inspired by a real-life all-female army Muscular in its action sequences, sweeping in scope; a big, flexing, show-off spectacle of a movie. The Woman King is the kind of historical epic that just doesn’t get made any more. And with a superb cast predominantly composed of Black women, it’s also a film that has never been made before. Gina Prince-Bythewood may not exactly rewrite the cinematic language of the action movie – there’s plenty in her approach that will seem familiar – but she does reclaim and revitalise it. Loosely inspired by actual historical events, the film focuses on the kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of west Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. Protecting the King (John Boyega) and his considerable fortune is the Agojie, an all-woman army, led by a formidable general, Nanisca (a magnificent, battle-weary Viola Davis). Her closest comrades-in-arms are Amenza (Sheila Atim), a seer with the lithe grace of a gazelle and a deadly knack with a javelin, and Izogie (Lashana Lynch), a veteran who mentors one of the newest recruits to the Agojie, Nawi (Thuso Mbedu). In cinemas from 4 October Continue reading... | | | | | |
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