Metropolitan Opera’s Tosca opens to violent boos

Another chapter in the history of operatic disasters was written this week when a new staging of Puccini's Tosca at New York's Metropolitan Opera was greeted with a chorus of disapproval, the like of which has rarely been seen in America.
 
The new Tosca was staged by the Swedish director Luc Bondy and replaces the Franco Zeffirelli version, which has been a favourite of Met audiences since 1985.
 
While the principal singers were roundly applauded at the end of the performance, when Bondy and his production team ventured on stage to lap up some of the glory, the mood swiftly changed. The theatre was engulfed by booing - described as the loudest and most sustained in memory - prompting the management to swiftly bring the curtain down on the evening.
 
It seemed as if almost every member of the 3,800-strong audience disagreed with Bondy's reinterpretation of key sets and with his handling of action moments. During one stabbing scene it was impossible for the audience to see the action and the staging of Tosca's climactic death leap failed to impress.
 
Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, said he was not surprised at the reaction given the largely negative build-up before the premiere. But Bondy himself refused to take it lying down. "The reaction was very, very violent because they have a Tosca since 22 years or 30 years and they don't want to see something different," he said. "To think one work exists, and it has a final interpretation, is a problem."
 
And he had this to say about the legendary Zeffirelli, who had criticised the new production before its premiere and described the Swede as a "third-rate" director: "He didn't invent Puccini. He's only Zeffirelli. I'm only Luc Bondy." ·