Tosca at London Coliseum

In her modern and urgent reimagining of Puccini’s timeless Tosca, ENO artistic director Annilese Miskimmon has unlocked new expressions of passion and defiance, adding fresh fire to a work that has been dazzling audiences for over a century.

The story follows the elegant opera singer Floria Tosca (Grammy Award-winning Axelle Fanyo) as she prepares for a secret rendezvous with her lover, Mario Cavaradossi (Chaz’men Williams-Ali) amidst a backdrop of civil unrest against the corrupt police state. Unbeknownst to Tosca, Cavaradossi holds the resistance at second place in his heart, and the couple therefore become entangled with the police who are searching for their opponents.

The creative chemistry between Williams-Ali and Fanyo charmed the audience, and their vocal performances were transcendent and perfect, easily following the shifts in mood and tone that characterise Puccini’s typically verismo scoring. The impact of their heartbreaking closing scenes was matched only by Tosca’s Vissi d’arte aria, performed under the cold gaze of the despicable police chief Scarpia (Christopher Purves), where the warmth of Tosca’s love and the lifeless depths of Scarpia’s evil were thrown into vivid relief. Purves’s villain of villains deserves its own remark – sung with precision and power, acted with peerless energy, he managed to conjure a character that at once appeared both entertainingly mischievous and appallingly wicked.

The mezzanine set was deployed well to maintain the threat of violence that colours the opera from the arrival of the police forces; Cavaradossi’s mural is painted over, violins and songbooks are collected for destruction, and the chorus performs at gunpoint, all as the tension builds around the central characters. There is a gorgeous harmony to Miskimmon’s staging, not limited to the split levels of the set – here, Tosca’s blue cape and red gown mimic the cloaks of the icon of the Virgin, and there, Cavaradossi’s painter’s palette knife is repurposed as the plot darkens from a love affair to a matter of life or death.

This is a rich, vibrant and fast-paced production, full of shock, emotion and surprises; after so many years of Puccini’s great work, the ENO has produced a Tosca that will stun audiences just as the public of 1900 was stunned when the daring opera’s very first curtain was raised.

Sylvia Unerman
Photos: Ellie Kurttz

Tosca is at the London Coliseum until 11^th December 2026. For further information or to book, visit the theatre’s website here.