January 2007: Tosca in Zurich (2007-01-13)

Day 1: Saturday 2007-01-13 Oslo - Zurich
Friday was a day with many planes being grounded. One question was should I take the night bus so that I was sure to be in Oslo by the
time the flight to Zurich was due. No, I decided. If my flight to Oslo was not going due weather conditions I would just take it on my insurance, even if it meant my expensive opera ticket as an expense was lost.

But the weather was better on Saturday, clear sky. So I just took the flight to Oslo. And luckily the Norwegian flight to Zurich was on time. When the schedule says landing in Zurich at 1800 and opera starts at 1930 one really have no time to loose. Staying at Hotel Opera was a great choice that meant losing no time since the hotel is
just 5 minutes from the opera house (or really 2). Just as I remembered the trains to Zurich HB was frequent enough and does not take long so there was really no stress. And then I could just calmly put my luggage in my hotel room and go to the opera house. I had naturally traveled with just hand luggage otherwise it might not have gone as smoothly.

Afternoon flight from Oslo to Zurich. Short time before the opera.

Tosca (Puccini), Opernhaus Zurich

Tosca = Norma Fantini
Cavaradossi = Marcelo Alvarez
Scarpia = Ruggero Raimondi
Angelotti = Tomasz Slawinski
Mesner = Giuseppe Scorsin
Spoletta = Andreas Winkler
Sciarrone = Rolf Haunstein

It was a wonderful opera evening. Ruggero Raimondi was a great Scarpia, Marcelo Alvarez was wonderful as Cavaradossi and so was Norma Fantini as Tosca.

The disappointment was the conductor Nello Santi who was almost killing the beautiful music, Tosca was mostly played painfully slow with sudden unreasoned faster parts. The Regie by Gilbert Deflo was not helping, as awkward moments in act 1. And deciding that Tosca
would shoot herself rather that leaping from the Castello was really bad. Especially since both the shooting of Cavaradossi and later by Tosca was really too quiet. Not that one could not hear it but it didn't even hit our nerves. The scenography by Ezio Frigerio was probably one reason it was sometimes hard to hear the singers. The glass walls was just not reflecting the sound but it was giving reflects of the singers and the monitors which was a bit disturbing. And then there so not a huge or even big painting of Maria Magdalen, just some painters papers which really make the acting much more harder to do realistically.

After the opera, no Ruggero Raimondi in sight but delightful Marcelo Alvarez and the nicest soprano of all, Norma Fantini made the evening perfect. Marcelo Alvarez was most generous tenor meeting his fans and making everybody enjoy it deeply. And Norma Fantini was the warmest and nicest person you could meet. At the stage door a huge success for
the fans. And I could go to the hotel with a big smile in my face.

NORMA FANTINI, the power of nice!!!!

Day 2: Sunday 2007-01-14 Zurich - Oslo
Flight from Zurich to Oslo via Copenhagen. The flight Zurich to Copenhagen went normally with a bit more turbulence than usual. The Flight to Oslo was a bit delayed due to the strong winds. But I got lucky and came away. And in Oslo, a bit delayed I could just take the bus (7 hours) home and was lucky that the weather conditions was not too bad for us. A bit over midnight and I was home.