Tosca at the Coliseum: forceful music, muddled message

By Daniel Okafor

English National Opera presented Annilese Miskimmon’s Tosca at the Coliseum, London, on 5 November 2026.

David Truslove reviewed the second performance and called the staging a work in progress. He found its dystopian argument forceful but its directorial messaging muddled. He also named Ben Glassberg’s conducting as the evening’s musical highlight.

What does Miskimmon change?

As ENO’s artistic director, Miskimmon said Puccini’s great opera had become “a rather predictable opera experience.” Truslove wrote that her staging sought the shock of the new. Revisions after opening night included removing a ladder and toning down Act 2’s offstage cantata.

Truslove asked whether those changes showed forethought, recognition of missteps or a response to criticism. He left the motive open. His verdict concerned the result: a blunt concept that could swamp the opera around it.

What does the production condemn?

Truslove described a shift from politically turbulent Rome in 1800 to a militarized present day. He read the contemporary setting and pervasive violence as a condemnation of a totalitarian state’s repressive attitude toward art.

According to Truslove, cultural vandalism and brutality dominate the production. A baby grand and other instruments are destroyed. The imagery has, in his phrase, the subtlety of a wrecking ball. By the end, a pyramid of instruments becomes a funeral pyre.

Truslove described Rosanna Vize’s two-level set as a recital hall with a shrine to Mary below and an upper balcony revealing a Madonna mural. He found their combination baffling. The Angelus, a Catholic prayer, is sung in what he called a secular space.

He also reported that one of Scarpia’s thugs conducts the Te Deum, directing the chorus at gunpoint. The whitewashed Madonna leaves religion apparently cancelled while art is literally trampled underfoot. Truslove cited Sant’Andrea della Valle, Palazzo Farnese and Castel Sant’Angelo before finding Vize’s staging unable to resolve its religious and political contradictions.

Where does the drama become noise?

Truslove counted the action as nearly ceaseless. Leather-clad lackeys impound instruments from schoolchildren during Scarpia’s Act 2 interrogation of Tosca. Cavaradossi wanders around the stage throughout the questioning.

The Marchesa Attavanti and Angelotti are killed and hurled across the stage. An attempted rape of Tosca follows. Truslove withheld the ending, but said the undisclosed stunt could have been devised by Barrie Kosky. Violence, or its threat, supplies both atmosphere and punctuation.

Who carries the musical evening?

Ben Glassberg’s surefooted direction supplied the evening’s clearest musical achievement. Truslove praised the ENO orchestra’s muscular, sumptuous playing, controlled balance and carefully chosen tempi. The sound knew where the centre of gravity belonged.

Axelle Fanyo made her ENO debut as Tosca. Truslove described her voice as rich and vital, with enough power to sustain the role’s jealousy and vulnerability. He also heard occasionally distorted vowels and an out-of-place American accent. Her “Vissi d’arte” will need time to settle.

Chaz’men Williams-Ali’s Cavaradossi lacked both volume and a convincingly heroic stage presence. Truslove nevertheless found “And the Stars Were Shining” expressive. The moment finally generated compassion for the character, although the performance stopped short of fully locating him.

Christopher Purves completed the principal trio as a Putin-like Scarpia. Truslove praised his diction and his unsettling mixture of suavity and menace. His intentions toward Tosca were unmistakable, he wrote, down to the removal of his trousers. Crude theatrical gesture, perhaps. Effective menace, certainly.

What else stands out?

Robert Hayward was in fine voice as the Sacristan, Alaric Green stood out as the luckless Angelotti, and Osian Wyn-Bowen was disturbing as Spoletta. The Shepherd Boy was beautifully sung, although Truslove said the programme failed to clarify the boy’s identity. Steffan Lloyd Owen played Sciarrone, and Ronald Nairne was the Jailer.

The children of Marlborough Primary School and the ENO chorus also sang well. Truslove’s final verdict called this “a busy, agenda-driven production” and saved his superlatives for the music. He had heard more supremely made noise than coherent revolution.

Who made the production?

Truslove’s credits list Puccini’s music and a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, adapted from Victorien Sardou’s play and sung in an English translation by Amanda Holden.

• Cast: Floria Tosca — Axelle Fanyo; Cavaradossi — Chaz’men Williams-Ali; Scarpia — Christopher Purves; Sacristan — Robert Hayward; Angelotti — Alaric Green; Spoletta — Osian Wyn Bowen; Sciarrone — Steffan Lloyd Owen; Jailer — Ronald Nairne; Shepherd Boy — Elliot Michael/Tristan Meziere.
• Creative team: Director — Annilese Miskimmon; Designer — Rosanna Vize; Costumes — Evie Gurney; Lighting — Imogen Knight; Conductor — Ben Glassberg.
• Ensembles: Chorus & Orchestra of the English National Opera; Children’s Chorus from Marlborough Primary School.

Miskimmon has made a forceful case against cultural repression. Glassberg and Fanyo give the evening its authority. Vize’s overloaded symbols and the production’s relentless business dilute the drama. If ENO continues the revisions Truslove identified, the staging may yet deliver the shock its director intended.