Glyndebourne, Sussex
Caitlin Gotimer’s Tosca goes from 0-60 in mere moments while the London Philharmonic unlock the barely contained violence in Ted Huffman’s long-awaited exceptional staging
Giacomo Puccini died only a decade before the first Glyndebourne festival opened. 92 years later, Tosca – global operatic blockbuster and the work once derided as a “shabby little shocker” – has finally made its Glyndebourne debut, opening the 2026 festival with a high-octane bloodbath presided over by director Ted Huffman. Forget shabbiness (and not just because of the champagne and tuxedos); this show is all about the shock.
But Huffman and conductor Robin Ticciati also play the dramatic long game. The curtain goes up on a mid-20th-century church interior. There are wooden pews and a small Madonna and child on the wall. Boys in uniform assist men in cassocks; there’s a real mop bucket, a real wooden ladder for the artist-hero and real mid-century modern spotlights to illuminate his work (the first of many exquisite details of this production’s lighting). It’s not 1800, but this is unmistakably Tosca, its accoutrements familiar.
Continue reading...
Glyndebourne, SussexCaitlin Gotimer’s Tosca goes from 0-60 in mere moments while the London Philharmonic unlock the barely contained violence in Ted Huffman’s long-awaited exceptional stagingGiacomo Puccini died only...
See more
