Tenor SeokJong Baek makes a stunning BSO debut in 'Tosca'
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His phrasing in both of the character's big arias was supple and unforced, with no signs of strain, and his voice had a gorgeously gleaming resonant quality throughout the evening. Cavaradossi's big Act 2 moment, his extended cry of 'Vittoria, vittoria,' seared with raw defiance; triumphant while seemingly wavering on the edge of collapse. Baek also conveyed as much tender chemistry as the concert staging allowed with the Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais, the frequent BSO collaborator (and former wife of conductor Nelsons) who sang the title role. That the lovers ultimately meet tragic fates is no secret, but as they reached the apex of their act 3 duet, the ultimately futile plan to escape that of which they sang felt real enough to grasp, not simply a vain hope.
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Baek is somewhat new to the tenor sphere, having originally trained as a baritone before transitioning to tenor during the height of the pandemic, when opera houses were closed. If he can consistently deliver performances of this quality and reliably follow through on his bookings, I predict full houses for him.
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Baek's stunning performance was even more impressive given the two veterans with whom he shared star billing. Opolais performed the same role when the BSO did the opera's Act 2 in concert at Tanglewood in 2017, and she made a much stronger showing this time. She was unusually quiet in the first act, barely rising above the sound of the orchestra at some points, but she came back at full power for acts 2 and 3, limning 'Vissi d'arte' with silvery grace.
Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel also returned from the 2017 Tanglewood cast; he has long counted Scarpia among his signature characters, and recently announced that he'd no longer be singing the role in staged performances of 'Tosca.' His voice is distinctly more weathered than it used to be, but Scarpia is maybe 90 percent acting, and those chops haven't gone anywhere. He didn't so much chew the scenery as devour it; sneering, leering, and purloining Tosca's scarf so he could conspicuously sniff it, he made for a power-drunk and easily detestable Scarpia.
The supporting cast was also strong, from Neal Ferreira's brown-nosing Spoletta to Morris Robinson's puissant and panicked Angelotti and Patrick Carfizzi's pettily pious Sacristan. Extra special kudos is due to the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Vocal Program, who filled seemingly every square foot of stage for the 'Te Deum' at the close of Act 1, and demonstrated you don't need scenery to create a spectacle.
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It's worth noting that the day before, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus also beautifully performed Rachmaninoff's contemplative, joyous 'All-Night Vigil' as a prelude concert to Sutton Foster and Kelli O'Hara's fabulous evening with the Boston Pops in the Shed, and Ozawa Hall and the lawn behind it were crowded with attentive listeners. Almost every Broadway baby was a choir kid at some point.
Kelli O'Hara and Sutton Foster perform with the Boston Pops.
Hilary Scott
Sunday afternoon sweltered as piano diva Yuja Wang took the stage with Nelsons and the pre-professional ensemble Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra for Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, and to the audience (and the rapt throng of young musicians), she delivered dynamite.
Leading the student orchestra, Nelsons was visibly less free with his gestures than he is with the BSO, which seems to have mind-melded with him such that he can convey his intentions in ways opaque to outsiders. Wang is always a captivating performer, but there was something unusually elemental about her on Sunday afternoon; I spotted a few mouths on stage hanging open as she attacked the first movement's towering solo, her hands leaping through the score's twists and turns and attacking the keys with precise force. It was enough to drive all thoughts of the heat away. Not to leave without a parting encore, Wang threw down three before intermission; a Sibelius etude, a Schubert song, and a Horowitz 'Carmen' arrangement.
In the second half, as the story behind Berlioz's fever dream 'Symphonie fantastique' took its dark turn in the third movement, staff fanned out across the lawn ordering everyone to shelter in the Shed; there had been lightning spotted nearby. The sun was still shining at that point, but twenty minutes later, the wind shrieked behind the bells of the Witches' Sabbath before a deafening boom of thunder ushered in the 'Dies Irae' chant and the sky cracked open, drenching the chairs and coolers left on the lawn. No one could leave until the weather emergency lifted, and the TMC Orchestra deservedly basked in a full house's worth of applause.
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BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER ORCHESTRA
Tanglewood, Lenox. www.tanglewood.org
A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
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Tenor SeokJong Baek makes a stunning BSO debut in 'Tosca'
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up His phrasing in both of the character's big arias was supple and unforced, with no signs of strain, and his voice had a gorgeously gleaming resonant quality throughout the evening. Cavaradossi's big Act 2 moment, his extended cry of 'Vittoria, vittoria,' seared with raw defiance; triumphant while seemingly wavering on the edge of collapse. Baek also conveyed as much tender chemistry as the concert staging allowed with the Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais, the frequent BSO collaborator (and former wife of conductor Nelsons) who sang the title role. That the lovers ultimately meet tragic fates is no secret, but as they reached the apex of their act 3 duet, the ultimately futile plan to escape that of which they sang felt real enough to grasp, not simply a vain hope. Advertisement Baek is somewhat new to the tenor sphere, having originally trained as a baritone before transitioning to tenor during the height of the pandemic, when opera houses were closed. If he can consistently deliver performances of this quality and reliably follow through on his bookings, I predict full houses for him. Advertisement Baek's stunning performance was even more impressive given the two veterans with whom he shared star billing. Opolais performed the same role when the BSO did the opera's Act 2 in concert at Tanglewood in 2017, and she made a much stronger showing this time. She was unusually quiet in the first act, barely rising above the sound of the orchestra at some points, but she came back at full power for acts 2 and 3, limning 'Vissi d'arte' with silvery grace. Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel also returned from the 2017 Tanglewood cast; he has long counted Scarpia among his signature characters, and recently announced that he'd no longer be singing the role in staged performances of 'Tosca.' His voice is distinctly more weathered than it used to be, but Scarpia is maybe 90 percent acting, and those chops haven't gone anywhere. He didn't so much chew the scenery as devour it; sneering, leering, and purloining Tosca's scarf so he could conspicuously sniff it, he made for a power-drunk and easily detestable Scarpia. The supporting cast was also strong, from Neal Ferreira's brown-nosing Spoletta to Morris Robinson's puissant and panicked Angelotti and Patrick Carfizzi's pettily pious Sacristan. Extra special kudos is due to the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Vocal Program, who filled seemingly every square foot of stage for the 'Te Deum' at the close of Act 1, and demonstrated you don't need scenery to create a spectacle. Advertisement It's worth noting that the day before, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus also beautifully performed Rachmaninoff's contemplative, joyous 'All-Night Vigil' as a prelude concert to Sutton Foster and Kelli O'Hara's fabulous evening with the Boston Pops in the Shed, and Ozawa Hall and the lawn behind it were crowded with attentive listeners. Almost every Broadway baby was a choir kid at some point. Kelli O'Hara and Sutton Foster perform with the Boston Pops. Hilary Scott Sunday afternoon sweltered as piano diva Yuja Wang took the stage with Nelsons and the pre-professional ensemble Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra for Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, and to the audience (and the rapt throng of young musicians), she delivered dynamite. Leading the student orchestra, Nelsons was visibly less free with his gestures than he is with the BSO, which seems to have mind-melded with him such that he can convey his intentions in ways opaque to outsiders. Wang is always a captivating performer, but there was something unusually elemental about her on Sunday afternoon; I spotted a few mouths on stage hanging open as she attacked the first movement's towering solo, her hands leaping through the score's twists and turns and attacking the keys with precise force. It was enough to drive all thoughts of the heat away. Not to leave without a parting encore, Wang threw down three before intermission; a Sibelius etude, a Schubert song, and a Horowitz 'Carmen' arrangement. In the second half, as the story behind Berlioz's fever dream 'Symphonie fantastique' took its dark turn in the third movement, staff fanned out across the lawn ordering everyone to shelter in the Shed; there had been lightning spotted nearby. The sun was still shining at that point, but twenty minutes later, the wind shrieked behind the bells of the Witches' Sabbath before a deafening boom of thunder ushered in the 'Dies Irae' chant and the sky cracked open, drenching the chairs and coolers left on the lawn. No one could leave until the weather emergency lifted, and the TMC Orchestra deservedly basked in a full house's worth of applause. Advertisement BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER ORCHESTRA Tanglewood, Lenox. A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
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Andris Nelsons may have become a fitful, inconsistent music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but every once in a while, he proves that he has still got it. Such was the lesson on Saturday night at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home in the Berkshires, as Nelsons and a starry cast delivered a concert 'Tosca' of high intensity and even higher emotion. This Tanglewood season is a solid one, with the premiere of a new John Williams piano concerto written for Emanuel Ax on the agenda next weekend, a Gabriella Ortiz-curated Festival of Contemporary Music sprawling around the grounds at the same time, and the obligatory appearances of Yo-Yo Ma, famous friend of the orchestra, to come in August. New at Tanglewood this year: tastefully installed screens next to the Shed stage that show the musicians at work, and, by some miracle, enhanced cellphone service. Still unchanged: the humidity. But 'Tosca' was always likely to be a high point of the season, and it was. Opera has often brought out the best in Nelsons in Boston, and the closer to the most commonplace parts of the repertoire the work has been, the stronger the performance from him. Wagner transfixed him as a child, and it was at the Latvian National Opera that his career began to take off in his 20s. Now 46, he rarely looks more engaged on the podium than when he is supporting a singer in full flow. And for this Puccini, Nelsons had some singers of quality to support. Bryn Terfel sang his last staged Scarpia at the Met earlier this year, but he still brings unrivaled authority and conviction to a role that has defined his career. Has the passing of time brought a more vicious edge of desperation to his portrayal, as if an older Scarpia might feel as though this is his last, appalling chance to corner his prey, causing him to act with such depravity? Either way, Terfel's snarling chief of the Roman police remains a privilege to see. So, too, the glorious Cavaradossi of the Korean baritone-turned-tenor SeokJong Baek. Here, as at the Met last fall, his extraordinarily firm, high cries of 'Vittoria!' drew instant applause, and they were far from the only point at which this colossal voice, wielded by turns with machined precision and melting sensitivity, could have earned such approval. Nelsons continues to sustain the soprano Kristine Opolais, his former wife, at a difficult moment in her career as her voice declines. Her sickly Katarina Ismailova made sense in the Boston Symphony's performances of 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' last year, and this Tosca seemed similarly conceived to wring as much as dramatically possible from the sadly limited vocal resources she now has available to her. She has always been a compelling actor; trapped, fragile and honest, the result was a moving if far from musically convincing assumption of the title character. Dan Rigazzi's sensible concert staging smartly coordinated the central trio, the keenly taken minor roles (Patrick Carfizzi, a fine Sacristan), and what appeared to be most of the choral singers in western Massachusetts (the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Vocal Program). Having Spoletta (Neal Ferreira) search the rogues at the back of the orchestra for the rebel Angelotti (Morris Robinson) was one of several small but telling directorial touches. And the Boston Symphony itself? Making the orchestra the star of the operatic show, which is what concert performances do by raising the instrumentalists out of the pit, has its difficulties; let the orchestra loose, and the singers can be inaudible, but hold it back too much, and you start to question the point. Even Nelsons, with all his sympathy for vocal artists, typically struggles to get the balance right. Still, it was more than worthwhile to hear players like these in a score like this. Take the delightful woodwind scampering as the Sacristan fussed in the first act as an example, or the acidic, metallic slice of the cellos as they hinted at Cavaradossi's torture in the second, let alone the great floods of string tone that Nelsons was rightly happy to unleash as the score took melodic wing. It was hard not to wonder, watching Nelsons at work, if this is not what he should be doing all the time: polishing the classics to an admirable sheen at one of the great opera houses of old. Eleven years into his Boston posting, his tenure remains stalled. Even a Beethoven cycle this past January was erratic, its successes unquestionable, its misfires unaccountable. His interpretive diffidence lets soloists enjoy their spotlight. Yuja Wang was magnificently stylish on Sunday with the energetic trainees of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto, a piece whose dreamy flights and angular blasts might have been written specifically for her. But the same trait too frequently robs purely symphonic works of the vitality they need. Maybe, then, there was something to be read into the planned return of Esa-Pekka Salonen to the Boston Symphony the week before 'Tosca,' or more likely not: The incomparable Finn, now freed from the disasters unfolding at the San Francisco Symphony, has conducted only four programs with this ensemble in his entire career, the most recent more than a decade ago. Infer what you will, but the story was short. Salonen withdrew for personal reasons, and Thomas Adès stepped in. Adès has enjoyed a longstanding collaboration with the Boston Symphony, recording his Piano Concerto and 'Totentanz' with it and serving as its artistic partner for three years, but it has always felt as if a bit more could be made of the relationship. Best known as a composer, Adès continues to improve as a conductor, still reveling in the hidden details of the scores he admires, but more technically able now than before both to unearth them and to put them into context. On July 13, he offered Salonen's program unchanged, giving a forceful reading of Gabriella Smith's naturalistic 'Tumblebird Contrails,' a wonderfully creative accompaniment to Pekka Kuusisto's darkly introspective solo in the Sibelius Violin Concerto, as well as a thoroughly meticulous Sibelius Fifth Symphony that treated the piece as if it were radically new. All of which led to a fugitive thought, untethered to any present reality: If Adès led an orchestra, what might he achieve?
