Puccini’s Tosca was recorded for video last year at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in a production by Massimo Popolizio. It’s set in the 1930s but other than sets and costumes appropriate to that period it’s played dead straight. Although there’s some kind of mafia/fascisti vibe it’s not really explored and one really experiences it as a “traditional” Tosca. The 30s aesthetic though certainly suits Vanessa Goikoetxea who comes over as very glamorous.
The 2016 Salzburg recording of Gounod’s Faust is challenging. Perhaps the nine pages of the booklet given over to a concept discussion with the directors should have given me sufficient warning that this was not going to be Faust à la Met. It’s not. It’s extremely complex and I’m not sure I fully understand it or whether all the ideas work but I did find it fascinating visually and dramatically, and musically it’s top notch. That said, traditionalists can save themselves a trip to the ER by walking away now.
