DC THEATER ARTS: 

This is a Tosca to die for. … Director Louisa Proske, who hails from Berlin, knows well the scarred history of her own country’s not-so-distant past and has brought her considerable forces together to get a bead on questions at the heart of this opera. What do we do in the face of chaos and evil? What should artists do so as not to collude? And what role can they play to resist, help lead us through, and, to quote Meacham again, find “our better angels”?

REACTION:

Louisa Proske, Director of Puccini’s Tosca at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival, drove the audience into a state of profound shock. … Proske had recaptured the sense of the unexpected that must have gripped audiences at the premiere in Rome, 14th January 1900. … Proske has a knack of bringing a fresh touch to opera while remaining faithful to the original score and libretto. No distracting, Regietheater self-indulgence. Her Tosca was set close to the present day, but with an atmosphere of corruption that today’s audience can understand only too well.

MIDBROW:

This is opera at its finest, from the breathtaking music to the lighting that paints the stage red in rage, lust, and catastrophe.