If she looks rather mature for the role of the flashing-eyed young opera diva, she gives a confident performance, full of grand gestures but not without nuance. Giovanna Casolla is a classic old-school Tosca. While he brings little that's fresh to the staging, his recycling of old ideas steered clear of melodrama and never embarrassed itself. Bernard Uzan's stage direction was literal almost to a fault. The handsome sets by Andrew Long (evocatively lit by Guy Simard) showed the same marriage of realistic detail and mammoth scale. His voice, grainy and pitch-dark, is like a cannon, capable of a seamless Italianate line but boasting prodigious power. With his bearlike frame and refreshingly natural acting, Delavan brings an effective mix of thuggishness and oily charm to the part of the chief of police, Scarpia. The Baltimore Opera's new production of Puccini's "Tosca," which opened Saturday at the Lyric Opera House, proves a splendid vehicle for his talents. Mark Delavan is quickly becoming one of the most important baritones on the American music scene.
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