F
reddie De Tommaso’s brain is hurting. Though the celebrated operatic tenor, 32, has sung the role of Mario Cavaradossi — artist, political dissident and tragic hero of Puccini’s operatic thriller Tosca — “maybe 40 times” already in his short career, this time, it’s a particular challenge.
He is developing a new production of the classic opera with Oliver Mears, the director of opera for the Royal Opera House (ROH). “You get so used to doing it your way, and breaking muscle memory can be very hard.
“If you’ve played golf for 20 years, and you’ve got comfortable with your swing, and then you go to a coach, and they say, ‘Let’s try this, change your grip’, it’s hard to get your body to accept that we’re doing it differently now. But that’s part of the fun.”
He can’t tell me much about the new production when we meet in Covent Garden. Mears’s approach to this tale of fierce love and political corruption will remain secret until opening night, but without tying himself in too many knots De Tommaso compares it to the two Tosca productions that the ROH has staged before.
