The opening night audience at South Texas Lyric Opera's production of Tosca at the McAllen Civic Center marked the opera's success with a long, standing ovation.  Unlike many opera productions the ovation was not just for the show.  It was for the community groups that pitched in to make the opera a reality.  Applause was for the children's chorus from Freddy Gonzales Elementary, sets built by the construction trades classes at Rio Grande City High School, and all the sponsors that helped to underwrite nearly 70 percent of the show's cost.  STLO is a product of the community and the community had ample reason to celebrate itself.

Tosca premiered in Rome in 1900 and is set in 1800, but there is nothing dated about the interplay of wills between the three main characters-Tosca, Mario, and Scarpia.  Tosca, a singer, loves Mario, a painter.  Mario favors political changes and the brutal police chief Scarpia is sworn to uphold the status quo.  These intentions are worked out through a three-act plotline where Mario is captured and tortured by Scarpia. Tosca agrees to give herself to Scarpia if he will release Mario.  After sealing Mario's release, Tosca murders Scarpia.  She goes to the prison to collect Mario after what she believes is a mock execution and finds him dead.  In anguish, she leaps to her death off Castel Sant' Angelo.  This rather dramatic ending prompted Joseph Kerman in Opera and Drama to call Tosca  a "shabby little shocker."  Epithets aside, Tosca is the eighth most performed opera in North America.

A successful Tosca is about successful singing and acting.  Edlyn de Oliveira was a luminous Tosca.  Her soprano is capable of both vulnerability (Vissi d'arte) and sweeping power (Ah, cessate il martir).  Oliveira's voice, despite the dramatic soprano demands placed on it by this role, was never allowed to sound stressed.  Her acting revealed a breadth of personality to Tosca that made her more sympathetic to the audience.  A particular moment was her teasing Mario to paint the eyes of the Madonna black like hers.  Eric Ashcraft was a believable Mario.  His rich, full voiced tenor easily made its way to the back of the hall.  Recondita armonia and E luceven le stelle were warmly received.  Lawrence Harris was a commanding force of evil as Scarpia.  His voluminous bass-baritone was at one moment conniving and persuasive, then cruel and brutal.  His vocal characterization was reinforced with body postures reflecting his mood:  alert and erect when commanding, writhing and sinewy when depraved.  Comprimarios were well sung and acted.  Andrew Broadaway was appropriately desperate as Angelotti. Christopher Harrison was thoughtful and funny as the Sacristan.  Eduardo Kremer, Luis Alfonso Lopez, and Alfonso Uribe sang and acted well as Scarpia's minions.  The STLO opera chorus and the Freddy Gonzales Children's Chorus sang very well.  The children were charming and energetic as they delivered first class singing in the opening act.

Marc Verzatt, a very experienced operatic director, provided the stage movement for the show.  Many scenes showed thoughtful consideration of the composer's intentions and a skillful execution.  However, an opera traditionalist might find Tosca's singing of Vissi d'arte  while prone atop a desk as Scarpia apparently slept in a chair behind her to be unusual.  This was made even more unusual because moments before, Scarpia was attempting to rape Tosca on the same desk.

The other physical aspects of the show reflected the budget of a community production.  Stock costumes were ably combined to best affect by Edinir de Oliveira.  Sets were designed by David Munoz which reflected the church, Scarpia's apartment, and Castel Sant' Angelo.  Traditional opera fans might find the expressionistic painting of sets to be at odds with the realistic aesthetic of verismo opera.

Mazias de Oliveira, founder of the company, led an able orchestra of 38 to a realization of the Puccini score.  Puccini was noted for placing the emotional underpinnings of the drama in the orchestra.  A noted Hollywood composer, Erich Korngold, once said, "Tosca is the best film score ever written."  With this heavy responsibility, Oliveira conducted with a real sense of the dramatic pacing and emotional dynamic.  The orchestra was less effective in places with thin orchestration, and ensemble was lacking between stage and the pit as evidenced by very anxious looks from the singers on occasion.

Opening nights are all about finding out what can go wrong, and trying to get them fixed for the next performance.  This opening had its share of problems that detracted little from the overall success of the production.  Programs didn't come until after the first act. The synopsis of the opera appearing in the program was copied from Wikipedia and used without citation.  (A production representing this much work deserves a learned, freshly written synopsis.)  Surtitles were not bright enough to be easily read.  Announcements were made from stage before and after the production.  Curtain calls were slow and apparently unplanned.

The South Texas Lyric Opera has produced a successful Tosca that shows the high level of artistic aspirations of this community.  The community deserves to applaud itself for bringing this production to the public, and the public should understand that supporting these productions is the only way to assure more in the future.