She conjures a Puccini that feels wedded to the action - the music cries in alarm, beats like a desperate heart, keens like a lost soul.

Conductor Speranza Scappucci also brings a brooding sensibility that feels close to the heart and soul of the story. The intimacy doesn’t stop with McSweeny’s interest in what makes us messily human. And if Cavaradossi has some operatic swagger, his teary cri de coeur as he faces death convinces. Scarpia may be all about trapping his prey, but his composure slips just enough. Tosca has attitude, but she gets visibly unnerved. Tosca may be a diva, Cavaradossi a passionate artist, and Baron Scarpia a textbook villain, but the interpretations here have a convincing urgency. It starts with the deft focus of director Ethan McSweeny, who keeps the drama grand but eminently human. If there is less of the sometimes breathtaking spectacle of the WNO’s 2011 production, this is Puccini with atmosphere and intimacy. These are painted sets (provided by the Seattle Opera) to savor - the architecture is rendered with an immense attention to detail, the final scene with its starry night and looming statue is pure magic.

Like stepping into the murky depths of an antique painting, the Washington National Opera’s Tosca (★★★★) gorgeously evokes cavernous candle-lit interiors and Machiavellian cruelties. Keri Alkema as Tosca and Alan Held as Scarpia in WNO’s Tosca - Photo: Scott Suchman

Seattle opera tosca