The first notices for English National Opera’s new Tosca are in, and the critics part company sharply. Annilese Miskimmon, ENO’s artistic director, moves Puccini’s thriller out of Napoleonic Rome and into a concert hall in an unnamed European country at war, where a police state confiscates instruments and smashes a piano. Theatre Weekly and LondonTheatre.co.uk find it thrilling and timely; Bachtrack, musicOMH and BroadwayWorld think the concept swamps the drama. Every critic finds something to like in Axelle Fanyo’s Tosca, two of the harshest reviews still praise Ben Glassberg’s conducting, and Christopher Purves’s Scarpia is where opinion divides most.
3.1 / 5 from 7 criticsThe verdict: seven reviews in so far, every one of them rated: one five-star notice, two at four, one at three and three at two, an average of 3.1 out of 5. That middling figure describes nobody’s actual evening. The warm reviews take Miskimmon’s concert hall as a sharp image of art under a police state; the cool ones find Rosanna Vize’s vast set and a run of awkward stage business working against the drama. Even Bachtrack and musicOMH, the two sternest, praise Ben Glassberg and the ENO Orchestra, and all seven find something to admire in Axelle Fanyo’s Tosca.
What are critics saying about Tosca?
Theatre Weekly
“a brilliantly reimagined production”
Reviewer: Stephen Gilchrist
Stephen Gilchrist arrives as a would-be librettist of a political opera himself and leaves entirely won over. He credits Amanda Holden’s translation, the new setting and Miskimmon’s direction together with keeping even a seasoned Tosca-goer on the edge of the seat.
“as ‘a thriller’ it delivers with punch, power and performances that must rank it among the great Toscas.”
For him Fanyo owns the title role, Purves is a sly, Iago-like Scarpia and the lovers have real chemistry. His one quibble is the religious shrine sitting in a concert hall.
LondonTheatre.co.uk
“This thrilling new take on Puccini's opera is powerfully resonant”
Reviewer: Cheryl Markosky
Cheryl Markosky watches the evening as a spy thriller, and means it as a compliment. She waves away purist objections to the modern setting, which she thinks could as easily be the Balkans of the 1980s as Ukraine today.
“this take on a timeless tale about love, power and sacrifice feels fresh and resonant”
Purves’s scene-stealing villain is her standout, with praise too for Fanyo’s ENO debut, for Chaz’men Williams-Ali once he warms up in Act III, and for young Elliot Michael as the shepherd boy.
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Reviewer: René Weis
René Weis thinks the concert hall works as a metaphor, a modern cousin of Jonathan Miller’s fascist-era staging for the same company, though he notes that few concert halls have a chapel for a fugitive to hide in.
“Here, music and art stand on the frontline in the struggle against tyranny, censorship and state violence.”
He hears a sublime “Vissi d’arte” from Fanyo, rates Purves’s Scarpia highly on both acting and singing, and admires Glassberg’s orchestra. Only the children’s chorus strikes him as oddly cheerful for so dark a production.
The Reviews Hub
“Power outage”
Reviewer: Maryam Philpott
Maryam Philpott likes the thinking behind the move to a dying regime around 1980, and the way it sharpens the triangle between the lovers and Scarpia. Her problem is the set, a huge pale hall in which two or three singers are too often left fighting the space.
“a fine idea overpowered by a stalled and bland set design that leaches its power.”
Purves is, for her, the one performer who masters the room, with a Scarpia of genuine, tormented desire; Fanyo and Williams-Ali sing well but are sometimes covered by the orchestra.
Bachtrack
“A village hall Tosca at English National Opera”
Reviewer: Mark Pullinger
Mark Pullinger agrees that art under state pressure is a timely subject, for ENO of all companies, but finds it handled clumsily, and asks what a shrine and a Madonna mural are doing in a secular hall. Moments meant to be tragic draw laughter from the stalls.
“This staging is nothing radical. It’s just the operatic equivalent of a village hall pantomime.”
The music fares better. He rates Glassberg’s conducting highly and hears Fanyo sing with passion and a sincere “Vissi d’arte”, while Purves gets by more on charisma than on voice.
BroadwayWorld
“Bloodless, metaphorically and literally, production is lost in too many contradictions”
Reviewer: Gary Naylor
Gary Naylor sees Soviet-era bleakness in the design and a production aimed squarely at the present, but argues that its reluctance to show violence leaves a famously brutal opera feeling tame.
“this one feels a little too distant from its 126 year old roots to capture the opera's shattering power.”
He enjoys Fanyo’s lively, flirtatious heroine and the downstage “Vissi d’arte”, but finds Williams-Ali’s painter oddly passive and Purves’s Scarpia closer to comic than monstrous.
musicOMH
“A spectacular misfire at ENO”
Reviewer: Keith McDonnell
Keith McDonnell has seen every ENO Tosca since Jonathan Miller’s and ranks this, the sixth, last of all. Updating is not his complaint; the stage business is, from a chorus that buries the Act II confrontation to a corpse stowed in a double bass case.
“It was a musical performance that deserved a far better production.”
He is hard on the singing too, finding Purves short of vocal weight and Williams-Ali miscast, with Fanyo committed but tiring in the final act. Glassberg and the orchestra are all he would keep.
Best of Theatre published the first production photographs on opening day, in First look at Axelle Fanyo in ENO’s new Tosca, and set out the cast and dates in Everything you need to know about Tosca at the London Coliseum. Miskimmon’s companion piece, Adriana Mater, opens at the Coliseum on 28 November, and the latest critics’ digest gathers the notices for Carmen at the Royal Opera House.
Tosca is booking at the London Coliseum until Friday 11 December 2026.
