Nazi-themed opera productions are something of a cliché, but Australian actor and director John Bell’s production of Tosca for Opera Australia, first staged in 2013, is proof that it can be done thoughtfully and powerfully.

^{Teodor Ilincăi as Cavaradossi, Ainhoa Arteta as Tosca}

Bell cleverly shifts the action from 1800 to German-occupied Rome in 1943, the curtain opening on Michael Scott-Mitchell’s cavernous chapel set, columns and white marble from floor to ceiling, the walls decked with artworks and gilding. The tryptich of sets themselves tell the story of Nazi occupation, from Chapel, through the black marble Nazi boardroom in the Farnese Palace, to the concrete and barbed wire of Castel Sant’Angelo, while Teresa Negroponte’s costumes complete the picture with military uniforms and muted 40s fashion across various socio-economic groups.

Romanian tenor Teodor Ilincăi is uncomplicated and noble – almost baby-faced – as the painter Cavaradossi, with an athletic, penetrating tenor capable of ear-ringing volume. Spanish soprano Ainhoa Arteta, on the other hand, is a complex Tosca. Flirty and playfully jealous – tugging on Ilincăi’s scarf – in the first act, she exudes dignified composure in the second, her molten soprano pouring out into...