Maria Todaro
PRESS
" Todaro’s Covid-inspired take was set in a fascistic socially-distanced future,
where lovers dare not touch but Scarpia has the power to inflict bolts of violence and pain that shoot out from his hands. Tosca does him in with a ray gun, and, at the end, uses it on herself rather than take what would have been an impossible-to-stage leap off the low-lying performance platform. Tosca does not always lend itself to radical reimagining, but Todaro’s concept worked because she stayed true to the drama at its core"
Eric Myers- Opera -UK- November 2020
TThe" Anonymous Lover" by Joseph Bologne reopens the Minnesota Opera after 742 days closed.
"Those ambitions were more than fully realized by the imaginative, fairy-tale approach of director Maria Todaro"
By J.P. Furst, Opera News- In Review- February 5 2022
" Todaro had Cavaradossi confined in a prison space crated by four neon lights, so that he and Tosca could not touch during their short-lived reunion. In keeping with the futuristic setting and the need to maintain onstage social distancing, Scarpia's villain had some kind of superpowers that could down his enemies at a gesture and keep away anyone who approached him.
Tosca’s famous “kiss” was administered by ray-gun, excitingly repeated at the final “Muori!”; the diva kept the ray-gun with her and turned it on herself at opera's end, since a leap was impossible in the staging's configuration. The use of Virtual Reality technology to create a Blade Runner-style boffo visual for the ensemble ending Act I could only be seen on the screens, not onstage. It looked very promising..This was a hybrid, novel experience but celebration was warranted: a live American audience enjoyed a spirited live Tosca."
David Shengold, Opera News Sept. 2020
https://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2020/9/Reviews/KINGSTON,_NY__Tosca.html
September 2020 — Vol. 85, No. 3
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Atlanta Opera highlights Black Baroque composer with ‘Anonymous Lover’
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By Jon Ross- the Atlanta Constitution - March 20 2023
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By Afton Wooten-Operwire - March 21 2023
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Stage director Maria Todaro discusses Joseph Bologne’s “The Anonymous Lover”
By Melinda Bargreen - Earrelevant - March 27 2023
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WSB Perspetives Radio Interview / Podacst about Joseph Bologne's opera
Host: Condace Pressley
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" “Carmen” features great performances of memorable numbers and Todaro’s thoughtful direction offers a new twist, not just heating up an old classic, but rather lighting a fire for the whole company to carry forward."
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John Lamb, Inforum. Apr 13th 2019
"The combination of music director Wroe and artistic and stage director Maria Todaro could not have resulted in a better amalgamation of music and drama. The true genius of this production lay in its simplicity — Todaro created a believable and interesting set and staging for the three acts and various scenes of the opera, utilizing not only the stage itself, but the entire hall including the main aisle and the balcony of the church where various characters would appear, walking or running through the audience in immediate and thrilling connection with them."
-DAVID GERALD PALLADINO-SINCLAIR, NJ Arts, March 22, 2018
"As stage director, Todaro gave the character of Carmen a feminist take. Rather than the evil temptress who causes the downfall of an innocent soldier, she was presented as an independent, courageous woman doomed by an intolerant patriarchy. It helped that Todaro set the opera in the period of the Spanish Civil War, and Carmen’s smuggler compatriots were freedom fighters opposing the Fascists. More than one audience member questioned whether using sexual allure as power is really a feminist approach to life, but, well, the opera was written in the 19th century."
-Violet Snow, HV1, August 09, 2018