"Slack presented a Tosca, before she becomes a tragic figure, as Cavaradossi’s insecure, girlish lover, coaxing him to include her dark eyes in his painting of the Madonna. Their opening scene is the only light moment in the otherwise bloody matter, and Slack drew laughs as she teasingly nudged her lover toward a concession. She is the heroine of act two, as she resists Scarpia’s devious effort to win her sexual consent. In her confrontation with Scarpia, in her moments of sheer panic, Slack sang the high C’s Puccini gave her to slash the air in desperation penetratingly, as sharp-edged a sound as the knife’s edge she later plunged into Scarpia in the climax of the act."

OPERA CANADA