\n<\/p>\n
Near the time of his achievement in the Met\u2019s \u201cRing,\u201d in which he managed to invest the faceless staging with vividness, he began little by little to curtail his opera engagements, particularly productions in the United States that sent him away from home in Wales for long stretches. This cleared time for more concerts, and special projects like a semi-staged \u201cSweeney Todd\u201d<\/a> alongside Emma Thompson that originated with the New York Philharmonic in 2014, then traveled to London.<\/p>\n Terfel was set to come back to the Met as Scarpia when its ornate current \u201cTosca\u201d production, directed by David McVicar, opened in late 2017. But after arriving in New York to start rehearsals, he dropped out<\/a> to have a polyp removed from his vocal cords. In early 2020, he was supposed to star in the Met\u2019s first new staging in over three decades of Wagner\u2019s \u201cDer Fliegende Holl\u00e4nder,\u201d but fell in Spain, broke his ankle and had to withdraw<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe seemed to be cursed by the gods,\u201d Gelb said.<\/p>\n Terfel appeared<\/a> in one of the company\u2019s pandemic-era video recitals, beaming in from a cathedral in Wales for a warmhearted holiday program<\/a> in December 2020. But he was eager to return to the theater, even if it took a few more years before these \u201cTosca\u201d performances could come together.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want it to end with a tri-tib break,\u201d he said, referring to the triple fracture of his ankle that kept him out of \u201cHoll\u00e4nder.\u201d<\/p>\n Rehearsing at the Met last week, Terfel was walked through McVicar\u2019s production, his blend of suavity and menace still potent. \u201cYou can play Scarpia with a smile on his face,\u201d he said, \u201cand then, of course, when people are not looking, that snarl can be very, very prominent.\u201d<\/p>\n He stuck broadly to the blocking while constantly trying out new ideas, exploring the character and finding unexpected solutions to small challenges \u2014 like where Tosca\u2019s left hand should go to distract him from the knife in her right.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n