Tosca review – ENO’s new staging abandons Puccini’s realism for baffling and near-constant violence

Coliseum, LondonAnnilese Miskimmon’s new production of Puccini’s complex drama unmoors it from its church and state settings, but there are few gains, only losses in her radical reading. Christopher Purves’ brutish Scarpia, however, is terrificFour years since English National Opera unveiled its previous Tosca (a hyper-stylised affair directed by Christof Loy), the curtain goes up on another new production, this…