On Wednesday night, we were transported to a church in Rome in 1800 for an Ellen Kent production of Tosca.

This is the passionate tale of singer Floria Tosca and her lover painter Mario Cavaradossi.

Cavaradossi is hiding something – political prisoner Cesare Angelotti, although Tosca thinks it’s a secret lover.

The police find out the painter is sheltering Angelotti, and this leads to Tosca being faced with making an impossible decision – lose her lover for good or spend a ‘vile’ night with chief of police Baron Scarpia.

Ultimately she takes another path, one which she hopes means she and the painter will walk off into the sunset together.

But it isn’t to be in this ill-fated love story, which includes murder and suicide and Tosca’s famous ‘kiss’.

The story was played out with passion by Alyona Kistenyova (Tosca) and Ruslan Zinevych (Cavaradossi), with menace by Vladimir Dragos as Scarpia (who even received boos at the end) and with some light relief from Valeriu Cojocaru as the sacristan, with support from students of Stagecoach Colchester.

All in all, it was an enjoyable night at the Regent and hopefully my first of many trips to the opera.

Nicola Warren