FM Opera's twisting 'Tosca' spills the blood

FARGO — Halloween traditions usually involve dressing up in costumes, carving pumpkins, eating candy and watching a scary or not-so-scary movie. Over the last decade, the Fargo-Moorhead area has added another feature to the spooky season calendar: opera. The Fargo-Moorhead Opera usually has its first show of the season in the last week of October, and the productions have ranged from the frightening Poe Project — mini operas based on Edgar Allen Poe stories — to the fantastical — a steampunk take on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart s The Magic Flute. Its latest production, Giacomo Puccini s Tosca, which opened Friday night at Festival Concert Hall, North Dakota State University, sprays blood across the stage with a higher body count than some horror movies. Of course, since it s an opera, you re going for the singing and that is this show s strength. Heather Hjelle makes her proper FM Opera debut in the title role, a beautiful and talented singer prone to fits of je