Puccini's Tosca
The Gramophone Choice
Maria Callas sop Tosca Giuseppe di Stefano ten Cavaradossi Tito Gobbi bar Scarpia Franco Calabrese bass Angelotti Melchiorre Luise bass Sacristan Angelo Mercuriali ten Spoletta Alvaro Cordova treb Shepherd Boy Dario Caselli bass Sciarrone Dario Caselli bass Gaoler Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan / Victor de Sabata
EMI 585644-2 (110’ · ADD · N/S). Buy from Amazon
Naxos 8 110256-2 (109’ · ADD · N/S). Buy from Amazon
Regis RRC2065 (108’ · ADD · N/S). Buy from Amazon
Recorded 1953
In this remastering of one of the classic performances of the gramophone, one of Walter Legge’s masterpieces as a creative recording producer, you barely miss stereo recording. With offstage effects for example – so important in Puccini – precisely placed, there is a sense of presence normally reserved for twin-channel reproduction. In the long duet between Tosca and Cavaradossi in Act 3 you can even detect a difference of placing between the two singers, Callas set at a slight distance, though whether or not to offset a microphone problem with so biting a voice one can only guess. The immediacy is astonishing, and the great moment of the execution with trombones rasping and the fusillade reproduced at a true fortissimo has never been represented on record with greater impact. The contrasts of timbre are beautifully brought out – amazingly wide with Gobbi as with Callas, and with di Stefano producing his most honeyed tones. Though there is less space in the Milan acoustic than we have grown used to in the age of stereo, the separation of voices and orchestra is excellent, with the strands of the accompaniment to ‘Vissi d’arte’, for example, finely clarified. Only in the big Te Deum scene at the end of Act 1 is there a hint of overloading.
Wonderful as Gobbi’s and di Stefano’s performances are, and superbly dramatic as de Sabata’s conducting is, it is the performance of the unique Callas in the title-role that provides the greatest marvel, and here more than ever one registers the facial changes implied in each phrase, with occasional hints of a chuckle (usually ironic) more apparent than on LP. A truly Great Recording of the (last) Century which is available in numerous guises. Naxos’s transfer is particularly impressive.
Additional Recommendations
Angela Gheorghiu sop Tosca Roberto Alagna ten Cavaradossi Ruggero Raimondi bar Scarpia Maurizio Muraro bass Angelotti Enrico Fissore bass Sacristan David Cangelosi ten Spoletta Sorin Coliban bass Sciarrone Gwynne Howell bass Gaoler James Savage-Hanford treb Shepherd Boy Tiffin Children’s Choir; Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Antonio Pappano
EMI 557173-2 (114‘ · DDD). Buy from Amazon
Antonio Pappano’s conducting alone would make this a Tosca of distinction, whether in big matters (the voicing of those snarling opening chords) or tiny ones: the carefully measured pause after Tosca asks Cavaradossi whether he’s happy at the prospect of stealing away to their villa – he’s preoccupied and hasn’t really been listening. The orchestral sound is splendidly full whenever it needs to be, but never at the expense of fine detail, and Pappano’s pacing is admirable: the Act 2 dialogue between Tosca and Scarpia, for example, inexorably builds in tension instead of being feverish from the outset, as is too often the case.
Gheorghiu’s Tosca responds to this. She’s impetuous, nervously intense, but capable also of a lovely, quiet purity). She’s a very complete Tosca indeed, and intelligently capable of bringing her own perceptions to the role. After the killing of Scarpia, her ‘And before him all Rome trembled!’ is neither triumphant nor melodramatic but wondering and fearful: she’s aghast at what she has done and already suspects that this isn’t the end of the matter. Her ‘Vissi d’arte’ is most beautiful, her intimacy in the first scene with Cavaradossi tender and touching.
In that passage Alagna responds to her delicacy, and in Act 3 he receives her acting lesson with a touch of humour. Elsewhere he’s in fine, mostly full voice, nowhere near as subtle as Gheorghiu. His tone hardens under pressure once or twice, and his mezza voce can sound thin, but he’s never short of vocal glamour: a creditable but not especially interesting Cavaradossi.
Raimondi’s Scarpia, on the other hand, is very interesting. The quieter shades of his voice now need careful management (and besides, it’s darker and softer-grained than a true dramatic baritone), but although he may initially seem to lack authority, his reading is full of finesse.
A very fine Tosca, in short, not quite in the same league as the celebrated Callas/di Stefano/Gobbi/de Sabata (see above), but giving all the others an exciting run for their money. The recording is all that could be wished.
Montserrat Caballé sop Tosca José Carreras ten Cavaradossi Ingvar Wixell bar Scarpia Samuel Ramey bass Angelotti Piero De Palma ten Spoletta Domenico Trimarchi bar Sacristan William Elvin bar Sciarrone, Gaoler Ann Murray mez Shepherd Boy Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden / Sir Colin Davis
Philips Duo 438 359-2PM2 (118‘ · ADD · S). Recorded 1976. Buy from Amazon
Caballé’s Tosca is one of the most ravishing on record, with scarcely a less than beautiful note throughout, save where an occasional phrase lies a touch low for her. She doesn’t quite have the ‘prima donna’ (in quotes, mind) temperament for the part (the coquettish malice of ‘but make her eyes black!’, as Tosca forgives Cavaradossi for using a blonde stranger as model for his altarpiece of the Magdalen, isn’t in Caballé’s armoury; either that or she knows that her voice would sound arch attempting it), but her portrayal is much more than a display of lovely sounds. She’s precise with words, takes minute care over phrasing, and she knows to a split second where dead-centre precise pitching becomes crucial. Carreras’s Cavaradossi is one of his best recorded performances: the voice untarnished, the line ample, and if he’s tempted at times to over-sing, one forgives the fault for the sake of his poetic ardour. Wixell is the fly in the ointment: a capable actor and an intelligent artist, but his gritty timbre lacks centre and thus the necessary dangerous suavity.
Davis’s direction is flexible but dramatic and finely detailed, and the secondary singers are all very good. The recording, despite some rather unconvincing sound effects, still sounds very well, with space around the voices and a natural balance between them and the orchestra. It’s pity Philips should have saved space by omitting the libretto.
Leontyne Price sop Tosca Giuseppe di Stefano ten Cavaradossi Giuseppe Taddei bar Scarpia Carlo Cava bass Angelotti Piero De Palma ten Spoletta Fernando Corena bass Sacristan Leonardo Monreale bass Sciarrone Alfredo Mariotti bass Gaoler Herbert Weiss treb Shepherd Boy Vienna State Opera Chorus; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Herbert von Karajan
Decca Legends 475 7522DOR2 (114‘ · ADD · T/t) Recorded 1962. Buy from Amazon
Karajan’s classic version of Tosca was originally issued on the RCA label but produced by John Culshaw of Decca at a vintage period. The first surprise is to find the sound satisfying in almost every way, with a firm sense of presence and with each voice and each section of the orchestra cleanly focused within the stereo spectrum. Less surprising is the superiority of this version as an interpretation. Karajan was always a master Puccinian, and this set was a prime example. A typical instance comes at the end of Act 1, where Scarpia’s Te Deum is taken daringly slowly, and conveys a quiver of menace that no other version begins to match. An extra nicety is the way that in the instrumental introduction to Cavaradossi’s first aria, ‘Recondita armonia’, he treats it as the musical equivalent of a painter mixing his colours, the very point Puccini no doubt had in mind. Karajan, though individual, and regularly challenging his singers, is most solicitous in following the voices. It’s fascinating to note what expressive freedom he allows his tenor, Giuseppe di Stefano, and he makes Leontyne Price relax, giving a superb assumption of the role, big and rich of tone; the voice is the more beautiful for not being recorded too closely.
DVD Recommendations
Catherine Malfitano sop Tosca Richard Margison ten Cavaradossi Bryn Terfel bar Scarpia Mario Luperi bass Angelotti John Graham-Hall ten Spoletta Enrico Fissore bass Sacristan Jef van Wersch bass Sciarrone Ton Kemperman bass Gaoler Andreas Burkhart treb Shepherd Boy Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam / Riccardo Chailly
Stage director Nikolaus Lehnhoff
Video director Misjel Vermeiren
Decca 074 3201DH (137’ · NTSC · 16:9 · PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 · 0).
Recorded live 1998. Buy from Amazon
This is a ‘strong’ Tosca, using the adjective in the sense in which it is sometimes applied to language (meaning ‘thoroughly disgusting’). But then, you might say, that’s Tosca being true to itself: it tells of a thoroughly disgusting state of affairs, when a man can be arrested by party thugs, taken off to headquarters for torture and summary execution, and a woman is at the mercy of a dictator’s lust. Its official description is ‘a melodrama in three acts’, and a melodrama this is, with jeering villain, manly hero and distraught heroine. And as though to drive the point home, Tosca acts and is costumed and made up to look like an old-time star of the silent screen. To that extent we know it’s make-believe. There are also scenery and props to persuade us to take it for real. And the sets are heavy with symbols suggesting ‘significance’. But yes, it’s ‘strong’: a good Tosca, one might have to concede.
Certainly it has a good, no, a magnificent Scarpia. Terfel is in fine voice, and his acting and singing are as one. In both, his style is forceful without exaggeration or over-emphasis. Richard Margison is a likeable Cavaradossi, his well-placed tenor reliably meeting the challenges of the role, and he himself, never a conventionally romantic figure, gaining sympathy notwithstanding. And Malfitano, a Tosca without any special vocal allure, exercises her personality and compels attention. A gaunt, sonorous Angelotti, a Sacristan who huffs and puffs effectively, and a Spoletta even nastier than his master, help to fill in the background. The Concertgebouw, subordinated in balance to the singers, play well under Riccardo Chailly’s enlightened direction.
Maria Guleghina sop Tosca Salvatore Licitra ten Cavaradossi Leo Nucci bar Scarpia Giovanni Battista Parodi bass Angelotti Ernesto Gavazzi ten Spoletta Alfredo Mariotti bass Sacristan Silvestro Sammaritano bass Sciarrone Ernesto Panariello bass Gaoler Virginia Barchi treb Shepherd Boy Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan / Riccardo Muti
Stage director Luca Ronconi
Video director Pierre Cavasillas
EuroArts 205 0588 (121‘ · 16:9 · 2.0, 5.1 & DTS 5.1 · 0 · N/s). Recorded live 2000. Buy from Amazon
In March 2000 Muti conducted a staged performance of Tosca for the first time, only the second Puccini opera he’d conducted at La Scala. As this live-recorded DVD powerfully reveals, he emerged as the hero of a great occasion. The high-voltage electricity is unflagging, with the drama timed to perfection, the whole magnetically compelling from first to last. It makes one regret that he’s so rarely turned to Puccini. But as music director at La Scala, 1986-2005, he knows unerringly how to pace his singers, letting them phrase expansively where needed, yet holding the structure firmly together.
Maria Guleghina makes a formidable Tosca, very believable in her jealousy, using a rich tonal range, with just a touch of vinegar at the top. She’s at her finest in the great scene with Scarpia in Act 2, leading up to a radiant account of ‘Vissi d’arte’ and a chilling murder, even though the very ordinary dinner-knife she uses looks an unlikely weapon. The veteran Leo Nucci, tall, thin and mean, is most compelling as the police chief, at times a smiling villain, though the voice has its occasional roughness. As Cavaradossi, Salvatore Licitra may be an unromantic figure, and he’s heavy-handed at the start in ‘Recondita armonia’, but he develops from there, and in Act 3 he sings superbly with fine shading of tone for ‘È lucevan le stelle’ and the duet with Tosca.
Luca Ronconi’s production, well-directed for television by Pierre Cavasillas, consistently heightens the dramatic conflicts. The sets of Margherita Palli, as redesigned by Lorenza Cantini, bring a surreal contradiction between realism and fantasy, looking like conventional sets that have been hit by an earthquake, with uprights at all angles. Sections of scenery are retained from act to act, with an increasing pile of debris left behind. That makes the battlements of the Castel Sant’Angelo look like a bombsite, which Tosca has to climb before flinging herself to her death. The idea, presumably, is to reflect the distorted mind of Scarpia, though in this verismo opera pure realism might be said to work best of all.
Renata Tebaldi sop Tosca Eugene Tobin ten Cavaradossi George London bar Scarpia Gustav Grefe bass Angelotti Hubert Buchta ten Spoletta Heinz Cramer bass Sacristan Siegfried Fischer-Sandt bass Sciarrone Wilhelm Baur bass Gaoler Claudia Hellmann treb Shepherd Boy Stuttgart State Opera Chorus and Orchestra / Franco Patanè
Stage and Film directors Uncredited
Video Artists International VAIDVD4217 (126‘ · 4:3 Black & White · 1.0 · 0). Recorded live 1961. Buy from Amazon
Coming to this historic video recording after Muti’s La Scala version is to register a quite different operatic world. Recorded in black and white at a performance in the Stuttgart Staatsoper in June 1961, it offers a sound, conventional production with in-period costumes and realistic if symmetrical sets by Max Fritzsche. The film direction too is highly conventional.
This DVD is specially valuable for Renata Tebaldi’s assumption of the title-role. So dominant in our memories has Maria Callas’s characterisation become that we tend to forget that the role of Tosca was just as central in the repertory of her great rival of the time, Tebaldi, whose firm, creamy tones, perfectly controlled, could hardly be more sharply contrasted with the thrillingly individual, if at times flawed, singing of Callas. Tebaldi seemed to represent the essence of the prima donna, grand in a traditional way, and who better to play the role of Tosca?
There’s ample evidence here of that commanding security in the role, with Tebaldi in 1961 still at her peak. Yet as recorded in limited mono sound, with voices well forward of the orchestra, at times there’s an untypical edge on the creamy tone at the top. True to form, Tebaldi rises magnificently to the challenge of ‘Vissi d’arte’ in Act 2, with fine shading of tone and flawless legato in that moment of repose. That said, one has to note that in her acting this Tosca isn’t so much passionate as stately.
Eugene Tobin as Cavaradossi, like many tenors, starts lustily, and then gets more expressive as he goes along, never betraying signs of strain. George London makes a handsome Scarpia, imperious and vehement both in his acting and in his singing. Yet as so often in recordings, his pitching is often vague. Franco Patanè as conductor is at times over-emphatic, again presenting a conventional view, and rarely conveying the sort of magnetism that makes the Muti performance so gripping. Worth buying to hear Tebaldi in her prime.
