Puccini's Tosca

[Salome]

   


Are Karajan and Price about to pash in this picture ?

[zamyrabyrd]

I just had a lucky listen with the score to the Tosca recording of 1953 with de Sabata,  di Stefano and Callas. Thanks for the lead—it's everything you said and even more.  To compare with the Traviata of the same year, the voice is so different in this role, like another woman. Di Stefano was amazing, especially in the last act where he goes back and forth from a fil di voce to piena voce. Usually the "E lucevan" is belted out from beginning to end.  It's so much harder to walk that tightrope of sound. Bravo for him and also de Sabata, yes indeed!!!

[Tsaraslondon]

I just had a lucky listen with the score to the Tosca recording of 1953 with de Sabata,  di Stefano and Callas. Thanks for the lead—it's everything you said and even more.  To compare with the Traviata of the same year, the voice is so different in this role, like another woman. Di Stefano was amazing, especially in the last act where he goes back and forth from a fil di voce to piena voce. Usually the "E lucevan" is belted out from beginning to end.  It's so much harder to walk that tightrope of sound. Bravo for him and also de Sabata, yes indeed!!!

Well I can't remember the exact words, but I completely agree with one critic, who, after praising the various contributions of De Sabata, Callas, Gobbi, Di Stefano and Walter Legge, said that actually the real winner was Puccini, which is exactly as it should be.

[Satzaroo]

In the Callas/De Stefano "Tosca," Callas's voice is shriller than normal. Thumbs down!

[Tsaraslondon]

In the Callas/De Stefano "Tosca," Callas's voice is shriller than normal. Thumbs down!

Which pressing are you listening to? I've always found it to be one of the recordings where her voice is at it's most secure, and, when it needs to be (in the love duets, for instance), wonderfully sensuous. It is also one of the few recordings where the top Cs are clear as laser beams, as secure and gleaming as anything Birgit Nilsson produced. I can only assume you are listening to a bad pressing. Admittedly there are other recordings where Callas produces some shrill and not so pleasing notes, but I have never found this to be one of them.

[zamyrabyrd]

In the Callas/De Stefano "Tosca," Callas's voice is shriller than normal. Thumbs down!

What pressing do you have? I will try to avoid it when buying my own copy.

ZB

[Tsaraslondon]

What pressing do you have? I will try to avoid it when buying my own copy.

ZB

ZB, I have the EMI Great Recordings of the Century pressing. It sounds pretty good to me.

[Satzaroo]

EMI classics--1997 digital remastering with Callas, Di Stefano, and Gobbi, Victor de Sabata conducting at La Scala.

[Tsaraslondon]

EMI classics--1997 digital remastering with Callas, Di Stefano, and Gobbi, Victor de Sabata conducting at La Scala.

Some of the 1997 pressings have been criticised fro boosting the treble and making the recordings unnecessarily shrill. I have the 2002 Great recordings of the Century pressing, which is better, though still not perfect, according to Robert E. Seletsky. Go to http://www.divinarecords.com/callas_update.htm for an assessment of the various pressings.

[Satzaroo]

Thanks, Tsaraslondon, for the heads up. Maybe I was too callous in criticizing Callas.

[Trouble]

Besides the obvious Callas/di Stefano/Gobbi may I suggest two off-the-beaten-path wonderful live Met recordings with:
Tebaldi/Tucker/Warren and Steber/Bergonzi/London.  Both in the late 1950's.
Mitropoulos brings out the very best in Tebaldi who gives an absolutely demented performance.
Both worth looking into.

[Sarastro]

Surprise-surprise, I'd add the Corelli-Milanov-Guelfi version for both great vocal artistry and emotional charge. Plus Tebaldi-di Stefani-Bastianini and the video with Corelli, Guelfi and Caniglia. Oddly enough, Scarpia there is played by another baritone, Afro Poli, and Franca Duval is Tosca for Caniglia's voice. Only Corelli sings and plays at once.  

PS: I find Pretre's recording with Callas, Bergonzi and Gobbi very impressive with regard to Callas' artistic portrayal of the role. Hm, it is even more of theater than opera. But I wouldn't recommend it in order not to have one disappointed by Bergonzi.

[Lilas Pastia]

I recommend hearing this clip in which Magda Olivero made her Met debut in 1975, 42 years after her La Scala debut in 1933 . And this one, made in a studio (I presume ) in 1964. Note the curdled milk tone, familiar from that generation of italian singers (she was born in 1912). It takes a while to get used to. Listen to the astonishing high B flat and the breathtaking fil di voce that follows. The rest of the Act 2 scene with Scarpia can be viewed here and here.

Olivero was legendary in Puccini and verismo composers. Cilea coaxed her out of an early retirement to sing Adriana Lecouvreur. That was in 1951, she sang on stage for another 35 years. Her kind of singing harks back to what the composers knew and favoured back then. For my money, better this kind of intensity than the Bailey's Irish cream kind of singing that has become the standard since Tebaldi, Caballé and Sutherland reshaped the way italian opera was to sound for future generations.

[knight66]

Fascinating. I have known her name, but never heard her. She was quite a singer. I watched and enjoyed the Tosca extracts. What a find the Scarpia, Fioravanti, is. His voice, firm juicy and flexible.

I had a look for Olivero discs; but most of the roles again lie an an area of repertoire I don't listen to.

How about a third such legendry singer: Raina Kabaivanska

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEJ9ti7fF1A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NyRcvAPa9w&feature=related

Very different from one another. Everyone sings up a storm in the second extract. She seems to have been a considerable actress. I find some notes a bit fragile. But this singer, like the others we have discussed, has a faithful base of admirers.

Mike

[Lilas Pastia]

Kabaivanska is indeed a special singer. Come to think of it, nothing else will do for Tosca. That's why I 've never been fired up by Tebaldi, Caballé, Price or Milanov. They sing beautifully - admittedly better than Olivero, Gencer or Callas(*), but they don't inhabit the role as those divas did. It's a very elusive impression. It works for some listeners, not for others.

(*) except the 1953 one which is fantastic as pure singing - never heard such a flight to the high C on "quella lama".

If you compare Caballé to Sandrine Piau, Maria Bayo, Sylvia McNair or even Sutherland in Se pieta di me non senti (Handel's Cleopatra), you'll find that same phenomenon. Caballé's clip is visually ugly, and all of her singing is done pianissimo, almost in head voice, and lentissimo. Yet she casts a spell the other singers don't - however beautiful their singing is, and admittedly more in style.

[Guido]

Just watched this and was absolutely appalled! Such cheapness, such vulgarity, such a hideous story! Are all of Puccini's operas like this? I can handle cheapness and vulgarity when it comes in Straussian form (Salome is just great!) but this is just so base and crass!

I've only ever really heard Puccini in aria excerpts before - some of which I love (mostly the very famous ones - eg. Visi d'arte and Tu che di gel sei cinta) - but I was shocked at how poor the music was in this opera...

[Scarpia]

Such cheapness, such vulgarity, such a hideous story! Are all of Puccini's operas like this?

Yes, they're all cheap, vulgar and hideous.  That's why they were all forgotten so quickly.   

[Guido]

Yes, they're all cheap, vulgar and hideous.  That's why they were all forgotten so quickly.   

Oh I can see the appeal! But if they're all like this I'd rather stop exploring his operas because I'm pretty sure that, for the time being at least, it's not for me!

[False_Dmitry]

Oh I can see the appeal! But if they're all like this I'd rather stop exploring his operas because I'm pretty sure that, for the time being at least, it's not for me!

You're talking here about the cultural idiom of verismo,  which was a product of its own times.  Although not everyone appreciates it, it should not be written-off as "cheap"...  in fact it's an intricate procedure to write successful verismo works.

You might like to turn your attention to MANON LESCAUT and more especially to LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST if you're looking for more "substance".  Puccini's final work, IL TRITTICO (three one-acters intended to be performed on a single bill, as they complement each other - they're all about death, in different forms) probably has some of his most astonishing music - you may either be spellbound by SUOR ANGELICA or be repelled by it, in equal measure.

[knight66]

I think the music in his most popular operas is as much admired as it is denigrated. He was supremely skillful. And indeed most of his operas are along the lines of Tosca; whatever you do, if Tosca appalls you, keep away from Turandot.

I have quite a few versions of his most famous operas, though  don't really ever want to see Butterfly again, the music is sufficient for me. He is an arch manipulator of his audience.

A shame you were so disappointed; there is hours of pleasure there if you can attune yourself.

I am surprised you can stomach Salome, but not Tosca.

Mike