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Music : Puccini: Tosca (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Victor de Sabata, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan
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Rating: 
- Treasure that will never lose its value.
There could be no justification for failing to award five stars or refusing to pay the high prices sometimes required to buy this classic recording of "La Tosca". The opera itself, already more than 100 years old, is one of the best we have, with three-dimensional characters involved in various levels of conflict, and with a great Puccini score.
Walter Legge was in charge of this production. This "studio" recording was made at La Scala, Milan in the early 1950s. The sometimes-ungrateful acoustics of that renowned theatre have never been heard to better advantage. Just listen to the opening orchestral flourish! Giuseppe di Stefano is vocally very much at home in the role of Cavaradossi, the ardent young painter who is sympathetic to an escaped political prisoner. During his first aria, the comments of the sacristan are not allowed to turn it into a duet. In glorious voice for once, Callas immediately establishes the character of Tosca - imperious, suspicious, and jealous, but at the same time vulnerable and full of longing for the time when she and Cavaradossi can be together after her opera performance of that night. Tito Gobbi too, as Scarpia, is well in command of the vocal range of his part, even the difficult high end, and manages to humanize his role as the manipulative, lustful, and ruthless chief of police.
One does not usually go home after a "Tosca" performance full of admiration for the conductor. The success of this recording, however, is very largely due to the superb drive, thrust and textural clarity achieved by the conductor Victor de Sabata. If any one passage is likely to outlast all others in your memory, it is few minutes before the end of the opera. How that "firing squad" theme seems to shriek here! How proud Tosca seems to sound, now that her successful ruse for faking Cavaradossi's death appears to have succeeded!
Unforgettable moment like this, and invaluable recordings like this, make us grateful to be able to treasure them forever.
Rating:
- I should not have listened to the other version.
Like many opera lovers, I have owned this performance for very many years, and consider it the finest of the Tosca recordings. Until very recently I thought it was absolutely perfect. Then, one or two months ago, I listened to the old Del Monaco/Tebaldi version for the very first time. That recording cannot compete with the De Sabata, except for the performance of Renata Tebaldi as Tosca. After so many years of accepting the vocal shortcomings of Maria Callas, I found myself overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of Renata Tebaldi's voice. At the end of the great duet in the first act, I remember thinking that THIS is the voice Puccini must have had in mind when he wrote this wonderful score. Tebaldi's performance was a revelation, and she was captured at the height of her powers when her voice was the most radiant, singing with absolutely mesmerizing beauty. And here is another scoop, Tebaldi's performance showed every bit the imagination, depth, and conviction of Callas, along with singing almost too beautiful to describe. The rest of the cast and the conductor on the Tebaldi recording cannot be recommended, but check this one out of the library and listen to one of the most beautifully sung Puccini performances ever.
Alas, I'll never hear the Maria Callas Tosca again without longing for the beautiful voice of Renata Tebaldi. The DeSabata Tosca is not perfect after all.
Rating: - I should not have listened to the other version.
Like many opera lovers, I have owned this performance for very many years, and consider it the finest of the Tosca recordings. Until very recently I thought it was absolutely perfect. Then, one or two months ago, I listened to the old Del Monaco/Tebaldi version for the very first time. That recording cannot compete with the De Sabata, except for the performance of Renata Tebaldi as Tosca. After so many years of accepting the vocal shortcomings of Maria Callas, I found myself overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of Renata Tebaldi's voice. At the end of the great duet in the first act, I remember thinking that THIS is the voice Puccini must have had in mind when he wrote this wonderful score. Tebaldi's performance was a revelation, and she was captured at the height of her powers when her voice was the most radiant, singing with absolutely mesmerizing beauty. And here is another scoop, Tebaldi's performance showed every bit the imagination, depth, and conviction of Callas, along with singing almost too beautiful to describe. The rest of the cast and the conductor on the Tebaldi recording cannot be recommended, but check this one out of the library and listen to one of the most beautifully sung Puccini performances ever.
Alas, I'll never hear the Maria Callas Tosca again without longing for the beautiful voice of Renata Tebaldi. The DeSabata Tosca is not perfect after all.
Rating: - Callas + de Stefano + Gobbi = BRAVO!!!
This is the very best of many good recordings of Tosca. Callas is brilliant, and de Stefano is also great. But it is Gobbi that makes this rekording the best Tosca ever. No one can sing a more evel Scarpia than him! You simply must have this!
Rating:
- I just can't stand Titto Gobbi
That being said, i will qualify this statement.
Granted, i am a particularly musically educated opera fan, but i know what i like and what i don't, and i simply cannot listen to to Titto Gobbi's voice. I've given him several chances. I listened to him in this, in Otello, with Jon Vickers and in Lucia di Lammermoor, again with Callas. And a last ditch effort, i watched him play opposite Callas in a video recording of Tosca, and as it turns out he is not too bad of an opera actor. BUT THAT VOICE. It just seems so strained and so unnatural, nothing like Sherrill Milnes or Cornell McNeil or Samuel Ramey...who all seem to have such power and firmness, something i like to hear in the lower voices. Then again, i don't know much about music, so maybe i'm horribly misjudging a great talent, but frankly i don't enjoy listening to it, which is what it comes down to. Sorry if this has tended to be a rant about Gobbi rather than a review, but it's just what keeps me from enjoying this recording, which is supposed to be the best tosca out there. There is a live recording with Callas and Di Stefano, sans Gobbi and with one Piero Campolonghi as Scarpia which i can listen to and enjoy completely.
- Treasure that will never lose its value.There could be no justification for failing to award five stars or refusing to pay the high prices sometimes required to buy this classic recording of "La Tosca". The opera itself, already more than 100 years old, is one of the best we have, with three-dimensional characters involved in various levels of conflict, and with a great Puccini score.
Walter Legge was in charge of this production. This "studio" recording was made at La Scala, Milan in the early 1950s. The sometimes-ungrateful acoustics of that renowned theatre have never been heard to better advantage. Just listen to the opening orchestral flourish! Giuseppe di Stefano is vocally very much at home in the role of Cavaradossi, the ardent young painter who is sympathetic to an escaped political prisoner. During his first aria, the comments of the sacristan are not allowed to turn it into a duet. In glorious voice for once, Callas immediately establishes the character of Tosca - imperious, suspicious, and jealous, but at the same time vulnerable and full of longing for the time when she and Cavaradossi can be together after her opera performance of that night. Tito Gobbi too, as Scarpia, is well in command of the vocal range of his part, even the difficult high end, and manages to humanize his role as the manipulative, lustful, and ruthless chief of police.
One does not usually go home after a "Tosca" performance full of admiration for the conductor. The success of this recording, however, is very largely due to the superb drive, thrust and textural clarity achieved by the conductor Victor de Sabata. If any one passage is likely to outlast all others in your memory, it is few minutes before the end of the opera. How that "firing squad" theme seems to shriek here! How proud Tosca seems to sound, now that her successful ruse for faking Cavaradossi's death appears to have succeeded!
Unforgettable moment like this, and invaluable recordings like this, make us grateful to be able to treasure them forever.
Rating:
- I should not have listened to the other version.Like many opera lovers, I have owned this performance for very many years, and consider it the finest of the Tosca recordings. Until very recently I thought it was absolutely perfect. Then, one or two months ago, I listened to the old Del Monaco/Tebaldi version for the very first time. That recording cannot compete with the De Sabata, except for the performance of Renata Tebaldi as Tosca. After so many years of accepting the vocal shortcomings of Maria Callas, I found myself overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of Renata Tebaldi's voice. At the end of the great duet in the first act, I remember thinking that THIS is the voice Puccini must have had in mind when he wrote this wonderful score. Tebaldi's performance was a revelation, and she was captured at the height of her powers when her voice was the most radiant, singing with absolutely mesmerizing beauty. And here is another scoop, Tebaldi's performance showed every bit the imagination, depth, and conviction of Callas, along with singing almost too beautiful to describe. The rest of the cast and the conductor on the Tebaldi recording cannot be recommended, but check this one out of the library and listen to one of the most beautifully sung Puccini performances ever.
Alas, I'll never hear the Maria Callas Tosca again without longing for the beautiful voice of Renata Tebaldi. The DeSabata Tosca is not perfect after all.
Rating:
- I should not have listened to the other version.Like many opera lovers, I have owned this performance for very many years, and consider it the finest of the Tosca recordings. Until very recently I thought it was absolutely perfect. Then, one or two months ago, I listened to the old Del Monaco/Tebaldi version for the very first time. That recording cannot compete with the De Sabata, except for the performance of Renata Tebaldi as Tosca. After so many years of accepting the vocal shortcomings of Maria Callas, I found myself overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of Renata Tebaldi's voice. At the end of the great duet in the first act, I remember thinking that THIS is the voice Puccini must have had in mind when he wrote this wonderful score. Tebaldi's performance was a revelation, and she was captured at the height of her powers when her voice was the most radiant, singing with absolutely mesmerizing beauty. And here is another scoop, Tebaldi's performance showed every bit the imagination, depth, and conviction of Callas, along with singing almost too beautiful to describe. The rest of the cast and the conductor on the Tebaldi recording cannot be recommended, but check this one out of the library and listen to one of the most beautifully sung Puccini performances ever.
Alas, I'll never hear the Maria Callas Tosca again without longing for the beautiful voice of Renata Tebaldi. The DeSabata Tosca is not perfect after all.
Rating:
- Callas + de Stefano + Gobbi = BRAVO!!!This is the very best of many good recordings of Tosca. Callas is brilliant, and de Stefano is also great. But it is Gobbi that makes this rekording the best Tosca ever. No one can sing a more evel Scarpia than him! You simply must have this!
Rating:
- I just can't stand Titto GobbiThat being said, i will qualify this statement.
Granted, i am a particularly musically educated opera fan, but i know what i like and what i don't, and i simply cannot listen to to Titto Gobbi's voice. I've given him several chances. I listened to him in this, in Otello, with Jon Vickers and in Lucia di Lammermoor, again with Callas. And a last ditch effort, i watched him play opposite Callas in a video recording of Tosca, and as it turns out he is not too bad of an opera actor. BUT THAT VOICE. It just seems so strained and so unnatural, nothing like Sherrill Milnes or Cornell McNeil or Samuel Ramey...who all seem to have such power and firmness, something i like to hear in the lower voices. Then again, i don't know much about music, so maybe i'm horribly misjudging a great talent, but frankly i don't enjoy listening to it, which is what it comes down to. Sorry if this has tended to be a rant about Gobbi rather than a review, but it's just what keeps me from enjoying this recording, which is supposed to be the best tosca out there. There is a live recording with Callas and Di Stefano, sans Gobbi and with one Piero Campolonghi as Scarpia which i can listen to and enjoy completely.