BaL 17.06.23 - Puccini: Tosca

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Last covered by BaL in June 2002 when Rodney Milnes chose Price/Karajan with Callas/de Sabata as also recommended mono historic choice.

Both excellent choices. I have these plus Gigli/Fabritiisez

[Pulcinella]

July's Gramophone has just arrived, and there is a feature on Callas in it.
The Essential Recording that they give is:

Verdi [sic] Tosca

Oops!

Not the only infelicity I spotted: one of the letters includes the phrase: ...made me wonder wither the art of reviewing.

[Goon525]

A predictably knowledgeable BaL by an expert - with a twist in the tail. I approve of the verdict, as given roughly comparable excellence in the singing, the winner is actually a pleasure to listen to, whereas you have to listen through indifferent sound to appreciate the famous runner-up.

[Master Jacques]

I think Kerman was pretty good to be honest. Amongst other things he wrote a survey of Musicology which is a very readable introduction to this complex subject - one that is probably now a bit out of date. Opera as Drama contains much excellent and thoughtful analysis. He also wrote with Alan Tyson the excellent Beethoven entry in the New Grove which was rightly published as a separate volume.
He did have this thing about Puccini being a bit of a cheap sensationalist which does have a grain of truth in it. But in fact Act 2 of Tosca is dramatically very well constructed. The problem is Act 3 which aways feels to me like a coda built around one sensational tune - even more so than Act 4 of La Boheme.

Kerman was a superb critic, and his phrase about Tosca encapsulates a truth - only one, mind - about the opera which will never be forgotten.

As for today's BaL, with an "on the nod" victory for Leontyne over Maria, with Renata a close-up third, what a great job from Roger Parker! Anyone as illuminating as this over the main matter, yet who manages to squeeze in something about the Sacristan and Spoletta as well, deserves a gold star.

[Barbirollians]

Kerman was a superb critic, and his phrase about Tosca encapsulates a truth - only one, mind - about the opera which will never be forgotten.

As for today's BaL, with an "on the nod" victory for Leontyne over Maria, with Renata a close-up third, what a great job from Roger Parker! Anyone as illuminating as this over the main matter, yet who manages to squeeze in something about the Sacristan and Spoletta as well, deserves a gold star.

Says a lot that those recordings continue to tower over the more modern competition not only that Rodney Milnes chose the front two 21 years ago and IGI chose the Molinari-Pradelli for his Gramophone Collection .

My allegiance to the de Sabata remains unshaken - as much as I love the other two recordings .

Although marked as download only Amazon seem to have the 2CD Originals version available very cheaply new.

PS Well they did have now only some used versions but still cheap.

[Pulcinella]

Sounds like it might be worth listening to on catch-up as I missed it this morning; just spotted that the version I have (apart from Callas) is not given in Alpie's list, so is presumably nla: Caballé, Carreras, Wixell, Ramey, with the Chorus and Orchestra of the ROH under Colin Davis (a Philips Duo).

[Barbirollians]

The Davis is available to download on Presto.

[Lordgeous]

Something that struck me was the wonderful, immediately recognizeable Bjorling. Would this have been from a complete recording, or just as a separate aria?

[CallMePaul]

July's Gramophone has just arrived, and there is a feature on Callas in it.
The Essential Recording that they give is:

Verdi [sic] Tosca

Oops!

Not the only infelicity I spotted: one of the letters includes the phrase: ...made me wonder wither the art of reviewing.

I can't imagine what Joe Green would have done with the libretto, although he was too ill by the time Puccini started work on it!

[Pianoman]

Something that struck me was the wonderful, immediately recognizeable Bjorling. Would this have been from a complete recording, or just as a separate aria?

It's this one

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8007780--puccini-tosca

I have it and it's worth the set for Bjorling alone imo...Milanov is in good voice and Warren is a bit wooden but in splendid voice, Bjorling sensational but the conducting nothing more than servicable (though I am a fan of Leinsdorf in opera....)

[Master Jacques]

For anyone with a sense of adventure, I should like to recommend a recording which (understandably) didn't make it onto today's BaL shortlist. It's from Profil's 11-CD box 'Rudolf Schock in five Italian operas', and is sung in German. But I can tell you that this performance is up there with my other personal favourites.

Tosca, Puccini
Carla Martinis (Tosca), Ena Thiessen (Shepherd Boy), Rudolf Schock (Cavaradossi), Kurt Marchner (Spoletta), Josef Metternich (Scarpia), Benno Kusche (Sacristan), Horst Günter (Angelotti), Karl Otto (Sciarrone/Gaoler), North German Radio Chorus and Orchestra, c. Wilhelm Schüchter

Rudolf Schock is a surprisingly Italianate Cavaradossi (almost matching his Duke in Fricsay's great Rigoletto set, also included in this box). Josef Metternich (with all respect to Fischer-Dieskau) gives us the greatest Scarpia from a German-speaking singer. It is, simply, the most beautifully sung Scarpia I've ever heard, and all the more chilling for the singer's dramatic insight in refusing to play a cardboard villain. Instead, we have a courteous, intelligent official who firmly believes in his own entitlement, and that what he is doing - however unpleasant - is right.

All of which makes the drama more seriously interesting at every point. This Tosca never for one moment feels like dramatic hooch, and every moment counts, thanks largely to Metternich's portrayal of the baritone lead. He deserves to be remembered as much more than "just" Jonas Kaufmann's teacher.

Tosca is an astonishingly good Croatian soprano - possibly the "best soprano you've never heard of" - Carla Martinis (1922-2010). A word is due to this remarkable singer. Born Dragica Balić, after seasons in Germany, Zagreb and at Prague’s National Theatre, she became a popular fixture in the Italian repertoire at Vienna’s Staadtsoper, where she achieved Kammersänger status. There's a good anecdote: in 1951 Karajan was casting Aida, and telegrammed Rudolf Bing at the Metropolitan in New York: ‘I need the most beautiful voice in the world. Where is she?’ Bing’s reply: ‘Dragica Martinis. Here’. Sadly, her rising stardom was cut short in 1962, when the death of her young son in a car crash silenced her voice overnight. Her Tosca is superb - in the Tebaldi mould, but with a special sense of the proud diva overcome by her own emotional excesses. There's almost a touch of Emilia Marty about it.

All three principals do wonders with the text, such as you'd never hear today, in any language. Given Benno Kusche's very classy Sacristan, excellent orchestral playing, Schüchter's forceful and well-pointed conducting, and a recording which is amazingly clear, full and well-balanced for 1953 mono, I've no hesitation in recommending this set to any Tosca fans who aren't terminally prejudiced against non-Italian recordings. I've learnt a huge amount about Puccini's masterly composition techniques by listening to the opera in this German version, with an outstanding cast, and hope others might also. There is no downside to the experience.

[akiralx]

The Davis is available to download on Presto.

I have a Pentatone multichannel SACD of it which may still be available.

[Lordgeous]

It's this one

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8007780--puccini-tosca

I have it and it's worth the set for Bjorling alone imo...Milanov is in good voice and Warren is a bit wooden but in splendid voice, Bjorling sensational but the conducting nothing more than servicable (though I am a fan of Leinsdorf in opera....)

Thankyou for that, though I'm slighty confused! Is thia audio or video?

[Pulcinella]

Thankyou for that, though I'm slighty confused! Is thia audio or video?

Cheap s/h CD version here if that's what you're interested in:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Puccini-Tosca-Giacomo/dp/B000026MTH/ref=sr_1_2?crid=HCR9W36CU5CI&keywords=tosca+leinsdorf&qid=1687092995&s=music&sprefix=tosca+leinsdorf%2Cpopular%2C62&sr=1-2

[Lordgeous]

Cheap s/h CD version here if that's what you're interested in:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Puccini-Tos...ar%2C62&sr=1-2

Thankyou. Ordered!