No offence to Kabaivanska or Wixell, but the main interest here is Pavarotti. His previous recording of the role of Cavaradossi, a dozen or so years ago for Decca, is let down by sloppy conducting from Nicola Rescigno and by the mis-casting of Mirella Freni, an enchanting singer but under distinct pressure as Tosca. However, for those primarily interested in Pavarotti he's heard to better advantage in that earlier performance than in this new one. No so much because he was that much younger then but because in a live performance, with a large theatre to communicate with, he's more likely to sing loudly when you know he'd probably prefer to do otherwise. He manages some lovely mezza voce effects even so, but not quite so much pointing of words and inflexions as before. Also the 'new' RCA recording somehow manages to bring the singers forward from the natural opera-house perspective. Pavarotti's voice is better able to withstand the varnish-stripping effect of this process than Kabaivanska's or Wixell's, but even he sounds deprived of bloom at times.
Wixell's Scarpia has authority but, to these ears, not much else: his singing is gritty and mostly loud, he is conscientious over the clarity of words (less so with the actual notes) but does nothing much with them save spit them out hard. Kabaivanska is a Tosca with something of the grand manner still, but she sounds tired by the final scene, she's too often apt to turn quavery or squally and her low notes are now only sketched. At times she drags behind the beat, and it would be charitable to attribute Oren's lethargic speeds and frequently boneless rubato to this did he not do it most of the time, regardless of who's singing (Pavarotti sometimes sounds a touch impatient with this approach, pushing against the beat in his case). Oren's reading of this short opera takes a quarter of an hour longer than de Sabata's unhurried account on EMI. There is no urgency at all to the Act 2 confrontation between Tosca and Scarpia, only a generalized and rather lumbering vociferousness. Cavaradossi's revolutionary song in defiance of Scarpia, ''L'alba vindice appar'', sounds like 'Old Man Tiber' and Tosca's excited arrival with the safe-conduct in Act 3 is as slow as a second class letter.
As a recording of a single live performance there are bound to be a few slips: Kabaivanska muffs one of her entrances, and there are a couple of minor orchestral mishaps. The prompter is audible throughout, including what I take to be his heavy breathing during the dawn music of Act 3. There is applause, of course, and not only at the ends of arias (the usual brief cut is made after the warm reception of ''Vissi d'arte''; presumably for the same reason but less defensibly the coda to ''E lucevan le stelle'' is lopped off). The supporting cast is adequate, no more; the orchestra, because of the highlighting of the voices, is not always clearly focused. I would prefer any of the other recordings listed above: for Pavarotti's sake Rescigno; Karajan for his superb handling of the score and the electric partnership of Leontyne Price and Giuseppe di Stefano; Davis for his subtle intelligence and the sumptuous Tosca of Montserrat Caballe; Pretre, not so much for his sake but for the almost ideal cast of Callas, Bergonzi and Gobbi; Rahbari for a bargain price and the much more than bargain-basement Tosca of Nelly Miricioiu; above all, de Sabata for his poetry and fire and for the incomparable trio of Callas, di Stefano and Gobbi.
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