Puccini Tosca
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Giacomo Puccini
Genre:
Opera
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 9/1986
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 414 597-1DH2

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Tosca |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Georg Solti, Conductor Giacomo Aragall, Cavaradossi, Tenor Giacomo Puccini, Composer Ivo Martinez, Shepherd Boy, Treble/boy soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, Tosca, Soprano Leo Nucci, Scarpia, Baritone Malcolm King, Angelotti, Bass National Philharmonic Orchestra Nicholas Folwell, Gaoler, Bass Paul Hudson, Sciarrone, Bass Piero de Palma, Spoletta, Tenor Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Children's Chorus Spiro Malas, Sacristan, Bass Welsh National Opera Chorus |
Composer or Director: Giacomo Puccini
Genre:
Opera
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 9/1986
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 414 597-4DH2

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Tosca |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Georg Solti, Conductor Giacomo Aragall, Cavaradossi, Tenor Giacomo Puccini, Composer Ivo Martinez, Shepherd Boy, Treble/boy soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, Tosca, Soprano Leo Nucci, Scarpia, Baritone Malcolm King, Angelotti, Bass National Philharmonic Orchestra Nicholas Folwell, Gaoler, Bass Paul Hudson, Sciarrone, Bass Piero de Palma, Spoletta, Tenor Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Children's Chorus Spiro Malas, Sacristan, Bass Welsh National Opera Chorus |
Composer or Director: Giacomo Puccini
Genre:
Opera
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 9/1986
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 414 597-2DH2

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Tosca |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Georg Solti, Conductor Giacomo Aragall, Cavaradossi, Tenor Giacomo Puccini, Composer Ivo Martinez, Shepherd Boy, Treble/boy soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, Tosca, Soprano Leo Nucci, Scarpia, Baritone Malcolm King, Angelotti, Bass National Philharmonic Orchestra Nicholas Folwell, Gaoler, Bass Paul Hudson, Sciarrone, Bass Piero de Palma, Spoletta, Tenor Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Children's Chorus Spiro Malas, Sacristan, Bass Welsh National Opera Chorus |
Author: Edward Greenfield
One might even say that Solti's reading abetted by his principal soloists, lacks some of the biting anger of the piece, the quality which Karajan, above all, brought out, not least in his inpired choice of Ruggero Raimondi as Scarpia. The team of Sabata, Callas and Gobbi on HMV presents that element too with an intensity never likely to be equalled either. It is partly a question of Solti's timing, not so much in basic speeds as in pauses over transitions. So in Act 1 the jolly junketing led by the Sacristan has its 6/8 rhythms rushed a little, and then Scarpia's entry is presented with tremendous weight but with too little menace. That is largely a question of fractionally too short a pause before Nucci sings his first phrase; also of his actual delivery, strong but not very characterful, where Raimondi for Karajan conveys hushed horror as though drawing in his breath and Gobbi provides a unique snarl, at once in command. The Te Deum at the end of the act too finds Nucci vehement rather than sinister, with Solti treating the crotchet triplets not so menacing (as in Karajan's pendulum swing) but sweetly lyrical as in the Tosca music earlier. One might argue that Scarpia is still thinking of Tosca, but the spine-chilling impact of Karajan at this point, even though Raimondi is backwardly placed, seems to me to be more what Puccini intended. Nucci is at his finest in Scarpia's great solo of Act 2, the so-called 'Cantabile', where power and bite combine.
Though the casting of Dame Kiri as Tosca may be unexpected, it brings much powerful and moving singing. She is plainly more attuned to this role than she was at Covent Garden as Manon Lescaut, and there is something of the mature warmth here that illustrated her rendering of the role of Magda on Maazel's CBS set of La rondine. What I rather miss is any feeling of biting jealousy. So her response to Scarpia on being shown the fan, ''E L'Attavanti!'', has no snarl of anger in it, though later she conveys real pain in her half-tones as Scarpia's poison begins to work, and she expands superbly when she claims that God will forgive her, when He sees she is weeping. In Act 2 ''Vissi d'arte'' is finely shaded, but not so delicately as by Caballe on Davis's Philips set, not with the meditative mystery that Ricciarelli (less surely controlled vocally) brings to Karajan. Ricciarelli actually makes an asset out of her vocal problems, conveying more than the others a moving element of vulnerability. With Dame Kiri I miss the sort of phrasing in a chest register which makes Maria Callas so unforgettable or even Ricciarelli, who does a superb downward sweep of two octaves in the Act 3 duet just before ''O dolci mani'', using the optional low C. Dame Kiri takes the higher C, which is faithful to the original score but less dramatic. I am slightly worried too that her final ''Ecco un artista'' in the execution scene is delivered not so much in a snarl as in the tones of Margaret Thatcher quelling a rowdy House of Commons.
Giacomo Aragall may, like Dame Kiri, be an unexpected choice as Cavaradossi, but the produces a stream of glorious heroic tone from first to last. His vocal reliability has been shown in his previous recordings of Gounod, Massenet and Donizetti, and it is equally so here. His phrasing is sensitive, but sadly his control of dynamic is far less so. There are moments when he shows what delicate half-fones he can produce, but ''Rocondita armonia'' has little that is dolcissimo in it (one of Puccini's principal markings) and too much that is strenuously forte. Jose Carreras on both his recordings (Karajan and Davis) is far more detailed in his pointing of word meaning, and Giuseppe di Stefano (Sabata) is the most illuminating of all, as in the smile he conveys in the voice on ''Qual occio al mondo'' in the Act 1 duet followed by an implied chuckle at the start of ''Mia gelosa'', a passage over which Solti rather unexpectedly drags a little.
Other roles are all well cast. The only really striking point to note is that the Sacristan is sung not by the usual aged-sounding comprimario but by the resonant Spiro Malas, well-remembered from his contributions to the Bonynge/Sutherland sets for Decca of Donizetti's La fille du Regiment and
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