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Adolfo Hohenstein
Adolfo Hohenstein (Saint Petersburg, 18 March 1854 – Bonn, 12 April 1928) was a German painter, advertiser, illustrator, set designer and costume designer. He's considered the father of the Italian poster art and an exponent of the Stile Liberty, the Italian Art Nouveau. Together with Leonetto Cappiello, Giovanni Mario Mataloni, Leopoldo Metlicovitz and Marcello Dudovich, he's considered one of the most important Italian poster designers.
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Alberto Franchetti
Alberto Franchetti (18 September 18604 August 1942) was an Italian opera composer.
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Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu (; born Angela Burlacu) (born September 7, 1965) is a Romanian soprano opera singer. Since her professional debut in 1990, she has sung as soprano leading roles at New York's Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden's Royal Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, Milan's La Scala, and many other opera houses in Europe and the United States. She has a substantial discography primarily with EMI Classics and Decca.
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Antonio Pappano
Antonio Pappano (born 30 December 1959, Epping, England) is a British conductor and pianist of Italian parentage.
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Antonio Scotti
Antonio Scotti (January 25, 1866 - February 26, 1936) was an Italian baritone. He was a principal artist of the New York Metropolitan Opera for more than 33 seasons, but also sang with great success at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Milan's La Scala.
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Apollo Granforte
Apollo Granforte (July 20, 1886, Legnano - June 11, 1975, Milan) was an Italian opera singer and one of the leading baritones active during the inter-war period of the 20th century.
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Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (; March 25, 1867 – January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th century and 20th century, he was renowned for his brilliant intensity, his restless perfectionism, his phenomenal ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory. As music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra he became a household name through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century.
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Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli, (March 20, 1890 - November 30, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Music critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism of his interpretations. Nevertheless, such was Gigli's talent, he is considered to be one of the very finest tenors in the recorded history of music.
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Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. Showing prodigious talent from an early age – he composed Quatre Chansons françaises for soprano and orchestra at the age of fourteen – he first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945 he leapt to international fame, and for the next fifteen years he devoted much of his compositional attention to writing operas, several of which now appear regularly on international stages. Britten's interests as a composer were wide-ranging; he produced important music in such varied genres as orchestral, choral, solo vocal (much of it written for the tenor Peter Pears), chamber and instrumental, as well as film music. He also took a great interest in writing music for children and amateur performers, and was a fine pianist and conductor.
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Carlo Sabajno
Carlo Sabajno (1874, Rosasco, Italy - 1938, Milan) was an Italian conductor. From 1904 to 1932 he was the Gramophone Company's chief conductor and artistic director in Italy. During his career, he conducted some of the earliest full-length opera recordings, most of them with the orchestra of La Scala, Milan.
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Carmen Melis
Carmen Melis (15 August 1885 – 19 December 1967) was an Italian operatic soprano who had a major international career during the first four decades of the 20th century. She was known, above all, as a verismo soprano, and was one of the most interesting singing actresses of the early 20th century. She made her debut in Novara in 1905 and her career rapidly developed in her native country over the next four years. From 1909-1916 she performed with important opera companies in the United States; after which she was busy performing at many of Europe's most important opera houses. From 1917 until her retirement from the stage in 1935 she was particularly active at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome and at La Scala in Milan. After her singing career ended, she embarked on a second career as a voice teacher. Her most notable student was soprano Renata Tebaldi.
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Catherine Malfitano
Catherine Malfitano (born 18 April 1948) is an American operatic soprano. She is generally considered to be one of America's leading operatic sopranos. Her vocal versatility, physical grace and dramatic abilities make her a sought-after performer in opera houses and concert halls.
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Deborah Burton
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Edward Greenfield
Edward Greenfield (born Westcliff-on-Sea, England, 1928) is an English music critic and broadcaster. He joined the Manchester Guardian in 1953, working as a lobby correspondent in the House of Commons. He has been a record critic for the newspaper since 1955, a music critic since 1964, and was chief music critic from 1977 until his retirement in 1993. He has contributed to Gramophone magazine since 1960, and has been joint editor of The Stereo Record Guide since 1960. A regular broadcaster on the BBC, for many years he presented classical music programmes on the World Service, including The Greenfield Collection.
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Emilio de Marchi
Emilio de Marchi (born January 6, 1861, Voghera – died March 20, 1917, Milan) was an Italian operatic tenor. He enjoyed a significant international career during the late 19th century and early 20th century, appearing at major theatres on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1900, he entered the annals of musical history as the creator of the role of Cavaradossi in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca. Today, however, he is largely forgotten because unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not leave a legacy of commercial gramophone or phonograph recordings.
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Emmy Destinn
Emmy Destinn (also (); 26 February 1878 – 28 January 1930) was a renowned Czech operatic soprano with a strong and soaring lyric-dramatic voice. She enjoyed a successful career in both Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera.
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Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso (February 25, 1873 – August 2, 1921) was an Italian tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and North and South America. Caruso also made approximately 290 commercial recordings of his voice, beginning as early as 1902 in Italy and continuing from 1904 until 1920 in the United States. All of his known surviving recordings are available today on remastered CDs.
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Eugenio Giraldoni
Eugenio Giraldoni (May 20, 1871, Marseille - June 23, 1924, Helsinki) was an Italian operatic baritone who enjoyed an international career spanning three decades and created the role of Baron Scarpia.
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Fernando De Lucia
Fernando De Lucia (born Naples, 11 October 1860 or 1 September 1861; died there, 21 February 1925) was an Italian opera tenor and singing teacher who enjoyed an international career.
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Francesco Cilea
Francesco Cilea (also Cilèa) (July 23, 1866 – November 20, 1950) was an Italian composer. Today he is particularly known for his operas ''L'arlesiana and Adriana Lecouvreur''.
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Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli, KBE (Hon), (born 12 February 1923) is an Italian film director and producer of films and television and opera director and designer. He has also been a politician (The People of Freedom).
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Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers. Among his best-known works are his Nocturnes for piano, the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune", and his Requiem.
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Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (; 22 December 185829 November 1924) was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. Some of his arias, such as "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi, "Che gelida manina" from La bohème, and "Nessun dorma" from Turandot, have become part of popular culture.
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Giovanni Paisiello
Giovanni Paisiello (or Paesiello) (May 9, 1740 – June 5, 1816) was an Italian composer of the Classical era.
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Giulio Ricordi
Giulio Ricordi (December 19, 1840 - June 6, 1912) was an Italian editor and musician.
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Giuseppe Borgatti
Giuseppe Borgatti (born Cento, March 17, 1871—died Reno di Leggiuno, October 18, 1950) was an Italian dramatic tenor with an outstanding voice. He created the title role in Umberto Giordano's opera Andrea Chénier and became famous for his performances of the music of Richard Wagner. Borgatti sang leading roles at La Scala, Milan, from 1896 until 1914, but deteriorating eyesight caused by the disease glaucoma put a premature end to his stage career.
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Giuseppe Cremonini
Giuseppe Cremonini (25 November 1866 – 9 May 1903) was an Italian operatic tenor who had a prominent opera career in Europe and the United States during the last decade of the nineteenth century.
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Giuseppe di Stefano
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Giuseppe Taddei
Giuseppe Taddei (26 June 19162 June 2010) was an Italian baritone, who performed mostly the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi.
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Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture - such as "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto, "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song) from La traviata and the "Grand March" from Aida. Although his work was sometimes criticized for using a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom and having a tendency toward melodrama, Verdi’s masterworks dominate the standard repertoire a century and a half after their composition.
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Hariclea Darclée
Hariclea Darclée (born Hariclea Haricli; June 10, 1860–January 12, 1939) was a celebrated Romanian operatic soprano. She possessed an agile, powerful, and beautiful voice that was wielded with a fine technique. An extremely handsome woman, Darclée's stage presence was as elegant and refined as her singing. Although universally admired, she displayed a coldness of temperament that at times diminished her conviction in the more passionate verismo repertory. A singer of prodigous talent, her repertoire ranged from coloratura soprano roles to heavier Verdi roles, including many in the Franco-Italian lyric repertory. Throughout her career she participated in several world premieres, including originating the title roles in Puccini's Tosca, Mascagni's Iris, and Catalani's La Wally.
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Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan (; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. His obituary in The New York Times described him as "probably the world's best-known conductor and one of the most powerful figures in classical music". Karajan conducted the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra for 35 years.
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Ildebrando Pizzetti
Ildebrando Pizzetti (20 September 1880 – 13 February 1968) was an Italian composer of classical music.
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Jonathan Miller
Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (born 21 July 1934) is a British theatre and opera director, author, television presenter, humorist and sculptor. Trained as a physician in the late 1950s, he first came to prominence in the 1960s with his role in the BBC comedy sketch show Beyond the Fringe with fellow writers and performers Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett. Despite having seen few operas and not knowing how to read music, he began stage-directing them in the 1970s and has since become one of the world's leading opera directors with several classic productions to his credit. His best-known production is probably his 1982 "Mafia"-styled Rigoletto set in 1950s Little Italy, Manhattan. He has also become a well-known television personality and familiar public intellectual in the UK and US.
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Joseph Kerman
Joseph Wilfred Kerman (born April 3, 1924) is an American critic and musicologist. One of the leading musicologists of his generation, his 1985 book Contemplating Music: Challenges to Musicology (published in the UK as Musicology) was described by Philip Brett in The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as "a defining moment in the field." He is Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Julian Budden
Julian Medforth Budden, BA, BMus (9 April 1924, Hoylake, Wirral – 28 February 2007, Florence, Italy) was a British opera scholar, radio producer and broadcaster. He is particularly known for his three volumes on the operas of Giuseppe Verdi (published in 1973, 1978, & 1981), a single volume biography in 1982 and a single volume work on Giacomo Puccini and his operas in 2002. He is also the author of numerous entries in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
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Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price (born February 10, 1927) is an American soprano. Born and raised in the segregated Deep South, she rose to international fame during a period of racial change in the 1950s and 60s, and was the first African-American to become a leading prima donna at the Metropolitan Opera.
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Leopoldo Mugnone
Leopoldo Mugnone (b. Naples, 29 September 1858; d. Capodichino, Naples 22 December 1941) was an Italian conductor, especially of opera, whose most famous work was done in the period 1890-1920, both in Europe and South America. He conducted various operatic premieres, and was also a composer of operas.
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Luca Ronconi
Luca Ronconi (born 8 March 1933 in Sousse, Tunisia) is an Italian actor, theater director, and opera director.
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Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (12 October 1935 – 6 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor, who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time. He was one of "The Three Tenors" and became well-known for his televised concerts and media appearances. Pavarotti was also noted for his charity work on behalf of refugees and the Red Cross, amongst others.
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Luigi Pelloux
Luigi Pelloux (1 March 1839 – 26 October 1924) was an Italian general and politician, born of parents who retained their Italian nationality when Savoy was annexed to France.
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Margherita of Savoy
Margherita of Savoy (Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna; 20 November 1851 – 4 January 1926), was the Queen consort of the Kingdom of Italy during the reign (1878-1900) of her husband, Umberto I.
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Maria Callas
Maria Callas () (December 2, 1923September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice, and great dramatic gifts. An extremely versatile singer, her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini; further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; and, in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner. Her remarkable musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina.
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Maria Jeritza
Maria Jeritza (October 6, 1887, Brno – July 10, 1982, Orange, New Jersey), born Marie Jedličková, was a celebrated Moravian soprano singer, long associated with the Vienna State Opera (1912–1935) and the Metropolitan Opera (1921-1932 and 1951). Her sensational rise to fame and spectacular beauty and personality earned her the nickname The Moravian Thunderbolt.
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Mario del Monaco
Mario Del Monaco (July 27, 1915 - October 16, 1982) was an Italian tenor and is regarded by his admirers as being one of the greatest dramatic tenors of the 20th Century.
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Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala (original Greek Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνή) is described, in the New Testament, as one of the most important women in the movement of Jesus throughout his ministry.
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Napoleon Buonaparte
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Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte (French: Napoléon Bonaparte , Italian: Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a military and political leader of France and Emperor of the French as Napoleon I, whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.
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Pasquale Amato
Pasquale Amato (21 March 1878 – 12 August 1942) was an outstanding Italian operatic baritone. Amato enjoyed an international reputation but attained the peak of his fame in New York City, where he sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1908 until 1921.
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Paul Dukas
Paul Abraham Dukas (October 1, 1865 – May 17, 1935) was a French composer and teacher of classical music.
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Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni (December 7, 1863 – August 2, 1945) was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music. However, though it has been stated that Mascagni, like Leoncavallo, was a "one-opera man" who could never repeat his first success, this is inaccurate. ''L'amico Fritz and Iris have been popular in Europe since their respective premieres. In fact, Mascagni himself claimed that at one point Iris was performed in Italy more often than Cavalleria'' (cf. Stivender).
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Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil KBE (born 21 January 1941), better known as Plácido Domingo, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range. In March 2008, he debuted in his 128th opera role, giving Domingo more roles than any other tenor. One of The Three Tenors, he has also taken on conducting opera and concert performances, as well as serving as the General Director of the Washington National Opera in Washington, D.C. and the Los Angeles Opera in California. His contracts in both Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. have been extended through the 2010–2011 season.
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Plácido Domingo Jr.
http://wn.com/Plácido_Domingo_Jr -
Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi (Pesaro, Italy, February 1, 1922 – San Marino, December 19, 2004) was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved opera singers of all time, she primarily focused on the verismo roles of the lyric and dramatic repertoires.
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Ricard Wagner
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Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner (, ; 22 May 1813 13 February 1883) was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or "music dramas", as they were later called). Wagner's compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex texture, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use of leitmotifs: musical themes associated with individual characters, places, ideas or plot elements. Unlike most other opera composers, Wagner wrote both the music and libretto for every one of his stage works. Famous extracts from his operas include the "Ride of the Valkyries" and the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin, popularly known as the wedding march "Here Comes the Bride".
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Roberto Alagna
Roberto Alagna (born 7 June 1963) is a French operatic tenor of Sicilian (Italian) descent. He was born in Clichy-sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.
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Ruggero Raimondi
Ruggero Raimondi (born 3 October 1941) is an Italian Bass opera singer who has also appeared in motion pictures.
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Sarah Bernhardt
actor
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Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi (24 October 19135 March 1984) was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation.
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Victor de Sabata
Victor de Sabata (April 10, 1892 – December 11, 1967) was an Italian conductor and composer. He is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished operatic conductors of the twentieth century, especially for his Verdi, Puccini and Wagner. He is also acclaimed for his interpretations of orchestral music. Like his near contemporary Wilhelm Furtwängler, de Sabata regarded composition as more important than conducting but achieved more lasting recognition for his conducting than his compositions. De Sabata has been praised by various authors and critics as a rival to Toscanini for the title of greatest Italian conductor of the twentieth century, and even as "perhaps the greatest conductor in the world".
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Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou (5 September 1831 – 8 November 1908) was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play. He also wrote several plays that were made into popular 19th century operas such as La Tosca (1887) on which Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca (1900) is based, and Fedora by Umberto Giordano, a work that popularized the fedora hat as well.
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World War I
World War I was a military conflict centered on Europe that began in the summer of 1914. The fighting ended in late 1918. This conflict involved all of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (centred around the Triple Entente) and the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, due largely to great technological advances in firepower without corresponding ones in mobility. It was the second deadliest conflict in history.
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Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music.
http://wn.com/Zubin_Mehta
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Alessandria
Alessandria (Lissandria in Piedmontese) is a city and comune in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plane between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, c. 90 km southeast of Turin.
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Battle of Marengo
The Battle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 between French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy. The French overcame Austrian General Michael von Melas's surprise attack near the end of the day, driving the Austrians out of Italy, and enhancing Napoleon's political position in Paris as First Consul of France in the wake of his coup d’état the previous November.
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Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton () is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida incorporated in May 1925. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about 200,000 in total, are not actually within the City of Boca Raton's municipal boundaries. It is estimated that on any given day, there are roughly 350,000 people in the city itself.
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Bregenz Festival
http://wn.com/Bregenz_Festival -
Castel Sant' Angelo
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Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, named for the Greek island of Ithaca, sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York, USA. It is best known for being home to Cornell University, an Ivy League school with almost 20,000 students (most of them studying on Cornell’s Ithaca campus). Ithaca College is located just south of the city in the town of Ithaca, adding to Ithaca’s “college town” focus and atmosphere.
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Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of Naples to distinguish it from the island-based polity. During much of its existence, the realm was contested between French and Aragonese/Spanish dynasties. In 1816, it again merged with island-based Kingdom of Sicily to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
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La Scala
La Scala (), is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala (). The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta. Today the theatre is recognized as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres in the world and is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet and La Scala Theatre Orchestra. The theatre also has an associate school, known as the La Scala Theatre Academy (), which offers professional training in music, dance, stage craft and stage management.
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Mexico City
Mexico City (Spanish: Ciudad de México) is the capital and largest city in Mexico as well as the largest city in the Americas and the world's third largest metropolitan area by population, after Seoul and Tokyo. Mexico City is also the Federal District (Distrito Federal), the seat of the federal government. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole. Mexico City is the most important political, cultural, and financial center in the country.
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opera
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Papal States
The Papal State(s), State(s) of the Church, or Pontifical States (, also Stato della Chiesa, Stati della Chiesa, Stati Pontifici, and Stato Ecclesiastico; , also Dicio Pontificia) were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (after which the Papal States, in less territorially extensive form, continued to exist until 1870).
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Rome
Rome (; , ; ) is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . In 2006 the population of the metropolitan area was estimated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to have a population of 3.7 million.
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Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.
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Teatro Costanzi
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Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera (Wiener Staatsoper) is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera (Wiener Hofoper); in 1920, it was renamed the Vienna State Opera. The members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from its orchestra.
http://wn.com/Vienna_State_Opera
- Alberto Franchetti
- Alessandria
- alto
- Angela Gheorghiu
- Antonio Pappano
- Antonio Scotti
- Apollo Granforte
- aria
- Arturo Toscanini
- baritone
- bass (vocal range)
- Battle of Marengo
- Beniamino Gigli
- Benjamin Britten
- Boca Raton, Florida
- Bregenz Festival
- B♭ (musical note)
- C (musical note)
- cantata
- Carlo Sabajno
- Carmen Melis
- Castel Sant' Angelo
- Catherine Malfitano
- consul
- counter-melody
- Deborah Burton
- duet
- DVD
- E lucevan le stelle
- Edgar (opera)
- Edison Records
- Edward Greenfield
- Emilio de Marchi
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- Springer (Smith & Mudd Version)
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- My First (Nicola Conte Version)
- Elitsa (Kotey Extra Band Disco Version)
- Rosa (Rodney Hunter Version)
- Elektra Bregenz (Bottin's Disco Spritzer Mix)
- Joe Si Ha (Spirit Catcher Version)
- Joe Si Ha (Reverso 68 Version)
- Oysters In May (Kalabrese Version)
- Rosa (K&K; Streichquartett Version)
- My First
- Elitsa
- Springer
- Birthday
- Oysters in May
- Joe Si Ha
- Elektra Bregenz
- Fondue
- Rosa
- Raymondo
- Mrs. Bongo
- No Hassle
- Rondo Acapricio
- Heidi Bruehl
- Superrob
- John Lee Huber
- Pyjama
- The Big Sleep
- Damentag
- Naschkatze
- Züri
- Sala
- Forte
- No More Olives
- Oscar (feat. Anna Clementi)
- Me & Yoko Ono (feat. Anna Clementi)
- Gute Laune (feat. Tweed)
- Mango di Bango
- Wonderful (feat. Earl Zinger)
- Every Day & Every Night (feat. Sugar B.)
- Dave Dudley
- Rolf Royce (feat. Stephan Graf Hadik Wildner)
- Sperl
- La Vendeuse des Chaussures des Femmes, Part 1
- Pearl In
- Suzuki
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- Honey
- Boss on the Boat
- John Tomes
- Ocean Beat
- The Key
- Doris Dub
- Pearl Off
- Fuck Dub, Parts 1 & 2
- Amalienbad
- Worksong
- Gimmi Gimmi
- Ladies+Gentlemen
- Chocolate Elvis
- Ambient Emely
- Postgirl
- Listen My Friend
- Buona Sarah
- Nel respiro più grande
- La differenza
- Pane vino e lacrime
- Facendo i conti
- Chi è che bussa
- Mai dire mai
- Noi soli
- Sono tre mesi che non piove
- Guarda la vita che fa
- Di più
- Josephine
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FRANCO CORELLI Tosca 1956
-FRANCO CORELLI- "E LUCEVAN LE STELLE" - TOSCA RAI 1956.- A tous mes amis corelliens: Cette vidéo, c'est un Cadeau Précieux que nous avons récemment reçu, d´un chanteur d'opéra argentin, d´honorable trajectoire et de nombreuses années de sérieuse et permanente activité-Lyric d´Opera dans notre chèr Teatro Colón, nous lui serons éternellement reconnaissants par son travail d´investigation, d'enquête qui, ensemble, avec aussi serieux organismes, nationales et internationales, il effectue sur les grands artistes du passé, qui ont laissé un héritage digne de continuer à être diffusées et pris en compte comme une école pour les jeunes générations. Il est notre désir, parmi la chaîne:-laonirica-, partager avec tous les admirateurs de le Grand Maestro Franco Corelli, cet Magnifique cadeau!.- (pardon pour mon mauvais français!) Elba.-
http://wn.com/FRANCO_CORELLI_Tosca_1956
Maria Callas and George London Finale Act II Tosca 1956
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:42
- Published: 21 Jul 2011
- Uploaded: 19 Sep 2011
- Author: BurnsteinandWarenoff
Maria Callas as Floria Tosca and George London as Baron Scarpia sing the finale Act II Tosca Giacomo Puccini 1956 live performance conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos Metropolitan opera/Ed Sullivan Show Telecast with cuts THEY SANG ONLY THE FINALE FOR THIS TELECAST! la povera mia cena Quanto? il prezzo! Gia mi dicon venal se la giurata fede Vissi d'arte Tosca, finalmente mia! Scarpia's murder
http://wn.com/Maria_Callas_and_George_London_Finale_Act_II_Tosca_1956
Leonard Warren live at the Met in 1956 - "Tre sbirri, una carrozza" (Te Deum) from Puccini's "Tosca"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:36
- Published: 31 May 2009
- Uploaded: 10 Nov 2011
- Author: VinylToVideo
Leonard Warren sings "Tre sbirri, una carrozza" (Te Deum) from Puccini's "Tosca." This is from the January 7, 1956 Metropolitan Opera's radio broadcast of the opera with with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting. Other cast members included Renata Tebaldi (Tosca), Richard Tucker (Cavaradossi), Fernando Corena (Sacristan), Alessio De Paolis (Spoletta), Clifford Harvuot (Angelotti), George Cehanovsky (Sciarrone), Peter Mark (Shepherd), and Calvin Marsh (Jailer). Ratings allowed as of September 16, 2011.
http://wn.com/Leonard_Warren_live_at_the_Met_in_1956__Tre_sbirri,_una_carrozza_Te_Deum_from_Puccini's_Tosca
-FRANCO CORELLI-Tosca-1956-
FRANCO CORELLI- TOSCA- 1956- FILM- 2do. acto, escena de la Tortura y Vittoria,Vittoria!!! Para Todos mis amigos Corellianos, y para todo aquel que sabe apreciar El Talento, y La Maestría, del Gran Maestro FRANCO CORELLI, que desde joven supo Brindar al Mundo!!!. Elba. -Laonirica-
http://wn.com/-FRANCO_CORELLI-Tosca-1956-
Richard Tucker live at the Met in 1956 - "Recondita armonia" from Puccini's "Tosca"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:57
- Published: 01 Jun 2009
- Uploaded: 24 Sep 2011
- Author: VinylToVideo
Click for higher quality audio/video: www.youtube.com Richard Tucker sings "Recondita armonia" from act I of Puccini's "Tosca." This is from the January 7, 1956 Metropolitan Opera's radio broadcast of the opera with with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting. Other cast members included Renata Tebaldi (Tosca), Leonard Warren (Scarpia), Fernando Corena (Sacristan), Alessio De Paolis (Spoletta), Clifford Harvuot (Angelotti), George Cehanovsky (Sciarrone), Peter Mark (Shepherd), and Calvin Marsh (Jailer).
http://wn.com/Richard_Tucker_live_at_the_Met_in_1956__Recondita_armonia_from_Puccini's_Tosca
Puccini, Tosca, Franchigia a Floria Tosca... - 1956 - R. Tebaldi e R. Tucker
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:44
- Published: 07 Sep 2011
- Uploaded: 17 Nov 2011
- Author: SensusEtRatio
In manibus sanguis... Sullo sfondo: Artemisia Gentileschi, Giuditta e Oloferne - Non saranno ammessi, verso gli artisti, commenti grossolani od irrispettosi -
http://wn.com/Puccini,_Tosca,_Franchigia_a_Floria_Tosca__1956__R_Tebaldi_e_R_Tucker
Recondita armonia (Tosca; Puccini) - Ken Neate, 1956
Recondita armonia Tosca by Giacomo Puccini -- Ken Neate, tenor -- recorded 1956 (Ken Neate, the original "ozitenor") (Photo: Ken Neate as a NSW Police Officer prior to his opera career)
http://wn.com/Recondita_armonia_Tosca;_Puccini__Ken_Neate,_1956
RENATA TEBALDI "Vissi d`arte" Tosca (Puccini) 1956
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:10
- Published: 29 Sep 2010
- Uploaded: 16 Sep 2011
- Author: Addiobelpassato
Renata Tebaldi sings "Vissi d`arte" from Tosca by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera DIMITRI MITROPOULOS, conductor recorded 07.I.1956
http://wn.com/RENATA_TEBALDI_Vissi_d`arte_Tosca_Puccini_1956
Maria CALLAS - Puccini: Tosca "VISSI D'ARTE" - New York 25/11/1956
Maria CALLAS - Puccini: Tosca "VISSI D'ARTE" - New York 25/11/1956
http://wn.com/Maria_CALLAS__Puccini_Tosca_VISSI_D'ARTE__New_York_25/11/1956
PUCCINI: Tosca by Oliviero De Fabritiis 1956 Franca Duval, Maria Caniglia, Franco Corelli
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:54
- Published: 24 May 2010
- Uploaded: 09 Dec 2011
- Author: goclassiccokr
푸치니: "토스카" 프랑카 뒤발 (토스카) 마리아 카니글리아 (토스카의 목소리) 프랑코 코렐리 (카바라도시) 1956 Mono Rome HARDY
http://wn.com/PUCCINI_Tosca_by_Oliviero_De_Fabritiis_1956_Franca_Duval,_Maria_Caniglia,_Franco_Corelli
Z. Milanov & J. Bjorling "Mario, Mario!" Tosca Live 1956
Metropolitan Opera April 4, 1956
http://wn.com/Z_Milanov_J_Bjorling_Mario,_Mario!_Tosca_Live_1956
Anita Cerquetti- Vissi d'arte (1956)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:06
- Published: 17 Aug 2009
- Uploaded: 20 Nov 2011
- Author: BigTezza12
Italian soprano Anita Cerquetti (1931-) sings Vissi d'arte from Puccini's Tosca. An absolutely spectacular voice, Cerquetti had a very brief career, retiring from the stage before she turned 30. However, the recordings she did leave show a gleaming dramatic soprano, with soaring top notes and beautiful phrasing. All in all, one of my favourite sopranos. Please enjoy! Recorded in 1956.
http://wn.com/Anita_Cerquetti_Vissi_d'arte_1956
Z. Milanov & J. Bjorling "Or lasciami" Tosca Live 1956
Metropolitan Opera April 4, 1956
http://wn.com/Z_Milanov_J_Bjorling_Or_lasciami_Tosca_Live_1956
Maria Callas: "Tosca" act.2 (5/5) "Murder Scene"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:59
- Published: 25 Apr 2009
- Uploaded: 08 Dec 2011
- Author: Diegooover
Maria Callas "Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini act.2 part.5 Tosca: Maria Callas Cavaradossi: Renato Cioni Scarpia: Tito Gobbi Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Convent Garden: Carlo Felice Cillario (1964) Directed by: Franco Zeffirelli
http://wn.com/Maria_Callas_Tosca_act2_5/5_Murder_Scene
RICHARD TUCKER " Mario Cavaradossi...E lucevan le stelle"Tosca (Puccini) 1956
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:34
- Published: 29 Sep 2010
- Uploaded: 28 Nov 2011
- Author: Addiobelpassato
Richard Tucker sings "Mario Cavaradossi...E lucevan le stelle" from Tosca by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) Calvin Marsh (Un Carciere) Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera DIMITRI MITROPOULOS, conductor recorded 07.I.1956
http://wn.com/RICHARD_TUCKER__Mario_CavaradossiE_lucevan_le_stelleTosca_Puccini_1956
Maria Callas: "Tosca" act.2 (3/5)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:13
- Published: 24 Apr 2009
- Uploaded: 02 Dec 2011
- Author: Diegooover
Maria Callas "Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini act.2 part.3 Tosca: Maria Callas Cavaradossi: Renato Cioni Scarpia: Tito Gobbi Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Convent Garden: Carlo Felice Cillario (1964) Directed by: Franco Zeffirelli
http://wn.com/Maria_Callas_Tosca_act2_3/5
Maria Callas: "Tosca" act. 2 (2/5)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:41
- Published: 24 Apr 2009
- Uploaded: 02 Dec 2011
- Author: Diegooover
Maria Callas: "Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini act.2 part. 2 Tosca: Maria Callas Cavaradissi: Renato Cioni Scarpia: Tito Gobbi Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Convent Garden: Carlo Felice Cillario (1964) Directed by: Franco Zeffirelli
http://wn.com/Maria_Callas_Tosca_act_2_2/5
R. TEBALDI & L. WARREN "Vedi, le man giunte" Tosca (Puccini) 1956
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:22
- Published: 29 Sep 2010
- Uploaded: 16 Sep 2011
- Author: Addiobelpassato
Renata Tebaldi and Leonard Warren sing "Vedi, le man giunte" from Tosca by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) Alessio de Paolis (Spoletta) Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera DIMITRI MITROPOULOS, conductor recorded 07.I.1956
http://wn.com/R_TEBALDI_L_WARREN_Vedi,_le_man_giunte_Tosca_Puccini_1956
Franco Corelli - Recondita armonia (1956 film)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:20
- Published: 11 Apr 2010
- Uploaded: 04 Dec 2011
- Author: GermanOperaSinger
Just a little experiment I did. I've never found this film played at the correct speed, so I thought I'd try to tweak the speed so the audio is now played at the original speed. Unfortunately, this makes the video completely out of sync. Hope you at least enjoy the audio: Corelli here actually sounds like himself and not like a chipmunk. User 'macciboma' posted the original video, which was pitched a half step higher. The reason these films are always pitched incorrectly (read my comment on 'macciboma's video) is because European VCR's run on a different speed than US ones. And when a European video cassette is played on an American VCR, the speed is always slightly faster - if it's music, it's always a half step higher.
http://wn.com/Franco_Corelli__Recondita_armonia_1956_film
Maria Callas: "Tosca" act. 2 (1/5)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:41
- Published: 24 Apr 2009
- Uploaded: 02 Dec 2011
- Author: Diegooover
Maria Callas: "Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini act. 2 part. 1 Tosca: Maria Callas Cavaradossi: Renato Cioni Scarpia: Tito Gobbi Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Convent Garden: Carlo Felice Cillario (1964) Directed by: Franco Zeffirelli
http://wn.com/Maria_Callas_Tosca_act_2_1/5
Maria Callas- Tosca, second Act part 2
Maria Callas Tosca Part 2 Second Act, Begining (2) at Covent Garden
http://wn.com/Maria_Callas_Tosca,_second_Act_part_2
Beno Blachut: Tosca - E lucevan le stelle
It' sung in Czech, because it was common at the time. Singers were not allowed to travel in the days of early communism in Czechoslovakia. Some people emigrated, like eg Jarmila Novotná, but many artist's international careers were ruined by the Nazist and the subsequent Communist regimes. Beno Blachut was arguably the best Czech tenor. This piece was recorded in 1956, when he was 43.
http://wn.com/Beno_Blachut_Tosca__E_lucevan_le_stelle
FRANCO CORELLI IN TOSCA - COLOUR FILM
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:01
- Published: 20 Mar 2010
- Uploaded: 29 Oct 2011
- Author: TAUBERFANLEHAR2
A YOUNG FRANCO CORELLI AS MARIO CAVARADOSSI... ENJOY!!!
http://wn.com/FRANCO_CORELLI_IN_TOSCA__COLOUR_FILM
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Yahoo Daily News
Infometis AG, a TOSCA Certified Implementation Partner, offers a certified extension for the TOSCA Testsuite for test automation of the Avaloq banking system. The "Certified 3rd Party TOSCA extension" certification was awarded to Infometis and passed a thorough quality check by TRICENTIS....
size: 9.7Kb
size: 9.7Kb
Bloomberg
A hurried execution is about to take place in a dark and decaying city. The fearful victim pleads on his knees for death to end his suffering. It’s an unusual way to start a comedy. Thankfully, Dominic Cooke is a sure-handed director who can flip tone on a tuppence. Because “The Comedy of Errors” at...
size: 4.7Kb
size: 4.7Kb
Business Wire
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tosca Mining Corporation (TSQ.V; US: TSMNF; FSE:TQ4)(Pink Sheets: TSMNF) today announced it has received assay results for the remaining 13 holes from its 4,873 metre (16,000 ft.) phase two diamond drill program carried out at the Red Hills...
size: 125.4Kb
size: 125.4Kb
Tosca, English National Opera (3/5)
29 Nov 2011
The Independent
The result was first unveiled last year: now it’s in revival, we can see more clearly how it shapes up to the work’s perennial challenges, the biggest of which lie in the central roles. Memories of Callas or Gheorghiu as Tosca, and of Sergei Leiferkus or Bryn Terfel as Scarpia, are not erased with...
size: 2.2Kb
size: 2.2Kb
Tosca, Eno - review
28 Nov 2011
London Evening Standard
A celebrated exponent of the title role herself, Catherine Malfitano brought unique insights to her new Tosca last year. Supervising the revival herself, she has sharpened the stage action even further, in conjunction with Stephen Lord's powerfully driven conducting, creating a truly visceral...
size: 2.2Kb
size: 2.2Kb
Tosca – review
27 Nov 2011
The Guardian
Coliseum, London 4 Lyrical ease ... Claire Rutter and Gwyn Hughes Jones in Tosca at the Coliseum, London. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian...
size: 3.4Kb
size: 3.4Kb
Carmen (2009) and Tosca (2008)
26 Nov 2011
The Examiner
‘Carmen’ screens at the Gene Siskel Film Center on Saturday, November 26th at 3:00 P.M. and Monday, November 28th at 6:30 P.M. ‘Tosca’ will be screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center Saturday, December 3rd at 3:00 P.M. and Thursday, December 8th at 6:00 P.M. Richard Wagner...
size: 10.3Kb
size: 10.3Kb
WOW me Wednesday at Mama Tosca
18 Nov 2011
The Examiner
Every Wednesday you will find me, Arleana Waller, your committed Bakersfield Neighborhood Examiner, getting over hump day at a local restaurant, looking to be wowzereekered, by the food, service, atmosphere, something, anything; and of course reporting back to you. This Wednesday, I decided to get...
size: 7.6Kb
size: 7.6Kb
Business Wire
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Tosca Mining Corporation (TSQ.V; US: TSMNF; FSE:TQ4) announces it has received assay results for two additional holes (TMC-17 and TMC-18) from its 4,873 metre (16,000 ft.) two phase diamond drill program carried out at the Red Hills Molybdenum-Copper project, located in...
size: 17.0Kb
size: 17.0Kb
Tosca () is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dramatic play, La Tosca, is a melodramatic piece set in Rome in June 1800, with the Kingdom of Naples's control of Rome threatened by Napoleon's invasion of Italy. It contains depictions of torture, murder and suicide, yet also includes some of Puccini's best-known lyrical arias, and has inspired memorable performances from many of opera's leading singers.
Scene: Inside the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome, 1800
Cesare Angelotti, former consul of the Roman Republic and then a political prisoner, runs into the church and hides in the Attavanti private chapel—his sister is the Marchesa Attavanti. The painter Mario Cavaradossi arrives to continue work on his picture of Mary Magdalene. He exchanges banter with an elderly sacristan, before singing of the "hidden harmony" (Recondita armonia) in the contrast between the blonde beauty of his painting and that of his dark-haired lover, the singer Floria Tosca. The sacristan mumbles his disapproval before leaving.
Scene: Scarpia's apartment in the Palazzo Farnese, that evening
Scarpia, at supper, sends a note to Tosca asking her to join him. His henchman Spoletta announces the arrest of Cavaradossi, who is brought in to be questioned about the location of Angelotti. As the painter is questioned, the voice of Tosca, singing in a celebratory cantata offstage, can be heard. Cavaradossi denies knowing anything about the escape, and, after Tosca arrives, is taken to an antechamber to be tortured. He is able to speak briefly with her, telling her to say nothing. Tosca is told by Scarpia that she can save her lover from indescribable pain if she reveals Angelotti's hiding place. She resists, but hearing Cavaradossi's cries, eventually yields the secret.
Scene: The upper parts of the Castel Sant' Angelo, early the following morning
Offstage, a shepherd boy sings (in Romanesco dialect) Io de' sospiri ("I give you sighs") as church bells sound for matins. In the Castel Cavaradossi is informed that he has one hour to live. He refuses the offer of a priest but is allowed to write a letter which he begins, but is soon overwhelmed by his memories of Tosca: E lucevan le stelle ("And the stars shone"). Tosca enters and shows him the safe-conduct. She reveals that she has killed Scarpia, and that the imminent execution is a sham; Cavaradossi must feign death, but afterwards they can leave Rome together, before the discovery of Scarpia's body. Cavaradossi is amazed at the courage shown by one so tender: O dolci mani ("Oh sweet hands pure and gentle"). They then sing of the life they will share, though Tosca is worried whether Cavaradossi can play his part in the mock execution convincingly.
[a] complete triumph", and Ricordi's London representative quickly signed a contract to take Tosca to New York. The premiere at the Metropolitan Opera (the "Met") was on 1901, with De Lucia's replacement by Giuseppe Cremonini the only change from the London cast. For its French premiere at l'Opéra Comique on 1903, the 72-year-old Sardou took charge of all the action on the stage. Puccini was delighted with the public's reception of the work in Paris, despite adverse comments from critics. The opera was subsequently premiered at venues throughout Europe, the Americas, Australia and the Far East; by the outbreak of war in 1914 it had been performed in more than 50 cities worldwide.
[Puccini] finds in his palette all colours, all shades; in his hands, the instrumental texture becomes completely supple, the gradations of sonority are innumerable, the blend unfailingly grateful to the ear." However, one critic described Act II as overly long and wordy; another echoed Illica and Giacosa in stating that the rush of action did not permit enough lyricism, to the great detriment of the music. A third called the opera "three hours of noise".
Libretto
Full Piano Score with notes
Puccini saw Sardou's play when it was touring Italy in 1889 and, after some vacillation, obtained the rights to turn the work into an opera in 1895. Turning the wordy French play into a succinct Italian opera took four years, during which the composer repeatedly argued with his librettists and publisher. Tosca premiered at a time of unrest in Rome, and its first performance was delayed for a day for fear of disturbances. Despite indifferent reviews from the critics, the opera was an immediate success with the public.
Musically, Tosca is structured as a through-composed work, with arias, recitative, choruses and other elements musically woven into a seamless whole. Puccini used Wagnerian leitmotifs (short musical statements) to identify characters, objects and ideas. While critics have frequently dismissed the opera as a facile melodrama with confusions of plot—musicologist Joseph Kerman famously called it a "shabby little shocker"—the power of its score and the inventiveness of its orchestration have been widely acknowledged. The dramatic force of Tosca and its characters continues to fascinate both performers and audiences, and the work remains one of the most frequently performed operas. Many recordings of the work have been issued, both of studio and live performances.
Background
The French playwright Victorien Sardou wrote more than 70 plays, almost all of them successful, and none of them performed today. In the early 1880s Sardou began a collaboration with the immensely popular actress Sarah Bernhardt, whom he provided with a series of historical melodramas. He reached his greatest glory with the third Bernhardt play, La Tosca, which premiered in Paris on 1887, and in which she starred throughout Europe. The play was an outstanding success, with more than 3,000 performances in France alone.Puccini had seen La Tosca at least twice, in Milan and Turin. On 1889 he wrote to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, begging him to get Sardou's permission for the work to be made into an opera: "I see in this Tosca the opera I need, with no overblown proportions, no elaborate spectacle, nor will it call for the usual excessive amount of music." Ricordi sent his agent in Paris, Emanuele Muzio, to negotiate with Sardou, who preferred that his play be adapted by a French composer. He complained about the reception La Tosca had received in Italy, particularly in Milan, and also warned that other composers were interested in the piece. Nonetheless, Ricordi reached terms with Sardou, and assigned the librettist Luigi Illica to write a scenario for an adaptation. In 1891, however, Illica advised Puccini against the project, most likely because he felt the play could not be successfully adapted to a musical form. When Sardou indicated his unease at entrusting his most successful work to the as-yet-unproven Puccini, whose music he did not like, Puccini took offence. He withdrew from the agreement, which Ricordi then assigned to Alberto Franchetti.
Illica wrote a libretto for Franchetti who, however, was never at ease with the assignment. There are several versions of how Ricordi got Franchetti to surrender the rights so he could recommission Puccini, who had again become interested. By some accounts, Ricordi convinced Franchetti that the work was too violent to be successfully staged. Franchetti family tradition holds that Franchetti gave the work back as a grand gesture, "He has more talent than I do." American scholar Deborah Burton contends that Franchetti gave it up simply because he saw little merit in it and could not feel the music in the play. Franchetti surrendered the rights in May 1895, and in August Puccini signed a contract to resume control of the project.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 14 January 1900(Conductor: Leopoldo Mugnone) |
| Floria Tosca, a celebrated singer | soprano | |
| Mario Cavaradossi, a painter | tenor | |
| Baron Scarpia, chief of police | baritone | |
| Cesare Angelotti, former Consul of the Roman Republic | ||
| A Sacristan | baritone | |
| Spoletta, a police agent | tenor | |
| Sciarrone, a gendarme | bass | |
| A Jailer | bass | |
| A Shepherd boy | alto | |
Synopsis
Historical context
According to the libretto, the action of Tosca occurs in June 1800. Sardou, in his play, dates it more precisely; La Tosca takes place in the afternoon, evening, and early morning of 17 and 1800.Italy had long been divided into a number of small states, with the Pope in Rome ruling the Papal States in the area of central Italy. Following the French Revolution, a French army under Napoleon invaded Italy in 1796, entering Rome almost unopposed on 1798 and establishing a republic there. This republic was ruled by seven consuls; in the opera this is the former office of Angelotti, whose character may be based on the real-life consul Libero Angelucci. In September 1799 the French, who had protected the republic, withdrew from Rome. As they left, troops of the Kingdom of Naples occupied the city.
In May 1800 Napoleon, by then the unquestioned leader of France, brought his troops across the Alps to Italy once again. On his army met the Austrian forces at the Battle of Marengo (near Alessandria). Austrian troops were initially successful; by mid-morning they were in control of the field of battle, and their leader, Michael von Melas sent this news south towards Rome. However, fresh French troops arrived in late afternoon, and Napoleon attacked the tired Austrians. As Melas retreated in disarray with the remains of his army, he sent a second courier south with the revised message. The Neapolitans abandoned Rome, and the city spent the next fourteen years under French domination.
Act 1
Angelotti emerges and tells Cavaradossi, an old friend who has republican sympathies, that he is being pursued by the royalist police chief Scarpia. Cavaradossi promises to assist him, before Angelotti hurriedly returns to his hiding place as Tosca arrives. After enquiring suspiciously of the painter what he has been doing, Tosca sings of her desire for a night of mutual passion: Non la sospiri, la nostra casetta ("Do you not long for our little house"). She then expresses jealousy over the woman in the painting whom she recognises as the Marchesa. Cavaradossi explains the likeness; he has merely observed the Marchesa at prayer in the church. He reassures Tosca of his fidelity before she leaves. Angelotti reappears, and discusses with the painter his plan to flee disguised as a woman, using clothes left in the chapel by his sister.
The sound of a cannon signals that Angelotti's escape has been discovered. As he and Cavaradossi rapidly leave the church the sacristan re-enters with groups of choristers, celebrating the news that Napoleon has apparently been defeated at Marengo. The celebrations cease abruptly with the entry of Scarpia, who is searching for Angelotti. He questions the sacristan, and his suspicions are aroused when he learns that Cavaradossi has been in the church; Scarpia mistrusts the painter, and believes him complicit in Angelotti's escape. When Tosca arrives looking for her lover, Scarpia artfully arouses her jealous instincts by implying a relationship between the painter and the Marchesa. He draws Tosca's attention to a woman's fan, found in the chapel, and suggests that someone must have surprised the lovers there. Tosca falls for his deceit; enraged, she rushes off to confront Cavaradossi. Scarpia orders his agents to follow her, assuming she will lead them to Cavaradossi and Angelotti, and privately gloats as he reveals his intentions to ravish Tosca and hang Cavaradossi. A procession enters the church singing the Te Deum; finally Scarpia's reverie is broken and he joins the chorus in the prayer.
Act 2
Cavaradossi is brought back to the apartment where he recovers consciousness and, learning of Tosca's betrayal, is initially furious with her. Then news arrives of Napoleon's victory at Marengo; Cavaradossi gives a defiant "victory" shout before being taken away. Scarpia, left with Tosca, proposes a bargain: if she gives herself to him, Cavaradossi will be freed. She is revolted, and repeatedly rejects his advances. Outside she hears the drums which announce an execution; as Scarpia awaits her decision, she sings a fervent prayer: Vissi d'arte ("I lived for art, I lived for love, never did I harm a living creature ... why, O Lord, why dost thou repay me thus?"). Scarpia remains adamant despite her pleas. When Spoletta brings news that Angelotti has killed himself, Scarpia announces that Cavaradossi must face a firing squad the next morning. He tells Tosca that if she will submit to him, he will arrange for this to be a mock execution. Scarpia tells his deputy the execution is to be simulated. He stresses that it will be "as we did with Count Palmieri", and Spoletta states that he understands his instructions.
Tosca, in despair, agrees, on condition that Scarpia will provide a safe-conduct for herself and her lover. Scarpia assents, and signs the document. As he approaches to embrace her she stabs him to death with a knife she has taken from the supper table. After cursing him and securing the safe-conduct, in a gesture of piety she lights candles and places a crucifix on the body before leaving quietly.
Act 3
Cavaradossi is led away, and Tosca watches with increasing impatience as the final rituals are carried out. After a volley of shots, Cavaradossi falls, and Tosca exclaims Ecco un artista! ("What an actor!"). When the soldiers have all left, she hurries towards Cavaradossi, to find that he is dead; Scarpia has betrayed his word. Heartbroken, she throws herself across the body. Off-stage voices indicate that Scarpia's body has been found, and that Tosca's guilt is known. As Spoletta and the soldiers rush in, Tosca rises, evades their clutches, and runs to the parapet. With a last cry that Scarpia will answer before God, she hurls herself over the edge.
Adaptation and writing
Sardou's five-act play La Tosca contains a large amount of dialogue and exposition. While the broad details of the play are present in the opera's plot, the original work contains many more characters and much detail not present in the opera. In the play the lovers are portrayed as though they were French: the character Floria Tosca is closely modelled on Bernhardt's personality, while her lover Cavaradossi, of Roman descent, is born in Paris. Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, the playwright who joined the project to polish the verses, needed not only to cut back the play drastically, but to make the characters' motivations and actions suitable for Italian opera. Giacosa and Puccini repeatedly clashed over the condensation, with Giacosa feeling that Puccini did not really want to complete the project.The first draft libretto that Illica produced for Puccini resurfaced in 2000 after being lost for many years. It contains considerable differences from the final libretto, relatively minor in the first two acts but much more appreciable in the third, where the description of the Roman dawn that opens the third act is much longer, and Cavaradossi's tragic aria, the eventual E lucevan le stelle, has different words. The 1896 libretto also offers a different ending, in which Tosca does not die but instead goes mad. In the final scene, she cradles her lover's head in her lap and hallucinates that she and her Mario are on a gondola, and that she is asking the gondolier for silence. Sardou refused to consider this change, insisting that as in the play, Tosca must throw herself from the parapet to her death. Puccini agreed with Sardou, telling him that the mad scene would have the audiences anticipate the ending and start moving towards the cloakrooms. Puccini pressed his librettists hard, and Giacosa issued a series of melodramatic threats to abandon the work. The two librettists were finally able to give Puccini what they hoped was a final version of the libretto in 1898.
Little work was done on the score during 1897, which Puccini devoted mostly to performances of La bohème. The opening page of the autograph Tosca score, containing the motif that would be associated with Scarpia, is dated January 1898. At Puccini's request, Giacosa irritably provided new lyrics for the Act 1 love duet. In August, Puccini removed several numbers from the opera, according to his biographer, Mary Jane Phillips-Matz, "cut
Puccini asked clerical friends for words for the congregation to mutter at the start of the Act 1 Te Deum; when nothing they gave him satisfied him, he supplied the words himself. For the Te Deum music, he investigated the melodies to which the hymn was set in Roman churches, and sought to reproduce the cardinal's procession authentically, even to the uniforms of the Swiss Guards. He adapted the music to the exact pitch of the great bell of St. Peter's Basilica, and was equally diligent when writing the music that opens Act 3, in which Rome awakens to the sounds of church bells. He journeyed to Rome and went to the Castel Sant'Angelo to measure the sound of matins bells there, as they would be heard from its ramparts. Puccini had bells for the Roman dawn cast to order by four different foundries. This apparently did not have its desired effect, as Illica wrote to Ricordi on the day after the premiere, "the great fuss and the large amount of money for the bells have constituted an additional folly, because it passes completely unnoticed". Nevertheless, the bells provide a source of trouble and expense to opera companies performing Tosca to this day.
In Act 2, when Tosca sings offstage the cantata that celebrates the supposed defeat of Napoleon, Puccini was tempted to follow the text of Sardou's play and use the music of Giovanni Paisiello, before finally writing his own imitation of Paisello's style. It was not until 1899 that Puccini was able to mark the final page of the score as completed. Despite the notation, there was additional work to be done, such as the shepherd boy's song at the start of Act 3. Puccini, who always sought to put local colour in his works, wanted that song to be in Roman dialect. The composer asked a friend to have a "good romesco poet" write some words; eventually the well-known poet and folklorist, Luigi Zanazzo wrote the verse which, after slight modification, was placed in the opera.
In October 1899 Ricordi realized that some of the music for Cavaradossi's Act 3 aria, O dolci mani was borrowed from music Puccini had cut from his early opera, Edgar and demanded changes. Puccini defended his music as expressive of what Cavaradossi must be feeling at that point, and offered to come to Milan to play and sing Act 3 for the publisher. Ricordi was overwhelmed by the completed Act 3 prelude, which he received in early November, and softened his views, though he was still not completely happy with the music for O dolci mani. In any event time was too short before the scheduled January 1900 premiere to make any further changes.
Reception and performance history
Premiere
By December 1899, Tosca was in rehearsal at the Teatro Costanzi. Because of the Roman setting, Ricordi arranged a Roman premiere for the opera, even though this meant that Arturo Toscanini could not conduct it as Puccini had hoped—Toscanini was fully engaged at La Scala in Milan. Leopoldo Mugnone was appointed to conduct. The accomplished (but temperamental) soprano Hariclea Darclée was selected for the title role; Eugenio Giraldoni, whose father had originated multiple Verdi roles, became the first Scarpia. The young Enrico Caruso had hoped to create Cavaradossi, but was passed over in favour of the more experienced Emilio de Marchi. The performance was to be directed by Nino Vignuzzi, with stage designs by Adolfo Hohenstein.At the time of the premiere, Italy had experienced political and social unrest for several years. The start of the Holy Year in December 1899 attracted the religious to the city, but also brought threats from anarchists and other anticlericals. Police received warnings of an anarchist bombing of the theatre, and instructed Mugnone (who had survived a theatre bombing in Barcelona), that in an emergency he was to strike up the royal march. The unrest caused the premiere to be postponed by one day, to .
By 1900, the premiere of a Puccini opera was a national event. Many Roman dignitaries attended, as did Queen Margherita, though she arrived late, after the first act. The Prime Minister of Italy, Luigi Pelloux was present, with several members of his cabinet. A number of Puccini's operatic rivals were there, including Franchetti, Pietro Mascagni, Francesco Cilea and Ildebrando Pizzetti. Shortly after the curtain was raised there was a disturbance in the back of the theatre, caused by latecomers attempting to enter the auditorium, and a shout of "Bring down the curtain!", at which Mugnone stopped the orchestra. A few moments later the opera began again, and proceeded without further disturbance.
The performance, while not quite the triumph that Puccini had hoped for, was generally successful, with numerous encores. Much of the critical and press reaction was lukewarm, often blaming Illica's libretto. In response, Illica condemned Puccini for treating his librettists "like stagehands" and reducing the text to a shadow of its original form. Nevertheless, any public doubts about Tosca soon vanished; the premiere was followed by twenty performances, all given to packed houses.
Subsequent productions
The Milan premiere at La Scala took place under Toscanini on 1900. Darclée and Giraldoni reprised their roles; the prominent tenor Giuseppe Borgatti replaced de Marchi as Cavaradossi. The opera was a great success at La Scala, and played to full houses. Puccini travelled to London for the British premiere at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on , with Milka Ternina and Fernando De Lucia as the doomed lovers and Antonio Scotti as Scarpia. Puccini wrote that Tosca was "Among the prominent early Toscas was Emmy Destinn, who sang the role regularly in a long-standing partnership with the tenor Enrico Caruso. Maria Jeritza, over many years at the Met and in Vienna, brought her own distinctive style to the role, and was said to be Puccini's ideal Tosca. Jeritza was the first to deliver Vissi d'arte from a prone position, having fallen to the stage while eluding the grasp of Scarpia. This was a great success, and Jeritza sang the aria lying down thereafter. Of her successors, opera enthusiasts tend to consider Maria Callas as the supreme interpreter of the role, largely on the basis of her performances at the Royal Opera House in 1964, with Tito Gobbi as Scarpia. This production, by Franco Zeffirelli, remained in continuous use at Covent Garden for more than 40 years until replaced in 2006 by a new staging, which premiered with Angela Gheorghiu. Callas had first sung Tosca at age 18 in a performance given in Greek, in Athens on 1942. Tosca was also her last on-stage operatic role, in a special charity performance at the Royal Opera House on 1965.
Among non-traditional productions, in 1996 at La Scala Luca Ronconi used distorted and fractured scenery to represent the twists of fate reflected in the plot. Jonathan Miller, in a 1986 production for the 49th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, transferred the action to Nazi-occupied Rome in 1944, with Scarpia as head of the fascist police. In Philipp Himmelmann's production on the Lake Stage at the Bregenz Festival in 2007 the Act 1 set, designed by Johannes Leiacker, was dominated by a huge Orwellian "Big Brother" eye. The iris opens and closes to reveal surreal scenes beyond the action. This production updates the story to a modern Mafia scenario, with special effects "worthy of a Bond film".
In 1992 a television version of the opera was filmed at the locations prescribed by Puccini, at the times of day at which each act takes place. Featuring Catherine Malfitano, Plácido Domingo and Ruggero Raimondi, the performance was broadcast live throughout Europe. Luciano Pavarotti, who sang Cavaradossi from the late 1970s, appeared in a special performance in Rome on 2000, to celebrate the opera's centenary with Domingo as conductor. Pavarotti's last stage performance was as Cavaradossi at the Met, on 2004.
Early Cavaradossis played the part as if the painter believed that he was reprieved, and would survive the "mock" execution. Beniamino Gigli, who performed the role many times in his forty-year operatic career, was one of the first to assume that the painter knows, or strongly suspects, that he will be shot. Gigli wrote in his autobiography: "he is certain that these are their last moments together on earth, and that he is about to die". Domingo, the dominant Cavaradossi of the 1970s and 1980s, concurred, stating in a 1985 interview that he had long played the part that way. Gobbi, who in his later years often directed the opera, commented, "Unlike Floria, Cavaradossi knows that Scarpia never yields, though he pretends to believe in order to delay the pain for Tosca."
Critical reception
The enduring popularity of Tosca has not been matched by consistent critical enthusiasm. After the premiere, Ippolito Valetta of Nueva antologia wrote, "The critics gave the work a generally kinder reception in London, where The Times called Puccini "a master in the art of poignant expression", and praised the "wonderful skill and sustained power" of the music. In The Musical Times, Puccini's score was admired for its sincerity and "strength of utterance." However, after the 1903 Paris opening, the composer Paul Dukas thought the work lacked cohesion and style, while Gabriel Fauré was offended by "disconcerting vulgarities". More recently the musicologist Joseph Kerman described Tosca as a "shabby little shocker", while the composer Benjamin Britten declared that he was "sickened by the cheapness and emptiness" of Puccini's music. Veteran critic Ernest Newman, while acknowledging the "enormously difficult business of boiling [Sardou's] play down for operatic purposes," writes that the subtleties of Sardou's original plot are handled "very lamely", so that "much of what happens, and why, is unintelligible to the spectator". Overall, however, Newman delivers a more positive judgement: "[Puccini's] operas are to some extent a mere bundle of tricks, but no one else has performed the same tricks nearly as well". Opera scholar Julian Budden remarks on Puccini's "inept handling of the political element", but still hails the work as "a triumph of pure theatre". Music critic Charles Osborne ascribes Tosca's immense popularity with audiences to the taut effectiveness of its melodramatic plot, the opportunities given to its three leading characters to shine vocally and dramatically, and the presence of two great arias in Vissi d'arte and E lucevan le stelle. The work remains popular today; it was the second-most performed opera in North America in 2008–2009, surpassed only by Puccini's La bohème.
Music
General style
By the end of the 19th century the classic form of opera structure, in which arias, duets and other set-piece vocal numbers are interspersed with passages of recitative or dialogue, had been largely abandoned, even in Italy. Operas were "through-composed", with a continuous stream of music which in some cases eliminated all identifiable set-pieces. In what critic Edward Greenfield calls the "Grand Tune" concept, Puccini retains a limited number of set-pieces, distinguished from their musical surroundings by their memorable melodies. Even in the passages linking these "Grand Tunes", Puccini maintains a strong degree of lyricism and only rarely resorts to recitative.
Budden describes Tosca as the most Wagnerian of Puccini's scores, in its use of musical leitmotifs. Unlike Wagner, Puccini does not develop or modify his motifs, nor weave them into the music symphonically, but uses them to refer to characters, objects and ideas, and as reminders within the narrative. The most potent of these motifs is the sequence of three very loud and strident chords which open the opera and which represent the evil character of Scarpia—or perhaps, Charles Osborne proposes, the violent atmosphere that pervades the entire opera. Budden has suggested that Scarpia's tyranny, lechery and lust form "the dynamic engine that ignites the drama". Other motifs identify Tosca herself, the love of Tosca and Cavaradossi, the fugitive Angelotti, the semi-comical character of the sacristan in Act 1 and the theme of torture in Act 2.
Act 1
The opera begins without any prelude; the opening chords of the Scarpia motif lead immediately to the agitated appearance of Angelotti and the enunciation of the "fugitive" motif. The sacristan's entry, accompanied by his sprightly buffo theme, lifts the mood, as does the generally light-hearted colloquy with Cavaradossi which follows after the latter's entrance. This leads to the first of the "Grand Tunes", Cavaradossi's Recondita armonia with its sustained high B flat, accompanied by the sacristan's grumbling counter-melody. The domination, in that aria, of themes which will be repeated in the love duet make it clear that though the painting may incorporate the Marchesa's features, Tosca is the ultimate inspiration of his work. Cavaradossi's dialogue with Angelotti is interrupted by Tosca's arrival, signalled by her motif which incorporates, in Newman's words, "the feline, caressing cadence so characteristic of her." Though Tosca enters violently and suspiciously, the music paints her devotion and serenity. According to Budden, there is no contradiction: Tosca's jealousy is largely a matter of habit, which her lover does not take too seriously.After Tosca's Non la sospiri and the subsequent argument inspired by her jealousy, the sensuous character of the love duet Qual'occhio provides what opera writer Burton Fisher describes as "an almost erotic lyricism that has been called pornophony". The brief scene in which the sacristan returns with the choristers to celebrate Napoleon's supposed defeat provides almost the last carefree moments in the opera; after the entrance of Scarpia to his menacing theme, the mood becomes sombre, then steadily darker. As the police chief interrogates the sacristan, the "fugitive" motif recurs three more times, each time more emphatically, signalling Scarpia's success in his investigation. In Scarpia's exchanges with Tosca the sound of tolling bells, interwoven with the orchestra, creates an almost religious atmosphere, for which Puccini draws on music from his then unpublished Mass of 1880. The final scene in the act is a juxtaposition of the sacred and the profane, as Scarpia's lustful reverie is sung alongside the swelling Te Deum chorus. He joins with the chorus in the final statement Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur ("Everlasting Father, all the earth worships thee"), before the act ends with a thunderous restatement of the Scarpia motif.
Act 2
Fisher has observed that Puccini's was a tragic muse; in the second act of Tosca, according to Newman, he rises to his greatest height as a master of the musical macabre. The Act begins quietly, with Scarpia musing on the forthcoming downfall of Angelotti and Cavaradossi, while in the background a gavotte is played in a distant quarter of the Farnese Palace. For this music Puccini adapted a fifteen-year-old student exercise by his late brother, Michele, stating that in this way his brother could live again through him. In the dialogue with Spoletta, the "torture" motif—an "ideogram of suffering", according to Budden—is heard for the first time as a foretaste of what is to come. As Cavaradossi is brought in for interrogation, Tosca's voice is heard with the offstage chorus singing a cantata, "[its] suave strains contrast[ing] dramatically with the increasing tension and ever-darkening colour of the stage action". The cantata is most likely the Cantata a Giove, in the literature referred to as a lost work of Puccini's from 1897.Osborne describes the scenes that follow—Cavaradossi's interrogation, his torture, Scarpia's sadistic tormenting of Tosca—as Puccini's musical equivalent of grand guignol to which Cavaradossi's brief Vittoria! Vittoria! on the news of Napoleon's victory gives only partial relief. Scarpia's aria Già, mi dicon venal ("Yes, they say I am venal") is closely followed by Tosca's Vissi d'arte. A lyrical andante based on Tosca's Act 1 motif, this is perhaps the opera's best-known aria, yet was regarded by Puccini as a mistake; he considered eliminating it since it held up the action. Fisher calls it "a Job-like prayer questioning God for punishing a woman who has lived unselfishly and righteously". In the Act's finale, Newman likens the orchestral turmoil which follows Tosca's stabbing of Scarpia to the sudden outburst after the slow movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. After Tosca's contemptuous E avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma! ("All Rome trembled before him"), sung in a middle C monotone (sometimes spoken), the music gradually fades, ending "the most impressively macabre scene in all opera." The final notes in the act are those of the Scarpia motif, softly, in a minor key.
Act 3
The third act's tranquil beginning provides a brief respite from the drama. An introductory 16-bar theme for the horns will later be sung by Cavaradossi and Tosca in their final duet. The orchestral prelude which follows portrays the Roman dawn; the pastoral aura is accentuated by the shepherd boy's song, and the sounds of sheep bells and church bells, the authenticity of latter validated by Puccini's early morning visits to Rome. Themes reminiscent of Scarpia, Tosca and Cavaradossi emerge in the music, which changes tone as the drama resumes with Cavaradossi's entrance, to an orchestral statement of what becomes the melody of his aria E lucevan le stelle. This is a farewell to love and life, "an anguished lament and grief built around the words muoio disperato (I die in despair)". Puccini insisted on the inclusion of these words, and later stated that admirers of the aria had treble cause to be grateful to him: for composing the music, for having the lyrics written, and "for declining expert advice to throw the result in the waste-paper basket". The lovers' final duet Amaro sol per te, which concludes with the act's opening horn music, did not equate with Ricordi's idea of a transcendental love duet which would be a fitting climax to the opera. Puccini justified his musical treatment by citing Tosca's preoccupation with teaching Cavaradossi to feign death.In the execution scene which follows, a theme emerges, the incessant repetition of which reminded Newman of the Transformation Music which separates the two parts of Act I in Wagner's Parsifal. In the final bars, as Tosca evades Spoletta and leaps to her death, the theme of E lucevan le stelle is played tutta forze (as loudly as possible). This choice of ending has been strongly criticised by analysts, mainly because of its specific association with Cavaradossi rather than Tosca. Joseph Kerman mocked the final music, "Tosca leaps, and the orchestra screams the first thing that comes into its head." Budden, however, argues that it is entirely logical to end this dark opera on its blackest theme. According to historian and former opera singer Susan Vandiver Nicassio: "The conflict between the verbal and the musical clues gives the end of the opera a twist of controversy that, barring some unexpected discovery among Puccini's papers, can never truly be resolved."
List of arias and set numbers
| First lines | Performed by |
| Act 1 | |
| Recondita armonia ("Hidden harmony") | Cavaradossi |
| Non la sospiri, la nostra casetta("Do you not long for our little house") | Tosca, Cavaradossi |
| Qual'occhio("What eyes in the world") | Cavaradossi, Tosca |
| Va, Tosca!("Go, Tosca!") | Scarpia, Chorus |
| Te Deum laudamus("We praise thee, O God") | Scarpia, Chorus |
| Act 2 | |
| Ha più forte sapore("For myself the violent conquest") | Scarpia |
| Vittoria! Vittoria!("Victory! Victory!") | Cavaradossi |
| Già, mi dicon venal("Yes, they say that I am venal") | Scarpia |
| Vissi d'arte("I lived for art, I lived for love") | Tosca |
| Act 3 | |
| Io de' sospiri("I give you sighs") | Voice of a shepherd boy |
| E lucevan le stelle("And the stars shone") | Cavaradossi |
| O dolci mani("Oh, sweet hands") | Cavaradossi |
| Amaro sol per te m'era il morire("Only for you did death taste bitter for me"') | Cavaradossi, Tosca |
Recordings
The first complete Tosca recording was made in 1919, using the pre-microphone acoustic process. The conductor, Carlo Sabajno, had been The Gramophone Company's house conductor since 1904; he had made recordings of Verdi's Ernani and Rigoletto before tackling Tosca with a young and largely unknown cast. In 1929 Sabajno recorded the opera again, with the orchestra and chorus of the Teatro alla Scala and with star names Carmen Melis and Apollo Granforte in the roles of Tosca and Scarpia. In 1938 HMV secured the services of the renowned tenor Beniamino Gigli for a "practically complete" recording that extended over 14 double-sided shellac discs.
In the post-war period, following the invention of long-playing records, Tosca recordings were dominated by Maria Callas. The earliest of her recordings in the role were of two live performances in Mexico City, in 1950 and 1952. In 1953, with conductor Victor de Sabata and the La Scala forces, she made the recording which for decades has been considered the best of all the recorded performances of the opera. Callas made several more recordings, mainly of live stage performances, the last in 1965. The first stereo recording of the opera was made in 1959, with Francesco Molinari-Pradelli conducting the Santa Cecilia orchestra and chorus with Renata Tebaldi as Tosca and Mario del Monaco as Cavaradossi. Herbert von Karajan's acclaimed performance with the Vienna State Opera was in 1963, with Leontyne Price, Giuseppe di Stefano and Giuseppe Taddei in the leading roles.
The 1970s and 1980s saw a proliferation of recordings, many of live performances. Plácido Domingo first recorded Cavaradossi in 1973, and continued to do so at regular intervals until 1994. In 1976 he was joined by his son, Plácido Domingo Jr., who sang the shepherd boy's song in a British recording with the New Philharmonia Orchestra. More recent commended recordings have included Antonio Pappano's 2000 Royal Opera House version with Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna and Ruggero Raimondi; and Zubin Mehta's 2001 recording with Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Recordings of Tosca in languages other than Italian are rare but not unknown; over the years versions in French, German, Spanish, Hungarian and Russian have been issued. An admired English language version was released in 1995 in which David Parry led the Philharmonia Orchestra and a largely British cast. Since the late 1990s numerous video recordings of the opera have been issued on DVD and Blu-ray disc (BD). These include recent productions and remastered versions of historic performances.
Editions and amendments
The orchestral score of Tosca was published in late 1899 by Ricordi. Unlike with his other operas, Puccini appeared to be satisfied with his initial score, which remained relatively unchanged in the 1909 edition prepared by Osbourne McConachy. An unamended edition was published by Dover Press in 1991.
The 1909 score contains a number of minor changes from the autograph score. Some are changes of phrase: Cavaradossi's reply to the sacristan when he asks if the painter is doing penance is changed from "Pranzi" ("I have eaten.") to "Fame non ho" ("I am not hungry."), which William Ashbrook states, in his study of Puccini's operas, accentuates the class distinction between the two. When Tosca comforts Cavaradossi after the torture scene, she now tells him, "Ma il giusto Iddio lo punirá" ("But a just God will punish him"
Notes
References
(Note: this book was first published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1956)
Further reading
External links
Category:Operas by Giacomo Puccini Category:Verismo operas Category:Italian-language operas Category:1900 operas Category:Operas Category:Operas set in Italy Category:Operas based on plays
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