For me, this is one of those great recordings where you remember where you were when you first heard it. The first moment that really, really grabbed me was just before the Te Deum when Tosca is having a tantrum, then Scarpia chides her - "In chiesa!", and then Callas sings "Dio mio perdona. Egli vede ch'io piango!" I don't think that I've ever had as many goosebumps since that moment many years ago! 😊
Many years ago, I put on this Tosca and went about doing things in the house. I was in another room and had kind of forgotten it was playing when, suddenly, I heard a woman screaming as if she was being murdered. I ran in the direction of the scream, thinking someone needed help, and ran into the room where the final chords of Tosca were playing out on my sound system. Holy crap, what a realistic scream Callas could put out. Quite the dramatic actress indeed.
This recording has, for me, always been the definition of what opera can be. Three ‘lead’ singers who sound fantastic. And with the La Scala orchestra, who play slightly ‘sloppy’ in a purely latin way. I don’t speak Italian, and I don’t ned the liberetto. Because the singer do not just sing. They perform theater ! It’s also like Tarantino could have produced the whole thing. EVERYBODY dies. And what a glorious ending. I will never give up on this recording !!! greetings from Norway…..
@@bbailey7818 I find Taddei stronger on the earlier Philips recording conducted by Serafin. He’s still good for Karajan but too much of the interpretation is way too obvious. The strength of Scarpia is the way his viciousness and cruelty is swathed in elegance and suavity. You get that with Gobbi for deSabata
@@paxpaxart4740 as a combination of voice and actor Gobbi was a more complete and detailed artist than the others you mentioned. The only one who came close was MacNeil
I do enjoy you. Today you made me smile with your critique. This is my favorite Tosca. Call is her prime, de Stefano with the beautiful voice and my favorite Scarpia, Gobbi. He scares the hell out of me because he’s so evil. Gobbi was great. Where are the singers of today? Dead in the water.
Cette Tosca de 1953 est une version historique ! Un enregistrement mono solidement capté par les preneurs de son de chez Emi,Di Stefano est solaire, Gobbi incarne Scarpia à la perfection et Maria Callas est totalement inspirée et joue le rôle avec une intensité émotionnelle hallucinante...C'est ma version favorite depuis toujours !
Ive heard most every Tosca out there and, bunk or debunk, de Sabata's really is the best conducted, most perfectly paced Tosca out there. Each act is as if conceived in a single breath, every detail purposeful within the dramatic whole from start to finish. Karajan is too grandiose and lush. And de Sabata makes Puccini’s faltering inspiration in Act 3, especially the duet, seem of no account. Only Mitropoulos in live Met performances really comes up to the level of this thrilling studio recording. Sure, routiniers arent going to mess up a Tosca if the singers are compelling but this EMI is on a whole nother level. My .02 anyway.
I agree with pretty much everything you've said Dave. It's a magnificent Tosca, and probably remains my favourite, but it is absolutely not the be-all and end-all. Other than the performances you mentioned, I really enjoy: - Caniglia/Gigli/Borgioli/De Fabritiis, 1937, (Studio) - Tebaldi/Del Monaco/London/Molinari-Pradelli, 1959, (Studio) - Price/Corelli/MacNeil/Adler, 1962, (Live) - Vishnevskaya/Bonisolli/Manuguerra/Rostropovich, 1976, (Studio)
@@paxpaxart4740 I do really enjoy the Karajan recording, especially for the sonics, the playing and for Taddei, but Di Stefano lets the side down with his strained top.
This is one of the first operatic recordings I bought back in the '80's, and on listening to it again recently, I was struck by how conversaational and supple the musical approach is to the opera, an approach that really serves the highly inflected nature of the singing of both Callas and Gobbi.
Btw the upcoming Callas box will just be a compilation of the most recent Callas studio and live releases with one extra cd of unreleased studio material. Just another way for Warner to milk (AGAIN) that cash cow. Shameless
Great as usual and yes, my favorite Tosca is the Davis/Caballe/Carreras as well; Carreras singing “E lucevan le stelle” is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard - hard to believe that it’s actually a human voice!
Frankly, Leinsdorf's conducting in the Milanov-Bjoerling "Tosca" has wonders of nuance and detail that surpass even de Sabata in many passages of the opera. Both are quite wond4erful. And THEN, there is the stupendous Leonard Warren as Scarpia, who puts the fear of demons into one's ears and heart. That goes a long way to boost the R.C.A. set's claims, even if Milanov and Bjoerling do not really quite rival Callas and di Stefano. Several baritones or basses actually go well beyound what Gobbi accomplishes, due to Gobbi's lack of their power and darker vocal presence.
The strength of de Sabata’s conductung lies in the seriousness he brings to the performance. He neither gives the impression of being embarrassed by the work’s emotional force nor does he play it for cheap effect. There is an extra depth there as with Callas’s heroine. As you suggest, Tosca is not a conductor’s opera. De Sabata’s Tosca is not equivalent to, say, Furtwängler’s Tristan. My question is what precisely a conductor’s opera is. This would make a great talk.
In a music book I read that "This is one of the three or four existing recordings that serve to demonstrate the undoubted debt that culture owes to recording on discs." The others could be Wagner's Tristan and Isolde with Furtwangler, Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte with Karajan at EMI (now Warner)... which other one could it be? Difficult question. Greetings from Valencia (Spain)
According to the critic Terry Teachout: - This may be the best recording of anything ever made, a vade mecum of Italian operatic style and a priceless souvenir of the foremost singing actress of the 20th century. I am too young to have seen Callas in person, but the first of her two Tosca recordings makes it clear why she continues to be remembered by those who did.
I would add the La Boheme conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, with a dream cast of Victoria de los Angeles, Jussi Bjoerling, Robert Merrill, Lucine Amara, and Giorgio Tozzi. IMHO the greatest Boheme recording and one of the finest opera recordings ever, simply sparkles.
I don’t just think it’s me, as I’ve had this conversation several times over the years. But a number of music lovers admit that Tosca is ultimately their favourite Puccini opera. It’s compact, it does what it does remarkably efficiently (unlike Butterfly or Turandot or even La Boheme where the last act is a bit of a trial). Of course I like this recording but of course there are so many other good ones (Karajan, yes, Pappano etc) You didn’t say so but stereo does probably help with that orchestral richness
Tosca has always been my first opera for newbies. It has everything - love hate murder torture suicide blackmail - all in less than two hours!!! What’s not to like???
@@jaykauffman4775 Totally agree, I'm a big Di Stefano fan but by the early 60s he had lost his top. He's much better in the De Sabatsa recording and in his several live recordings. Taddei, though, is an outstanding Scarpia.
@@xxsaruman82xx87 I've always found the British critics' preference for Callas odd, as they tend to like 'pure' singers. As for Del Monaco, I think they hate(d) Corelli too. I remember reading a Ralph Moore review in which he expresses his befuddlement over how they could prefer Peter Pears's skinny sound to Del Monaco's enormous output. I guess they like "refinement," whatever that means.
Thanks for bringing some common sense to the discussion of this recording. It is a wonderful Tosca and great fun to hear. But there are many other fine performances both commercial studio ones and pirated versions. I agree that it is really almost foolproof. I still remember a dynamite Tosca by the Salmaggi Opera Company in Brooklyn with Gianni Millo (Aprile's father) as Cavaradossi. Gangbusters! And, please.........this endless series of Callas re-issues. Enough already. How many other treasures are waiting in the EMI/Warner vaults that could be shared with the world? So cynical.
Undoubtedly this 1953 EMI recording is a strong contender in the discography of Tosca, However, Tosca is hardly a major role in Callas' entire career and she actually disdained the role personally. She sang it on stage only a few times during her prime years out of her sense of responsibility to honour her contracts with opera houses. She did more of it in her later career because it made relatively less demands on her (by then) highly troubled top and Franco Zeffirelli's reconceptualisation of the role for his production of the opera made some sense to her. If the 1953 EMI set were the only recording she left to posterity, we would be much poorer. Her particular gifts are best manifested in the Classical and bel canto operas as well as early to middle period Verdi.
@@youtuber5305 Tosca was indeed Dorothy Kirsten’s last operatic performance (1979) - it seems you already know the fact. You probably may also know that it is also the role Maria Callas sang in what turned out to be her last operatic performance (July 5th, 1965, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden).
@@TobyS77 I don't think Tosca is 'less demanding.' It's pretty heavy, and I agree that Tosca was, from a purely vocal standpoint, never an 'ideal fit' for Callas as it was for, say, Tebaldi. Rather, I think that Tosca is less exposed than other roles in Callas's core repertory. One can kind of white-knuckle one's way through Tosca and still make a visceral impact, whereas roles like Norma reveal all the flaws in one's voice (as it indeed did do to her in 1965).
@@ER1CwC Yes, Tosca is a heavy role, I agree. Perhaps I should have put it more clearly. What I actually meant in my earlier comment is, compared to, say the bel canto roles, Tosca subjected Callas’ top register (in dire troubles in her late career) to relatively less exposure.
@@TobyS77 I agree with that. Most of the high Cs in Tosca (except for in Io quella lama) occur when the orchestra is going full blast, whereas the high Cs in Norma often occur when the orchestra is silent.
In addition to the added intensity of her portrayal, one of the benefits of the 2nd Callas recording is Bergonzi's Cavaradossi, vocally splendid and in my view both tonally and stylistically superior to Di Stefano. Even in 1953 Di Stefano's characteristically open-throated vocal production gives his singing a sense of strain that I've never found particularly appealing--and within a few years what honey there was had largely gone (unless he crooned) and by the Price/Karajan Tosca he was even more strained and shouty.
@@tom6693 I find that Di Stefano's way of singing conveyed red blooded, unrestrained passion. It could be effective, but certainly took its toll. However, Bergonzi's elegant, controlled and very intelligent technique is beyond reproach. Yes, he is a plus.
De Sabata conducted this performance way too fast and breathless, not allowing the phrases and music to breathe as they should.... Legendary? hadly!.. This is just one example of mythology among armchair "critics" who end up repeating an OPINION someone formerly stated, like "Vivaldi wrote one concerto hundreds of times" or "Karl Böhm was only a Kapellmeister", or the crazy adulation around Carlos Kleiber etc etc etc...
I do think that he (with the aid of the EMI engineers) gives us the most atmospheric opening to Act III on disc. No stereo necessary.@@DavesClassicalGuide
@phantomfantom Puccini himself said 'slow tempos kill me.' In Tosca they are especially damaging in Act 2 around "Ah! mostro lo strazi,' etc. It kills it dead when conductors drag that scene. Sabata observes all of Puccini's myriad directions, sometimes bar to bar, yet integrates them into a coherent, onward moving dramatic narrative which sees each act as a whole. In any case, there is nothing in the overall timing of each act or the whole that's anything out of the ordinary.
For me, this is one of those great recordings where you remember where you were when you first heard it. The first moment that really, really grabbed me was just before the Te Deum when Tosca is having a tantrum, then Scarpia chides her - "In chiesa!", and then Callas sings "Dio mio perdona. Egli vede ch'io piango!" I don't think that I've ever had as many goosebumps since that moment many years ago! 😊
Many years ago, I put on this Tosca and went about doing things in the house. I was in another room and had kind of forgotten it was playing when, suddenly, I heard a woman screaming as if she was being murdered. I ran in the direction of the scream, thinking someone needed help, and ran into the room where the final chords of Tosca were playing out on my sound system. Holy crap, what a realistic scream Callas could put out. Quite the dramatic actress indeed.
That is undoubtedly the v best ending they could do
This recording has, for me, always been the definition of what opera can be. Three ‘lead’ singers who sound fantastic. And with the La Scala orchestra, who play slightly ‘sloppy’ in a purely latin way. I don’t speak Italian, and I don’t ned the liberetto. Because the singer do not just sing. They perform theater ! It’s also like Tarantino could have produced the whole thing. EVERYBODY dies. And what a glorious ending. I will never give up on this recording !!! greetings from Norway…..
Couldn’t agree more. The stars were aligned for those sessions without question
It also musn't be forgotten how well Gobbi does as Scarpia, truly the best singer of the Te Deum.
That Te Deum is the best recorded-stereo or not
Definitive though Giuseppe Taddei on the Karajan is right up there.
@@bbailey7818 I find Taddei stronger on the earlier Philips recording conducted by Serafin. He’s still good for Karajan but too much of the interpretation is way too obvious. The strength of Scarpia is the way his viciousness and cruelty is swathed in elegance and suavity. You get that with Gobbi for deSabata
@@paxpaxart4740 as a combination of voice and actor Gobbi was a more complete and detailed artist than the others you mentioned. The only one who came close was MacNeil
The thing about Gobbi is his inimitable snarl
I do enjoy you. Today you made me smile with your critique.
This is my favorite Tosca. Call is her prime, de Stefano with the beautiful voice and my favorite Scarpia, Gobbi. He scares the hell out of me because he’s so evil. Gobbi was great. Where are the singers of today? Dead in the water.
Cette Tosca de 1953 est une version historique ! Un enregistrement mono solidement capté par les preneurs de son de chez Emi,Di Stefano est solaire, Gobbi incarne Scarpia à la perfection et Maria Callas est totalement inspirée et joue le rôle avec une intensité émotionnelle hallucinante...C'est ma version favorite depuis toujours !
Ive heard most every Tosca out there and, bunk or debunk, de Sabata's really is the best conducted, most perfectly paced Tosca out there. Each act is as if conceived in a single breath, every detail purposeful within the dramatic whole from start to finish. Karajan is too grandiose and lush. And de Sabata makes Puccini’s faltering inspiration in Act 3, especially the duet, seem of no account.
Only Mitropoulos in live Met performances really comes up to the level of this thrilling studio recording. Sure, routiniers arent going to mess up a Tosca if the singers are compelling but this EMI is on a whole nother level. My .02 anyway.
Not just your two cents by far
This was one of the first opera recordings I bought. Because of it, I became a life long Callas fan. I then started buying all of her recordings.
I agree with pretty much everything you've said Dave. It's a magnificent Tosca, and probably remains my favourite, but it is absolutely not the be-all and end-all. Other than the performances you mentioned, I really enjoy:
- Caniglia/Gigli/Borgioli/De Fabritiis, 1937, (Studio)
- Tebaldi/Del Monaco/London/Molinari-Pradelli, 1959, (Studio)
- Price/Corelli/MacNeil/Adler, 1962, (Live)
- Vishnevskaya/Bonisolli/Manuguerra/Rostropovich, 1976, (Studio)
@@paxpaxart4740 I do really enjoy the Karajan recording, especially for the sonics, the playing and for Taddei, but Di Stefano lets the side down with his strained top.
@@paxpaxart4740 Concerning Tebaldi's 2nd recording, the Aug. 2022 issue of Gramophone magazine proclaimed it the best "Tosca".
This is one of the first operatic recordings I bought back in the '80's, and on listening to it again recently, I was struck by how conversaational and supple the musical approach is to the opera, an approach that really serves the highly inflected nature of the singing of both Callas and Gobbi.
Dave, any opinion on the NAXOS transfer of the EMI LPs? i have both the EMI and NAXOS and i do find the NAXOS with better sound.
Btw the upcoming Callas box will just be a compilation of the most recent Callas studio and live releases with one extra cd of unreleased studio material. Just another way for Warner to milk (AGAIN) that cash cow. Shameless
Great as usual and yes, my favorite Tosca is the Davis/Caballe/Carreras as well; Carreras singing “E lucevan le stelle” is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard - hard to believe that it’s actually a human voice!
Frankly, Leinsdorf's conducting in the Milanov-Bjoerling "Tosca" has wonders of nuance and detail that surpass even de Sabata in many passages of the opera. Both are quite wond4erful. And THEN, there is the stupendous Leonard Warren as Scarpia, who puts the fear of demons into one's ears and heart. That goes a long way to boost the R.C.A. set's claims, even if Milanov and Bjoerling do not really quite rival Callas and di Stefano. Several baritones or basses actually go well beyound what Gobbi accomplishes, due to Gobbi's lack of their power and darker vocal presence.
That's a great album!
The strength of de Sabata’s conductung lies in the seriousness he brings to the performance. He neither gives the impression of being embarrassed by the work’s emotional force nor does he play it for cheap effect. There is an extra depth there as with Callas’s heroine. As you suggest, Tosca is not a conductor’s opera. De Sabata’s Tosca is not equivalent to, say, Furtwängler’s Tristan. My question is what precisely a conductor’s opera is. This would make a great talk.
I love that recording! and Karajan Decca too!
In a music book I read that "This is one of the three or four existing recordings that serve to demonstrate the undoubted debt that culture owes to recording on discs."
The others could be Wagner's Tristan and Isolde with Furtwangler, Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte with Karajan at EMI (now Warner)... which other one could it be?
Difficult question.
Greetings from Valencia (Spain)
According to the critic Terry Teachout:
- This may be the best recording of anything ever made, a vade mecum of Italian operatic style and a priceless souvenir of the foremost singing actress of the 20th century. I am too young to have seen Callas in person, but the first of her two Tosca recordings makes it clear why she continues to be remembered by those who did.
I would add the La Boheme conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, with a dream cast of Victoria de los Angeles, Jussi Bjoerling, Robert Merrill, Lucine Amara, and Giorgio Tozzi. IMHO the greatest Boheme recording and one of the finest opera recordings ever, simply sparkles.
I don’t just think it’s me, as I’ve had this conversation several times over the years. But a number of music lovers admit that Tosca is ultimately their favourite Puccini opera. It’s compact, it does what it does remarkably efficiently (unlike Butterfly or Turandot or even La Boheme where the last act is a bit of a trial). Of course I like this recording but of course there are so many other good ones (Karajan, yes, Pappano etc)
You didn’t say so but stereo does probably help with that orchestral richness
Do I need to say so? Please...
Tosca has always been my first opera for newbies. It has everything - love hate murder torture suicide blackmail - all in less than two hours!!! What’s not to like???
I like Karajan Decca also except for di Stefano who was not in good voice at the top
@@jaykauffman4775 Totally agree, I'm a big Di Stefano fan but by the early 60s he had lost his top. He's much better in the De Sabatsa recording and in his several live recordings. Taddei, though, is an outstanding Scarpia.
Thank you
Didn't Gramophone magazine recently rate Tebaldi's stereo recording w/Molinari-P. over the Callas/D.?
I'd be very surprised if they did, they generally favour Callas over Tebaldi, and the British musical press has always had a dislike of Del Monaco.
@@xxsaruman82xx87 It was the August 2022 issue.
@@xxsaruman82xx87 I've always found the British critics' preference for Callas odd, as they tend to like 'pure' singers. As for Del Monaco, I think they hate(d) Corelli too. I remember reading a Ralph Moore review in which he expresses his befuddlement over how they could prefer Peter Pears's skinny sound to Del Monaco's enormous output. I guess they like "refinement," whatever that means.
Anyone putting Tebaldi constrained singing above Callas is out of its mind 😂
@@ER1CwCthe Brits (or perhaps the English) love tenors who don't have a voice - Pears, Bostridge, Padmore to name but a few
Was this one of the La Scala recordings made by the Mercury Living Presence team?
No, this was recorded by EMI.
@@jimshulman9221 Thanks!
The greatest tosca ever! There is no match for anyone!
Thanks for bringing some common sense to the discussion of this recording. It is a wonderful Tosca and great fun to hear. But there are many other fine performances both commercial studio ones and pirated versions. I agree that it is really almost foolproof. I still remember a dynamite Tosca by the Salmaggi Opera Company in Brooklyn with Gianni Millo (Aprile's father) as Cavaradossi. Gangbusters!
And, please.........this endless series of Callas re-issues. Enough already. How many other treasures are waiting in the EMI/Warner vaults that could be shared with the world?
So cynical.
Undoubtedly this 1953 EMI recording is a strong contender in the discography of Tosca, However, Tosca is hardly a major role in Callas' entire career and she actually disdained the role personally. She sang it on stage only a few times during her prime years out of her sense of responsibility to honour her contracts with opera houses. She did more of it in her later career because it made relatively less demands on her (by then) highly troubled top and Franco Zeffirelli's reconceptualisation of the role for his production of the opera made some sense to her. If the 1953 EMI set were the only recording she left to posterity, we would be much poorer. Her particular gifts are best manifested in the Classical and bel canto operas as well as early to middle period Verdi.
Concerning "Tosca" making less demands, wasn't "Tosca" Dorothy Kirsten's last operatic performance?
@@youtuber5305 Tosca was indeed Dorothy Kirsten’s last operatic performance (1979) - it seems you already know the fact. You probably may also know that it is also the role Maria Callas sang in what turned out to be her last operatic performance (July 5th, 1965, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden).
@@TobyS77 I don't think Tosca is 'less demanding.' It's pretty heavy, and I agree that Tosca was, from a purely vocal standpoint, never an 'ideal fit' for Callas as it was for, say, Tebaldi. Rather, I think that Tosca is less exposed than other roles in Callas's core repertory. One can kind of white-knuckle one's way through Tosca and still make a visceral impact, whereas roles like Norma reveal all the flaws in one's voice (as it indeed did do to her in 1965).
@@ER1CwC Yes, Tosca is a heavy role, I agree. Perhaps I should have put it more clearly. What I actually meant in my earlier comment is, compared to, say the bel canto roles, Tosca subjected Callas’ top register (in dire troubles in her late career) to relatively less exposure.
@@TobyS77 I agree with that. Most of the high Cs in Tosca (except for in Io quella lama) occur when the orchestra is going full blast, whereas the high Cs in Norma often occur when the orchestra is silent.
You know, the limitations of Callas' 1965 remake have their benefits. The shriek she lets out at the end of the opera will make your hair raise.
Didn't she say that Pretre was her favorite conductor?
@@youtuber5305 She did indeed!
@@youtuber5305 I believe she did. And she's pretty intense in some instances in that recording, her vocal state notwithstanding.
In addition to the added intensity of her portrayal, one of the benefits of the 2nd Callas recording is Bergonzi's Cavaradossi, vocally splendid and in my view both tonally and stylistically superior to Di Stefano. Even in 1953 Di Stefano's characteristically open-throated vocal production gives his singing a sense of strain that I've never found particularly appealing--and within a few years what honey there was had largely gone (unless he crooned) and by the Price/Karajan Tosca he was even more strained and shouty.
@@tom6693 I find that Di Stefano's way of singing conveyed red blooded, unrestrained passion. It could be effective, but certainly took its toll. However, Bergonzi's elegant, controlled and very intelligent technique is beyond reproach. Yes, he is a plus.
The way conductors have the potential to mess up Tosca is to take it far too slowly. (i.e. Barenboim)
1st! Big fan Dave!
💯
De Sabata conducted this performance way too fast and breathless, not allowing the phrases and music to breathe as they should.... Legendary? hadly!.. This is just one example of mythology among armchair "critics" who end up repeating an OPINION someone formerly stated, like "Vivaldi wrote one concerto hundreds of times" or "Karl Böhm was only a Kapellmeister", or the crazy adulation around Carlos Kleiber etc etc etc...
No, not too fast and breathless at all. The singers accept the tempos and sound marvelous. But it's not greatness incarnate either.
I do think that he (with the aid of the EMI engineers) gives us the most atmospheric opening to Act III on disc. No stereo necessary.@@DavesClassicalGuide
@phantomfantom Puccini himself said 'slow tempos kill me.' In Tosca they are especially damaging in Act 2 around "Ah! mostro lo strazi,' etc. It kills it dead when conductors drag that scene. Sabata observes all of Puccini's myriad directions, sometimes bar to bar, yet integrates them into a coherent, onward moving dramatic narrative which sees each act as a whole. In any case, there is nothing in the overall timing of each act or the whole that's anything out of the ordinary.