Puccini: Tosca (Complete opera) (Recorded August 1953)

"This new remastering is streets ahead of the others; it irons out the sourness and surface noise of the original, without adding the implausible sheen and reverberance of previous transfers"
- The Times (London)

Born in Lucca in 1858, Puccini showed early signs of musical talent, and was an organist and choirmaster by the time he was only nineteen. With the aid of a grant secured by his mother, he entered the Milan Conservatory, where he studied under Amilcare Ponchielli, the composer of La Gioconda. With Ponchielli's encouragement, he entered his first opera Le Villi into a competition for the composition of a one-act opera, organised by the publishers Sanzogno, but was not successful. However Le Villi was thought good enough to be produced in Milan in 1884, and as a result of this, the publisher Ricordi commissioned Puccini to write another opera. This was to be Edgar, which failed at its premiere, also in Milan, in 1889. Puccini's next two operas were much more successful: both were first performed at Turin, Manon Lescaut in 1893 and La Bohème in 1896. Puccini's first verismo opera (the term used to describe operas with a supposedly 'realistic' character) Tosca was premiered in Rome in 1900, once again to great popular success. With its combination of melody, drama, and vivid orchestral colour, it confirmed Puccini's position as the leading Italian composer of opera of the time. Madama Butterfly, first performed in Milan in 1904, had to be recast before it gained the popularity of the earlier operas, and took longer to establish itself, as did all of Puccini's later works. These included La Fanciulla del West, first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1910, La Rondine (Monte Carlo, 1917), and Il Trittico (New York, 1918). Puccini's last opera, Turandot was left unfinished at his death in 1924, and was first performed in this state, conducted by Toscanini, at La Scala, Milan, in 1926.

Tosca was based on a melodrama by the French playwright Victorien Sardou, whose works provided a rich seam of material for operatic composers (two of Giordano's operas, Fedora and Madame Sans-Gene, were based on plays by him, as was Millöcker's earlier operetta Der Bettelstudent). Sardou's play was adapted into a highly effective operatic libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, who had also created the libretto for La Bohème. Giacosa was to comment succinctly on the differences between the two libretti in a letter to the publisher Ricordi in 1896: 'While La Bohème is all poetry and no plot, Tosca is all plot and no poetry'.

This recording of Tosca was the fourth to be made for EMI's Columbia label featuring the soprano Maria Callas. Whereas the previous Lucia di Lammermoor, I Puritani and Cavalleria Rusticana had been conducted by Tullio Serafin, for Tosca the conductor was the then current musical director of La Scala, Victor de Sabata. It is his unique mastery and realisation of Puccini's powerful score that has earned this recording recognition as one of the greatest ever made of a complete opera, in addition to the immensely strong contributions of all the principals involved. In his memoirs, On And Off The Record, Walter Legge, who had negotiated Columbia's contract with Callas and who produced this recording, recalled that de Sabata was unrelenting in his perfectionism: the finale to the First Act was recorded thirty times before the conductor was satisfied. For Tosca's chilling final words at the close of the Second Act, 'E avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma' Callas 'was put through de Sabata's grinding mill for half an hour - time well spent.' Having used 'miles of tape' Legge requested de Sabata to help select what was to be used in the finished master. De Sabata's reply was disarming but revealing: 'My work is finished. We are both artists. I give you this casket of uncut jewels and leave it entirely to you to make a crown worthy of Puccini and my work.' Legge certainly succeeded, describing the result as 'the supreme Callas recording'. de Sabata's conception of Tosca is dark and threatening. In his hands the score is drama not melodrama. The powerful orchestral passages at the opening of the first act and during the second, for instance are tightly focused and powerfully inflected. As is the case throughout de Sabata uses every accent, rhythmic figure, harmonic colour and melodic fragment to create and heighten the drama. In his hands the forces of La Scala give of their very considerable best.

The singers chosen by Legge do not let the maestro down. Legge recalled that for the recordings sessions, held in La Scala itself during August 1953, 'Callas had arrived in superb voice and, as always in those days, properly prepared'. Her instinctive and deeply dramatic realisation of operatic characters was perfectly suited to this role, which was also to be the last that she was to perform on the operatic stage (Covent Garden, July 1964). The highly individual colour of Callas's voice heightens the sense of Tosca's uniqueness and individuality. Her intuitive and varied vocal shading grasps the listener's attention from first to last. Callas's conception of Tosca is complete: dignified, strong and intelligent, as well as passionate and volatile. Beside her Giuseppe di Stefano is a perfect foil as Cavaradossi. His naturally brilliant tenor voice immediately suggests the heroism of the character, and his unrestrained style of singing creates great excitement, for instance in the outbursts of the second act. Yet he is also able to supply subtlety when required, as in the duet with Tosca in the third act. Towering dramatically over the two lovers is Tito Gobbi as Baron Scarpia, without question one of the most powerful realisations of the rôle recorded. His highly individual baritone voice immediately creates a sense of disquiet upon his entry in Act One, while his mezza-voce is equally threatening in another way, serpentine and repellent. As with Callas and Tosca, Gobbi as Scarpia is the complete villain, glorying in his evil. Legge set these outstanding performances within excellent recorded sound, with a depth and atmosphere unusual for the period. To hear this recording is to witness not only a great moment in operatic history, but also a realisation of Puccini's score that has never been equalled.
- David Patmore