Puccini: Tosca (complete opera recorded in 2003)

Includes :-
-Interviews with Daniela Dessi & Fabio Armiliato, Ruggero Raimondi, Maurizio Benini, and Nuria Espert
-Cast Gallery
-28 page, full colour booklet includes article by Tom Sutcliffe, synopsis and artists biographies

Daniela Dessi takes the title role in Nuria Espert's new production of Puccini's fiery Roman melodrama of lust, betrayal and revenge. Filmed in High Definition during the 2003 - 4 Teatro Real season, and mixed in sumptuous 5.1 Surround Sound, this intense and atmospheric production rates among the finest stage performances ever captured for DVD of Puccini's operatic tour de force.

A new production by the internationally acclaimed director Nuria Espert for the Teatro Real, Madrid, in a beautifully intense and dramatic classical style. The lighting by Vinicio Cheli increases the atmosphere of a performance which is destined as a benchmark for twenty-first century productions. Based on the theatre play La Tosca, by Victorien Sardou and first performed at the Teatro Costanzi de Roma on 14th January 1900. Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

"This must be the first version of Tosca on DVD to spread on to two discs. Even with a 50-minutes of interviews, it seems an extravagant and inconvenient layout. The expansiveness extends to the performance, too. Not only does conductor Maurizio Benini prefer speeds often verging on the ponderous, Daniela Dessì in the title role and Fabio Armiliato as Cavaradossi abet him, particularly in their big numbers.

The performance was recorded live in January last year, on the first nights of a new production by Nuria Espert, with sets by Ezio Frigerio and costumes by Franca Squarciapino. It is certainly a distinctive production. A Rubens-like painting of Judgement Day acts as a backcloth, with a crucifix in front not only in the church scene of Act 1, but in Scarpia's office in Act 2, his desk laid out like an altar with two great candlesticks. After Tosca kills Scarpia, she doesn't light candles and put them by his body, but instead snuffs out the altar candles, a reversal that works well.

More questionable is having Scarpia dressed as a cardinal, with helpers like Spoletta and Sciarrone in ecclesiastical garb. In Act 3 even the jailers look like priests, wearing caps like birettas. Espert explains that she sees Scarpia as a cross between a father-confessor and an executioner, reflecting a 'politically-motivated religiosity'. Others may well deduce that the aim is simply anti-clerical. Another innovation is that after Cavaradossi's execution the jailers drop his body through a trapdoor. Tosca, instead of throwing herself off the battlements, jumps through the trapdoor, too. Espert says she wanted to make the point that love lasts, even in death. Whatever the intent, visually it's disappointing.

In other interviews it emerges that Dessì is married to Armiliato, and finds it easier to work with a singer close to her. She proves to be a powerful actress, and Raimondi is as formidable as ever as Scarpia, the voice still firm and well-focused, and with terrifying facial expressions. Armiliato is very much the weakest link. Looking rather like Don Quixote in his little beard, he is a gawky actor, stiff like a stick of celery, though the voice is pleasing enough, with a fair tonal range. The let-down is his slowness, with 'E lucevan le stelle' followed by 'O dolci mani' in Act 3 almost coming to a halt. Dessì is in excellent voice with one reservation: in Act 3, as she describes Scarpia's killing to Cavaradossi, the voice under pressure shows signs of wear, though later in the duet she focuses well again."
- Edward Greenfield (Gramophone)

Running time: 194 minutes