Puccini: Tosca (1964 - London) - Live Remastered Maria Callas

• Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924): Tosca, Act 1:
• 1 Tosca, Act 1: "Ah! Finalmente!" (Angelotti) 01:52
• 2 Tosca, Act 1: "E sempre lava!" (Sagrestano) 01:28
• 3 Tosca, Act 1: "Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae" (Sagrestano, Cavaradossi) 01:48
• 4 Tosca, Act 1: "Dammi i colori" (Cavaradossi) 00:34
• 5 Tosca, Act 1: "Recondita armonia" (Cavaradossi, Sagrestano) 01:42
• 6 Tosca, Act 1: "Ma con quei cani di volterriani" (Sagrestano, Cavaradossi) 00:54
• 7 Tosca, Act 1: "Pineo è paniere" (Sagrestano, Cavaradossi) 00:32
• 8 Tosca, Act 1: "Gente là dentro!" (Cavaradossi, Angelotti, Tosca) 01:07
• 9 Tosca, Act 1: "Mario! ... Son qui!" (Tosca, Cavaradossi) 01:47
• 10 Tosca, Act 1: "Ora stammi a sentir" (Tosca, Cavaradossi) 00:57
• 11 Tosca, Act 1: "Non la sospiri la nostra casetta" (Tosca, Cavaradossi) 02:20
• 12 Tosca, Act 1: "Or lasciami al lavoro" (Tosca, Cavaradossi) 01:49
• 13 Tosca, Act 1: "Ah, quegli occhi ... Quale occhio al mondo" (Tosca, Cavaradossi) 01:24
• 14 Tosca, Act 1: "Mia gelosia!" (Tosca, Cavaradossi) 03:37
• 15 Tosca, Act 1: "È buona mia Tosca" (Cavaradossi, Angelotti) 03:04
• 16 Tosca, Act 1: "Il cannon del castello! ... Sommo giubilo, Eccelenza!" (Cavaradossi, Angelotti, Sagrestano) 00:38
• 17 Tosca, Act 1: "Tutta qui la cantoria! Presto!" (Sagrestano, Chorus) 01:15
• 18 Tosca, Act 1: "Un tal baccano in chiesa!" (Scarpia, Sagrestano, Spoletta) 03:41
• 19 Tosca, Act 1: "Or tutto è chiaro" (Scarpia, Tosca, Sagrestano) 02:47
• 20 Tosca, Act 1: "La corona! Lo stemma!" (Tosca, Scarpia) 02:34
• 21 Tosca, Act 1: "Oh mio bel nido insozzato di fango!" (Tosca, Scarpia) 01:38
• 22 Tosca, Act 1: "Tre sbirri, una carrozza" (Scarpia, Spoletta, Chorus) 04:17
• 23 Tosca, Act 2: "Tosca è un buon falco!" (Scarpia, Sciarrone) 03:20
• Tosca, Act 2:
• 24 Tosca, Act 2: "Ha più forte" (Scarpia, Sciarrone, Spoletta) 01:16
• 25 Tosca, Act 2: "O galantuomo, com'ando la caccia?" (Scarpia, Spoletta) 01:10
• 26 Tosca, Act 2: "Ch'io lo trassi in arresto" (Spoletta, Scarpia, Chorus, Cavaradossi, Tosca) 02:24
• 27 Tosca, Act 2: "Ov'è Angelotti?" (Scarpia, Cavaradossi, Spoletta, Tosca) 01:34
• 28 Tosca, Act 2: "Pria le forme ordianrie" (Scarpia) 01:09
• 29 Tosca, Act 2: "Ed or fra noi parliam da buon amici" (Scarpia, Tosca) 01:12
• 30 Tosca, Act 2: "Sciarrone - che dice il Cavalier?" (Scarpia, Sciarrone, Tosca, Cavaradossi) 02:55
• 31 Tosca, Act 2: "Orsù, Tosca, parlate" (Scarpia, Tosca, Cavaradossi, Spoletta, Sciarrone) 03:49
• 32 Tosca, Act 2: "Floria ... Amore" (Cavaradossi, Tosca, Scarpia, Sciarrone) 01:07
• 33 Tosca, Act 2: "Nel pozzo del giardino. Va. Spoletta!" (Scarpia, Cavaradossi, Tosca, Sciarrone) 00:45
• 34 Tosca, Act 2: "L'alba vindice appar" (Cavaradossi, Tosca, Scarpia) 01:10
• 35 Tosca, Act 2: "La povera mia cena fu interrotta" (Scarpia) 01:10
• 36 Tosca, Act 2: "Quanto? ... Il prezzo" (Tosca, Scarpia) 00:48
• 37 Tosca, Act 2: "Se la giurata fede debbo tradir ... Già mi struggea l'amor" (Tosca, Scarpia) 02:20
• 38 Tosca, Act 2: "Come tu m'odii!" (Tosca, Scarpia) 01:28
• 39 Tosca, Act 2: "Vissi d'arte" (Tosca) 03:28
• 40 Tosca, Act 2: "Vedi ... le man giunte io stendo a te" (Scarpia, Tosca) 01:17
• 41 Tosca, Act 2: "Chi è là" (Scarpia, Spoletta, Tosca) 02:05
• 42 Tosca, Act 2: "Io tenni la promessa" (Scarpia, Tosca) 02:02
• 43 Tosca, Act 2: "Tosca, finalmente mia!" (Scarpia, Tosca) 01:35
• 44 Tosca, Act 2: "Or gli perdono!" (Tosca) 03:55
• Tosca, Act 3:
• 45 Tosca, Act 3: Andante sostenuto 01:30
• 46 Tosca, Act 3: "Io de' sospiri" (Un pastore) 01:12
• 47 Tosca, Act 3: Lento 02:14
• 48 Tosca, Act 3: "Mario Cavaradossi?" (Carceriere) 01:22
• 49 Tosca, Act 3: "Vi resta un'ora" (Carceriere, Cavaradossi) 01:29
• 50 Tosca, Act 3: Dolcissimo espressivo 01:06
• 51 Tosca, Act 3: "E lucevan le stelle" (Cavaradossi) 02:28
• 52 Tosca, Act 3: "Ah! Franchigia a Floria Tosca" (Cavaradossi, Tosca) 00:51
• 53 Tosca, Act 3: "Il tuo sangue o il mio amore volea" (Tosca) 01:37
• 54 Tosca, Act 3: "O dolci mani mansuete pure" (Cavaradossi) 01:14
• 55 Tosca, Act 3: "Senti, l'ora è vicina" (Tosca) 01:39
• 56 Tosca, Act 3: "Amaro sol per te m'era il morire" (Cavaradossi, Tosca) 01:54
• 57 Tosca, Act 3: "E non giungono" (Tosca, Cavaradossi, Carceriere) 02:43
• 58 Tosca, Act 3: "Come è lunga l'attesa!" (Tosca) 02:06
• 59 Tosca, Act 3: "Presto, su! Mario!" (Tosca, Spoletta, Sciarrone, Chorus) 01:35
• Total Runtime 01:48:44

Info for Puccini: Tosca (1964 - London) - Live Remastered

„This performance--one of several from January 1964--marked Callas' return to the stage after a period of vocal restudy and hard work. But there are problems. The very highest notes tend to go wildly astray, flapping in the wind like flags, losing and regaining the pitch. But how many of them are there? 10? 20? Taken in context, it's a mere handful (albeit a highly audible handful), and the performance as a whole does not suffer. In short, Callas is otherwise brilliant, presenting us with a great portrait of Tosca the diva and Tosca the woman. Tito Gobbi, her frequent partner in this opera, is stunning as Scarpia, the incarnation of evil. Renato Cioni's Cavaradossi, is unsubtle and forgettable, and he mewls enough to make himself a nuisance. Cillario's leadership is tight and sympathetic. This release is welcomed--even if you already own a Tosca.“ (Robert Levine)

Baron Scarpia: Tito Gobbi
Cesare Angelotti: Victor Godfrey
Floria Tosca: Maria Callas
Il Sargestano: Eric Garrett
Mario Cavaradossi: Renato Cioni
Sciarrone: Dennis Wicks
Spoletta: Robert Bowman
Chorus of the Royal Opera House
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Carlo Felice Cillario, conductor

Digitally remastered

Maria Callas
was born to a Greek family in New York in 1923. Her vocal training took place in Athens, where her teacher was the coloratura soprano Elvira de Hidalgo, who had sung with Enrico Caruso and Feodor Chaliapin. After early performances in Greece, Callas’s international career was launched in 1947 when she performed the title role in Ponchielli’s La Gioconda at the Arena di Verona in Italy.

Her voice defied simple classification and her artistic range was extraordinary. In her early twenties she sang such heavy dramatic roles as Gioconda, Turandot, Brünnhilde and Isolde, but over the course of her career her most famous roles came to be: Bellini’s Norma and Amina (La sonnambula); Verdi’s Violetta (La traviata); Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Anna Bolena, Cherubini’s Medea and Puccini’s Tosca. Though her timbre was not always conventionally beautiful, Callas’s musicianship and phrasing were in a class of their own. She brought characters to vivid life with her skill in colouring her tone and making insightful use of the text.

She is credited with changing the history of opera: by placing a perhaps unprecedented emphasis on musical integrity and dramatic truth, and by transforming perceptions – and reviving the fortunes – of the bel canto repertoire, particularly Bellini and Donizetti.

The 1950s marked the height of Callas’s career. Its base lay in the opera houses of Italy, and she became the prima donna assoluta of Milan’s legendary La Scala – notably in the productions of Luchino Visconti – but her operatic appearances also encompassed London’s Royal Opera House, the New York Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opéra, the Vienna State Opera, and the opera houses of Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Lisbon, and, in the early 1950s, Mexico City, São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.

From 1959, when she started a life-changing love affair with the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, her performing career slowed down and her voice became more fragile. Her final stage performances came in 1965, when she was only 42.

There were many plans for a return to the stage – and for further complete recordings – but they never reached fruition, though in 1974 she gave a series of concerts in Europe, North America and Japan with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano; he had partnered her frequently in the opera house and in the studio, not least in the 1953 La Scala Tosca under Victor de Sabata, considered a landmark in recording history. Callas died alone in her Paris apartment in September 1977.

This album contains no booklet.