Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)
Tosca – opera in three acts (1900)
Floria Tosca: Renata Tebaldi (soprano)
Mario Cavaradossi: Ferruccio Tagliavini (tenor)
Il barone Scarpia: Tito Gobbi (baritone)
Cesare Angelotti: Michael Langdon (bass)
Il sagrestano: Howell Glynne (bass)
Sciarrone: David Tree (tenor)
Un carciere: Rhydderch Davies (baritone)
Un pastore: Noreen Berry (mezzo)
The Covent Garden Opera Chorus and Orchestra/Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
rec. 30 June 1955, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. mono
ICA CLASSICS 5022 [42:45 + 67:00] 
For this revival of Tosca in 1955, the Royal Opera took the hitherto unusual
step of recruiting not only three star Italian singers to sing the opera in
Italian but also an Italian conductor; otherwise, the production was staffed
by very competent UK home-grown artists. Critics were unanimous in their praise
of the principals, who were all by then established recording artists: Tebaldi
for Decca, Tagliavini for Cetra and Gobbi for Columbia’s La Scala series.
Certainly it would be hard to find such a cast today; the recording also has
special historical interest as it was made on the second night of Tebaldi’s
Covent Garden debut as Tosca.
In my recent review, I was less than complimentary about ICA’s remastering
of the 1959 Callas La traviata in that they had shaved off too many of the
top frequencies; this Tosca is better but there are noticeable uncorrected
defects in the original tape, including a good deal of flutter and some skips
and drop-outs, such as afflict Gobbi’s “tre sbirri” at around two minute into
the aria. The first disc seems much clearer than the second, although prominent
hiss comes and goes on both. This will never be an audiophile’s treat and
one of its great disadvantages is that it can make Tebaldi sound shrill and
harsh, especially as her very large voice never took that kindly to the recording
techniques of the 1950s. Compared to the celebrated Callas studio recording,
also mono, made in 1953, this is dim, dull and dry – but listenable with a
will.
Tebaldi is very impressive with her huge, supple tone and powerful rhetorical
gestures but her characterisation is inevitably generic compared with Callas
and I am not always sure that the stridency on her top notes is the result
of the edgy recording. Still, she hits all the top Cs securely and is suitably
tigerish in despatching Scarpia; “Muori, dannato. Muori! Muori!” is gripping
and her lower register telling. I don’t like the staccato cheating on “le
voci delle cose!” which is supposed to be sung legato but she is mostly exemplary
without being especially memorable in the way that Callas’s phrasing imprints
itself indelibly on the memory.
I was surprised by how completely Tagliavini makes a success of Cavaradossi.
Even though he had by this stage moved into heavier roles and would soon lose
the velvet in his voice, here he still has the famous “honeyed tone” and makes
a fine job of his big moments like “Vittoria!” I could do without a tendency
to introduce some phrases with a little bleat but otherwise he is a lyric-dramatic
tenor of the old school, tasteful yet stirring in his delivery.
Having praised the lovers, however, I have to say that the palm must go to
Gobbi, who is in sovereign voice, singing as well on this evening as I have
ever heard him sing anywhere. There is little evidence of the bleakness that
sometimes afflicted his top notes and he gives us a near-perfect account of
a favourite role for which he was justly celebrated. The snarl, the sneer,
the oleaginous irony, the sexual rapaciousness barely concealed beneath the
urbanity, the casual cruelty – all the requisites for the complete refined
sadist are on display. When Gobbi declares “Bramo. La cosa bramata perseguo”
you have no choice other than to believe that he means every word he sings.
I love the way he can accelerate the flickering vibrato and crank up the bite
in his tone when he wants to intensify expression. Were it not for his performance
having already been immortalised in better sound for EMI Columbia, this set
would be worth buying for him alone. As it is, if you want a live recording,
this or the recently released 1962 Metropolitan live recording on Sony with
Leontyne Price, Franco Corelli and Cornell MacNeill would be the only competition;
it’s in better sound, too – but MacNeill is no Gobbi.
I like Francesco Molinari-Pradelli’s way with the score; he keeps things moving
but is generous with rubato when the singers require it. As much as I enjoy
this set, however, the obvious supremacy, both in sound and artistry, of the
classic EMI version, means that I am far more likely to turn to it again than
to this ICA issue when I want to hear Tosca.
Ralph Moore
The palm must go to Gobbi, who is in sovereign voice, singing as well as I
have ever heard him sing anywhere.