The classic collection Last Updated: 12:01am BST 06/10/2007 A classic: Puccini's Tosca CLASSICAL Puccini: Tosca Maria Callas (Tosca), Giuseppe di Stefano (Cavaradossi), Tito Gobbi (Scarpia), La Scala Chorus Orchestra, cond Victor de Sabata EMI Great Recordings of the Century 5 62890 2, 2 CDs, 14.99 This is one of the classic opera recordings of the 1950s. It dates from 1953, at the very end of the mono era, but is one of those unrivalled Walter Legge productions that so acutely balances voices and orchestra that one soon forgets one is not listening to stereo.
Tosca is perhaps the role with which Maria Callas was most associated. It is also one of the few parts that endears her even to those who do not usually warm to her distinctive timbre and vocal production, which can sometimes sound as if she is singing with her mouth full. Here, though, that incisive edge is put to good use in what is one of the most psychologically perceptive and purely dramatic readings of the role on disc.
Alongside her, Giuseppe di Stefano is a virile Cavaradossi, while Tito Gobbi's villainous Baron Scarpia is a classic portrayal in its own right. An equal star is the conductor, Victor de Sabata. What he lacks in lyrical indulgence he more than makes up for in the thrilling sense of theatre he conjures up under studio conditions.
advertisement He was by all accounts a true perfectionist the Te Deum scene that concludes Act 1 took 30 takes alone and even in mono one can register the finest detail in Puccini's orchestral textures. So consummate an enterprise is this recording that all one is likely to find elsewhere is stereo sound, as provided by Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic, with Leontyne Price a thrilling Tosca, on Decca Legends 475 752-2) or more lyricism (Callas's arch rival Montserrat Caball , with Colin Davis on Philips 438 359-2, is a memorable example).
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