79.00 PLN

2 CD:

Nr kat.: rohs005
Label  : BBC Legends

 Puccini (1858-1924) composed Tosca between 1896 and 1899. It received its premiere on 14 January 1900 in the Teatro Costanzi, Rome and the UK premiere at Covent Garden on 12 July 1900.  Covent Garden's 1957 revival of Tosca was noted for two major stars, Zinka Milanov and Franco Corelli. Milanov had sung Tosca more than one hundred times over a period of 36 years and was noted for her flamboyant stage presence and impetuous singing and acting. The Times wrote; “Mme Milanov's Tosca is constantly endearing. She looks delightful and produces some of the most ravishingly beautiful notes and phrases that could ever be wished for.”  Franco Corelli had only sung the role of Cavaradossi in Italy and his Covent Garden debut was his most prestigious international role to date. He would go on to record it many times with Callas, Tebaldi, Leontyne Price and Birgit Nilsson. Corelli quickly established himself at Covent Garden with his audience (but not with all the critics of the time!) with his powerful voice and his matinee idol looks, and was dubbed by Gramophone as “the best tenor of his kind since Del Monaco made his Covent Garden debut, also as Cavaradossi, in the Autumn of 1946.”  Gian Giacomo Guelfi in the role of Scarpia was unknown in London at the time but, according to the Musical Times, was “the possessor of an outstandingly fine voice, firm and true, and produced with ease.”  Alexander Gibson, only 30 at the time, and recently appointed director of Sadler's Wells Opera, made his conducting debut with this Tosca. The Telegraph said “his knowledge of the score, sense of style, and ability to coax extremes of violence and sweetness from the orchestra revealed him as already unquestionably the finest of our younger conductors.”  Sampler: Act I "Recondita armonia” (Cavaradossi) Act II "Vissi d'arte" (Tosca)