Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini

Conceived and Produced by ANDREA ANDERMANN

Director GIUSEPPE PATRONI GRIFFI

Cinematography VITTORIO STORARO

Directed for video by BRIAN LARGE

Recorded live in July 1992 - REMASTERED IN HIGH DEFINITION FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPE.

Contemporary Rome is the setting for this unique and highly innovative version of Puccini’s Tosca, performed in the Roman locations – and at the same times of day – as Puccini had written into his score. Thus the action opens in the beautiful 16th-century church of Sant’Andrea della Valle at noon, where Cavaradossi (Domingo) meets the fugitive Angelotti, moves to the Farnese Palace that evening where Tosca (Catherine Malfitano) dramatically makes a pact with the lustful Scarpia (Ruggero Raimondi), and finally to the battlements of the Castel Sant’Angelo at dawn the following day where the final drama is played out.

COLOUR

REGION CODE: ALL REGIONS

NTSC 4:3 • 114 MINS • L-PCM STEREO

SUBTITLES: ENGLISH / FRENCH / GERMAN /ITALIAN

Le Villi is Puccini’s first stage work. It was written for an 1883 competition of one-act operas by the publisher Sonzogno in his periodical Il teatro illustrato, but did not even earn an honorable mention. According to Mosco Carner, this may have been because it was written in such haste that the score was all but illegible. His supporters, who included Arrigo Boito, funded the first production, whose favorable reception led to publication by Giulio Ricordi. Puccini’s mother received the following telegram on the night of premiere at the Teatro dal Verme on 31 May 1884: “Theatre packed, immense success; anticipations exceeded; eighteen calls; finale of first act encored thrice”’.Ricordi urged the composer to expand the work, and Puccini did, producing a new version later that year, which was followed by modifications in 1888, and the final version in 1892.

This recording, originally released on Nuova Era in 2005, features amongst others Jose Cura as Roberto.

Critics rightfully have called soprano Eli Kristin Hanssveen “the new opera diva”. Her spectacular voice has been the catalyst for a steadily rising career, and she is known for her unique charisma and acting talent. In 2002 she made her opera debut at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, where she has been soloist since 2010.

While instrumental music was developing in all kinds of far-reaching ways everywhere else in 19th-century Europe, in Italy of course it was entirely overshadowed by opera. But this received view has been at least partly revised in recent years. The country’s leading opera composers also wrote music for solo piano, though generally only from time to time and in small quantities. The common characteristic of that music is, unsurprisingly, a natural cantabile quality.

Giuseppe Verdi initially dreamed of being a great pianist; but rejection by the Milan Conservatory perhaps helped to point his career towards opera. His Waltz in F is so fresh and sparkling it might have been drawn from the ‘Brindisi’ in La traviata.

Amilcare Ponchielli did gain a place at Milan, and his two Nocturnes show not only great skill but also the influence of Chopin’s own cantabile style. Though from a musical family, Giacomo Puccini was self-taught as a pianist. He wrote the Piccolo tango and Foglio d’album just a few years after Madam Butterfly. With Leoncavallo, Giordano and Cilea we enter the world of the Neapolitan piano school.

Leoncavallo’s Tarantella is technically brilliant, while the two pieces by Giordano offer exquisite elegance and touches of the salon. In the works by Cilea, a more profound, ‘Mediterranean’ vein surfaces. Rossini was the most important among these composers, and began to develop his piano idiom after his early retirement from opera in 1829. These reflective and extraordinarily modern piano pieces are rich in signs and symbols either disguised within the music itself or included in titles that display his renowned wit.

Roberto Galletto studied with Eugenio Bagnoli and graduated with first-class honours from the Venice Conservatory. He has given hundreds of concerts worldwide, and teaches at the St Cecilia Conservatory in Rome.

‘How wonderful to hear Boccherini played with such poise’ (The Strad)

This is an exciting new release featuring one of the most highly regarded lyrical tenors of today’s opera world. Vargas’s interpretations of Mozart, Bellini and Donizetti are celebrated throughout the world. He rose to considerable fame deputising for Pavarotti in a New York Metropolitan production of Lucia di Lammermoor.

In recent years Vargas has turned to French repertoire (Gounod, Massenet) and has also devoted himself to Puccini and Verdi operas. Some of these arias he has recorded here for the first time.

Celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Opera de Montreal with a stunning two disc set (at the price of one), the Directors said about this release: “Our great annual celebration of opera gives us the opportunity to present a magnificent showcase of Canadian talent. Brought together on the same stage are some of our finest voices who, along with the Orchestre Metropolitain conducted by Alain Trudel, perform some of the most beautiful arias and ensembles in the repertoire.”

Il Tabarro is Puccini’s opera in one act, sung in German.