Puccini: Tosca

“Catherine Malfitano is an experienced Tosca… she gives her all, and proves a match for Bryn's terrifyingly strong and insidious Scarpia. Richard Margison is no distinguished artist but he doesn't spoil things as Cavaradossi. Riccardo Chailly gives an account of the score which is fresh without being peculiar.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2007 ****

“The most exciting Tosca of recent years” Financial Times

“This is a 'strong' Tosca, using the adjective in the sense in which it is sometimes applied to language (meaning 'thoroughly disgusting'). But then, you might say, that's Tosca being true to itself: it tells of a thoroughly disgusting state of affairs, when a man can be arrested by party thugs, taken off to headquarters for torture and summary execution, and a woman is at the mercy of a dictator's lust. Its official description is 'a melodrama in three acts', and a melodrama this is, with jeering villain, manly hero and distraught heroine. And as though to drive the point home, Tosca acts and is costumed and made up to look like an old-time star of the silent screen. To that extent we know it's makebelieve.
There are also scenery and props to persuade us to take it for real. And the sets are heavy with symbols suggesting 'significance'.
But yes, it's 'strong': a good Tosca, one might have to concede.
Certainly it has a good, no, a magnificent Scarpia. Terfel is in fine voice, and his acting and singing are as one. In both, his style is forceful without exaggeration or over-emphasis.
Richard Margison is a likeable Cavaradossi, his well placed tenor reliably meeting the challenges of the role, and he himself, never a conventionally romantic figure, gaining sympathy notwithstanding. And Malfitano, a Tosca without any special vocal allure, exercises her personality and compels attention. A gaunt, sonorous Angelotti, a Sacristan who huffs and puffs effectively, and a Spoletta even nastier than his master, help to fill in the background. The Concertgebouw, subordinated in balance to the singers, play well under Riccardo Chailly's enlightened direction.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The production of Tosca dates from 1960. Ah, those naïve times when people believed it was set in Scarpia's Rome (not in Mussolini's, for example). The date is 1800 and the Battle of Marengo is news. And the scenery is for real.
You could nose your way around Sant'Andrea della Valle, and feel quite at home in the Palazzo Farnese.
As for the prima donna, Magda Olivero (born 1910, debut 1932) has thought out every move, every expression, creating the conviction of living the whole role afresh here and now. She also sings with distinction. Try her in phrases like 'le voce delle cose' for delicacy and the great twooctave lunge of 'Io quella lama piantai nel cor' for power. Her Scarpia isn't so very far inferior to Gobbi: suave and brutal by turns, with fine resonance. Cavaradossi is likeable, both vocally and dramatically; Angelotti, for his brief operatic life, is outstanding.
The documentary of 2003 puts 1960 in perspective.
It includes glimpses of Olivero singing in Milan the previous year, marking the 25th anniversary of Callas's death. It's a weirdly ethereal sound, sometimes very flat, but flat in a beautiful way. She sings Panis angelicus, and at a late stage is joined by her tenor pupil Danilo Formaggio. In interviews Olivero tells of the tenors in her career, from Schipa to Domingo, including a long story about appeasing Gigli.
But the best things are three excerpts filmed in 1965: a delicately acted scene from Iris, authentic voice and style for Alfano's Risurrezione, and the great solo from Act 1 of La traviata. The last is astonishing in every way: the 'Ah, fors' è lui' muses privately; the 'Follies' are sudden, impetuous; the 'vortici' brilliant with nervous energy; top Cs that swell and diminish as you thought they did only in text-books; and a top E flat which you hadn't thought would be in her voice at all. And this is a youngster of 55.
It's a pity we don't get a taste of her pre-war recordings: that would have deepened the perspective.
Seeing her at 92 leaves us with admiration and wonder for this extraordinary woman and her unquenchable devotion to her art.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The producer, Sylvano Busotti and designer, Fiorenzo Giorgi, have made the most of the spectacular natural Verona backcloth...[Marton] is a handsome woman with fine presence. She and Giacomo Aragall are a well-matched pair of lovers...Wixell is a superb Scarpia, dignified as well as evil...Oren conducts his excellent chorus and orchestra with fine lyrical Puccinian ardour.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ***