Puccini: Tosca - DVD video

It is no exaggeration to say that the two performances of Tosca at the Royal Opera House in July 2011 - with Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel as the leads - were opera history in the making and by far the hottest tickets in town.

For the majority of us who weren’t lucky enough to be there, it has been captured on this DVD, exclusively released by EMI.

Subtitles in Italian, English, German, Japanese, French & Spanish

Tosca, in Luc Bondy’s headline-making production, opened the New York Metropolitan’s 2009-10 season. The charismatic Karita Mattila takes the title role with Marcelo Álvarez, a classic Latin tenor, as her lover, Cavaradossi.

This production of Tosca opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2009-10 season, the first to be programmed entirely by the house’s General Manager Peter Gelb, who, as the New York Times explains “has been on a campaign to make the house a place for theatrically daring productions with dramatically compelling casts”.

The work of Swiss-born Luc Bondy, named by Opera News as “one of the opera world's most respected stage directors”, this production – igniting Tosca‘s potent mix of sex, politics, music and religion – contrasts starkly with its predecessor at the Met, a traditional spectacular first staged by Franco Zeffirelli in 1985. According to the Los Angeles Times: “Bondy updated the story of a diva, her lover and the lecherous chief of the secret police from 1800 to a decadent Rome in the early 20th century. Cavaradossi paints a topless, fetching Mary Magdalene, which Tosca in a fit of jealousy slashes with a knife, in a cathedral that looks more like a grand Fascist assembly room.”

The title role is taken by Karita Mattila, “an artist defined by her ability to take risks – emotionally, vocally, temperamentally” (Opera News). The striking blue-eyed blonde from Finland became a sultry dark-eyed Roman brunette and brought “shimmering power, incisive attack, pliant lyricism and emotional honesty to her performance. … In Act III, when she tells Cavaradossi of having stabbed Scarpia to death, she leapt to a high C of ferocious intensity, then plunged down two octaves, mimicking the thrust of the knife into the villain’s gut.” The New York Times went on to praise her Cavaradossi, Marcelo Álvarez as “a true Puccini tenor, with warm, throbbing, supple phrasing and some triumphant top notes, including a defiant high A sharp when he sang “Vittoria” at the news of Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of Marengo”. “A very accomplished and dark Scarpia” (The Guardian), Georgian baritone George Gagnidze completed a cast which, as the New York Times reported, “received enormous ovations”.

Conducting this performance, and replacing an indisposed James Levine, was American maestro Joseph Colaneri, who has regularly taken charge of Italian repertoire at the Met since 2000. As Opera News said: “The combined effect of the Met chorus and orchestra remains a thing of wonder.”

The Met’s high-definition video broadcasts of opera now regularly draw audiences to more than 1000 cinemas in over 40 countries, and – beyond their compelling technical quality – capture the full drama of the performance with sophisticated shooting techniques inspired by Hollywood.

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

Set Design by ADOLF HOHENSTEIN

This production from the historic Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, Italy, stars the opera world’s power couple, Daniela Dessì and Fabio Armiliato, as lovers Tosca and Cavaradossi. A tragic tale of doomed love interlaced with the age-old themes of jealousy, lust and intrigue, has ensured Tosca its place in the top ten of opera favourites.

The task of putting Tosca on the stage in a way that is credible and timeless is both straightforward and difficult. For the three main roles – the unscrupulous police chief Vitellio Scarpia and the painter Mario Cavaradossi, who provide a framework for Floria Tosca, “a famous singer” (both on stage and in real life), all you need is star performers of the required virtuosity, although they do need to display a certain enjoyment in performing – something one has never been able to take for granted in music theatre.

It should be made clear from the outset that the 2010 production at the Teatro Carlo Felice zu Genua, with its stage set based on Adolf Hohenstein’s original design for the work’s premiere, ticks all the boxes. Probably the best contemporary soprano-tenor combination (a couple in real life, too) – Daniela Dessì and Fabio Armiliato – are ranged against a worthy opponent in the form of Claudio Sgura as Baron Scarpia.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: IT (Original Language), GB, DE, FR, ES, JP, Korean

Running Time: 140 mins

FSK: 0

Tosca: it is opera, it is Italy. It is desire, passion and murder….

Featuring opera superstars Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna and Ruggero Raimondi, with musical direction by the world-renowned Antonio Pappano.

Prestige of official selection at Venice Film Festival, a comprehensive and successful commercial run in cinemas and outstanding critical acclaim.

10th anniversary special edition, with exclusive DVD bonus features including a new 10th anniversary interview with soprano Angela Gheorghiu, a collector’s booklet and a “Costume Design” featurette plus original 2001 interviews with Angela Gheorghiu on her role as Tosca, director Benoît Jacquot on creating Tosca as film and Antonio Pappano on Puccini’s music for the opera.

“brings this opera vividly to life… this is a classic of the future” The Guardian

“gripping and very well sung” Opera Now

“superb” Gramophone Magazine

"Gheorghiu gives a performance that cuts to the core of Puccini's tragedy... Pappano's conducting; a rich reading that conjures the ideal mixture of syrup and bitterness" Independent on Sunday

Audio: Dolby Stereo & Optional 5.1

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Feature Running Time: 120 mins

Italian with optional English subtitles

Bonus Features Running Time: 41 mins

Region: 0, PAL

Territory: Worldwide (excluding Japan, North America, France and Germany)

This is Jonas Kaufmann’s Tosca debut on DVD. It features him in a key role that he is performing to great critical acclaim all over the world. Mostly Opera Magazine reviewed that he is “the undisputed leading Cavaradossi of our day” and about Emily Magee, his Tosca, “sings the part better than anyone I can imagine today”.

The passion and tragedy of Tosca are dramatically highlighted in Robert Carsen’s “theatre-within-theatre” staging of Puccini’s great opera. Emily Magee plays opposite the charismatic Jonas Kaufmann and debonair Thomas Hampson (Scarpia); together they bring a rare intensity to this famous tale of love and revenge from beyond the grave.

In the production, filmed in 2009, Paolo Carignani conducts the Orchestra of the Opernhaus Zürich.

The star cast and great reviews of the performances make this product highly desirable for any opera lover.

Set Design by Hugo De Ana

A superlative staging of Puccini’s Tosca by Italian opera producer Hugo de Ana brought to you from the world-famous Arena di Verona and complete with all the splendour that a Puccini opera demands! The popular tragedy is sung by a dream team cast of excellent singer-actors and conducted by long-established Arena di Verona conductor Daniel Oren.

The recording captures one of those special Verona summer evenings, when the audience fi lls the historic circle in expectation of the enjoyment of an open-air opera performance. Verona’s amphitheatre, known as the ‘arena’, provides an atmospheric setting for the summer festival. To view an opera in the former amphitheatre, the second largest of its kind after the Colosseum in Rome, can truly be regarded as an impressive experience. The DVD, however, provides a closer look at the stage and the singers and brings this dramatic opera directly to the home viewer.

Sound Format: LPCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES, IT

Running Time: 119 mins

FSK: 0

Luciano Pavarotti will always be associated with the role of the painter Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca. His interpretations of the arias 'Recondita armonia' and 'E lucevan le stelle' became two of his greatest hits, which he sang at all his stadium concerts

Specially restored and released for the first time on any format, this remarkable performance presents Luciano Pavarotti the opera star, at the very peak of his stage career.

Filmed live at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, on December 19th, 1978.

The production is by legendary baritone Tito Gobbi - best remembered as Scarpia opposite the Tosca of Maria Callas.

Pavarotti's co-stars are two internationally acclaimed American singers - soprano Shirley Verrett and baritone Cornell MacNeil.

Remarkable DVD bonus features - available for the first time

Unique footage of Luciano Pavarotti in a music rehearsal, with Shirley Verrett and Maestro James Conlon

A discussion between the greatest of all Baron Scarpias, Italian baritone Tito Gobbi, and the Scarpia of this production, baritone Cornell MacNeil

A discussion with conductor James Conlon and Metropolitan Opera Music Director, James Levine.

Released to mark the 75th anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti's birth on October 12th, 1935

Classification: Exempt

Region: 0