Puccini: Tosca

Disc 1
1	Carmen, opera: Act 01 Pre
2	Le Cid, opera: O souverai
3	Don Carlo, opera: È lui!.
4	Faust, opera: Avant de qu
5	Carmen, opera: Parle-moi
6	Don Giovanni, opera, K. 5
7	Don Pasquale, opera: Quel
8	L'amico Fritz, opera (com
9	La Juive, opera: Rachel,
10	Valurile Dunarii: Muszica
11	Tu, ca nun chiagne!, for
12	L'elisir d'amore, opera:
13	Gold und Silber-Walzer, f
Disc 2
1	Tosca, opera: Act Two: To
2	Tosca, opera: Act Two: ha
3	Tosca, opera: Act Two: Me
4	Tosca, opera: Act Two: Do
5	Tosca, opera: Act Two: Ed
6	Tosca, opera: Act Two: Or
7	Tosca, opera: Act Two: Ba
8	Tosca, opera: Act Two: Ne
9	Tosca, opera: Act Two: Se
10	Tosca, opera: Act Two: Vi
11	Tosca, opera: Act Two: Ve
12	Tosca, opera: Act Two: E
13	Tosca, opera: Act Three:
14	Tosca, opera: Act Three:
15	Tosca, opera: Act Three:
16	Tosca, opera: Act Three:
17	Tosca, opera: Act Three:
18	Tosca, opera: Act Three:
19	Tosca, opera: Act Three:
20	Tosca, opera: Act Three:
Puccini: Tosca
1.	Tosca, opera 1:47:48
	Composed by Giacomo Puccini
	Performed by Maria Callas, Franco Calabrese, Dario Caselli, La Scala Theater Orchestra & Chorus, Tito Gobbi, Melchiorre Luise, Angelo Mercuriali, Giuseppe di Stefano, Vittore Veneziani and Alvaro Cordova
	Conducted by Victor de Sabata

Barnes & Noble

When EMI's staff recorded Puccini's indestructible melodrama in 1953, they created what many consider the finest recording of an opera -- period. Half a century has passed, and this performance's sovereignty still remains unchallenged. Puccini didn't let his opera's at times unconvincing libretto deter him from writing music that terrifyingly depicts the violence and suffering he detected in its pages. On this recording, Maria Callas, the prima donna of the 20th century, realizes every inch of her character (in a role she claimed she actually didn't like much) through a sense of timing and theater that remain flawless, and through a vocal instrument not yet undone by the flaws that would emerge a few years later. With a cast that features the great vocal acting of baritone Tito Gobbi and the gorgeous tenor of Giuseppe di Stefano, the performance is led by conductor Victor de Sabata in an interpretation that will make any listeners' blood run cold with fear and sympathy -- and prove that with the right understanding, even somewhat sordid material can possess the truest emotions of art. Patrick Giles

All Music Guide

This is one of the most justly revered operatic recordings ever made -- a dramatic and musical gold standard for "Tosca" despite its advancing age and monophonic sound. It was the last major recording project for Victor de Sabata, one of opera's greatest, yet least often recorded conductors. He brought a distinctive rhythmic urgency to this performance that you can hear from the very first bars, and he wove the vocal and orchestral textures together so organically that they still sound vivid today. He deserves a lot of the credit for making this one of the rare studio recordings that captures the energy and dramatic tension of a live performance. Maria Callas is at the top of her game, and still very much in her vocal prime. Her dramatic approach to "Tosca" is arguably even better captured in the live recordings from Covent Garden a decade later, but at that point her voice had lost some of its bloom; depending on your tastes, this may be the better example of her doing the role. Tito Gobbi owned the role of Scarpia, and considered it his finest characterization. Although he and Callas wouldn't perform the opera together on-stage for another 10 years, the chemistry and tension they brought to those later live performances are already in evidence here, as if they have done these roles together many times. The excitement of the second act is electric. And Giuseppe di Stefano still sounds youthful and fresh, not yet vocally worn from years of heavy singing. He makes the perfect partner for Callas, bringing an optimistic passion to the opening scene that sets off her more complicated persona. His final "E lucevan le stelle" is truly heartbreaking. Allen Schrott

Daily Telegraph

[Callas's] 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. Matthew Rye