This latest feature is the first in a new series on Everyone's Opera, a series centered on my personal tastes in operatic music. Each article in this series will be a review and analysis of a recording from my personal collection, complete with excerpts when possible, that has made my own somewhat biased but intricately studied (wink) list of greatest opera recordings of all time. Fair warning for Rossini and Mozart lovers. There isn't much of the light and comical to go around in my operatic sanctuary. If you like playing in emotional mud, however, then welcome! Let me show you my castles!
Dynamite on Disc
I mentioned this particular recording in my review of the Met's Tosca starring Angela Gheorghiu in the title role, and there I was also sure to remind my readers of just how delicious I find the intensity of Puccini's story of a diva and a Baron. Oh, right... there's a painter, too, isn't there? Almost every time it has been recorded, Tosca has been placed under the fluorescence of melodrama, with nearly every moment steeped in overwhelming verismo sentimentality. Thankfully, Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Giuseppe di Stefano, and Victor de Sabata were around in 1953 to sharpen Puccini's edges. It was the idea of producer Walter Legge to bring them all together, an idea that spawned perhaps the single most significant Puccinian sound creation ever made, one that continues to keep the pages of the iTunes Store's classical category busy. No other, except, maybe, the subsequent Callas/Gobbi collaborations of the sixties, is as intense or as dark, yet as not only tasteful but unbelievably direct, love duets and all. These weren't artists that liked to dance around the point, and the point on which they focused as they screamed in the fire of each recording session was the tip of a musical lightning bolt.
The Mysterious Marriage of Perfectionism and Passion
When I talk about lightning and dynamite, I don't only refer to the emotion that spins in the complexity of sound that Puccini only surpassed in his swansong, Turandot, or in the results of what was one of the greatest operatic partnerships ever forged. The weeks that were spent on the production of the truly astouding masterpiece of the recording in question, one which could inspire a love for Puccini's most notable opera (in my opinion) even in its most savagely critical detractors, were not at all easy. Then again, none of the greatest things ever accomplished were achieved without sacrifice or the desire of one politician, revolutionary, friend, sibling, or artist to take a swing at another. There is certainly a reason Callas said she'd wished she'd thrown something at someone more than once. Tempers flying during the process of recording an opera may seem very, well, operatic, but there isn't much that is melodramatic about perfectionism, for which Legge, Gobbi, De Sabata, and she were all notorious. Fortunately, despite Callas's once removing her glasses, leaving her eyes without sight and her producer without the ability to produce any effect on her at all with his furious miming from behind the glass of the recording studio, and though De Sabata caused his fair share of frustration with his own demands on the dramatic genius that compensated for a perceived lack of conventional beauty in the great soprano's voice, so well as his act of leaving Legge to do all the work to assemble the finished product, everyone shared a common goal: the creation of the best Puccini recording yet made. Indeed, it seems that the passion of the music and the combination of hot emotion and demands to which it contributed brought the best out of everyone involved, as you'll hear (YESSSSSS!) below.
An Obvious Choice
That, I'm sure, is what most of my fellow opera fans who are reading this are already thinking. Of course I would choose to review the world's most famous Tosca recording before I write about any other recording on my "Best EVER!" list. All things black are represented perfectly here, including lust, revolution, and a murderous protective instinct, by the most thorough and, if I may say so, the most tenacious of interpreters. Twenty-seven times I've sat through the entirety of this astounding performance, and I'm sure I'll have given it more than twice that many hearings by the end of my lifetime. Long may it be. There are far too many voices, far too many operas that I haven't heard yet! If you haven't, I suggest you give this masterpiece (that wonderful word again) a try. For me, it is the one and only Tosca. Below are some of the most famous moments. Have a listen to one of the hardest-earned successes of the classical music industry!
Dynamite on Disc
I mentioned this particular recording in my review of the Met's Tosca starring Angela Gheorghiu in the title role, and there I was also sure to remind my readers of just how delicious I find the intensity of Puccini's story of a diva and a Baron. Oh, right... there's a painter, too, isn't there? Almost every time it has been recorded, Tosca has been placed under the fluorescence of melodrama, with nearly every moment steeped in overwhelming verismo sentimentality. Thankfully, Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Giuseppe di Stefano, and Victor de Sabata were around in 1953 to sharpen Puccini's edges. It was the idea of producer Walter Legge to bring them all together, an idea that spawned perhaps the single most significant Puccinian sound creation ever made, one that continues to keep the pages of the iTunes Store's classical category busy. No other, except, maybe, the subsequent Callas/Gobbi collaborations of the sixties, is as intense or as dark, yet as not only tasteful but unbelievably direct, love duets and all. These weren't artists that liked to dance around the point, and the point on which they focused as they screamed in the fire of each recording session was the tip of a musical lightning bolt.
The Mysterious Marriage of Perfectionism and Passion
When I talk about lightning and dynamite, I don't only refer to the emotion that spins in the complexity of sound that Puccini only surpassed in his swansong, Turandot, or in the results of what was one of the greatest operatic partnerships ever forged. The weeks that were spent on the production of the truly astouding masterpiece of the recording in question, one which could inspire a love for Puccini's most notable opera (in my opinion) even in its most savagely critical detractors, were not at all easy. Then again, none of the greatest things ever accomplished were achieved without sacrifice or the desire of one politician, revolutionary, friend, sibling, or artist to take a swing at another. There is certainly a reason Callas said she'd wished she'd thrown something at someone more than once. Tempers flying during the process of recording an opera may seem very, well, operatic, but there isn't much that is melodramatic about perfectionism, for which Legge, Gobbi, De Sabata, and she were all notorious. Fortunately, despite Callas's once removing her glasses, leaving her eyes without sight and her producer without the ability to produce any effect on her at all with his furious miming from behind the glass of the recording studio, and though De Sabata caused his fair share of frustration with his own demands on the dramatic genius that compensated for a perceived lack of conventional beauty in the great soprano's voice, so well as his act of leaving Legge to do all the work to assemble the finished product, everyone shared a common goal: the creation of the best Puccini recording yet made. Indeed, it seems that the passion of the music and the combination of hot emotion and demands to which it contributed brought the best out of everyone involved, as you'll hear (YESSSSSS!) below.
An Obvious Choice
That, I'm sure, is what most of my fellow opera fans who are reading this are already thinking. Of course I would choose to review the world's most famous Tosca recording before I write about any other recording on my "Best EVER!" list. All things black are represented perfectly here, including lust, revolution, and a murderous protective instinct, by the most thorough and, if I may say so, the most tenacious of interpreters. Twenty-seven times I've sat through the entirety of this astounding performance, and I'm sure I'll have given it more than twice that many hearings by the end of my lifetime. Long may it be. There are far too many voices, far too many operas that I haven't heard yet! If you haven't, I suggest you give this masterpiece (that wonderful word again) a try. For me, it is the one and only Tosca. Below are some of the most famous moments. Have a listen to one of the hardest-earned successes of the classical music industry!
Great news for those of you who haven't heard! "Callas Remastered" is currently available in installments. You can buy any one of the recordings in the amazing set individually and on the cheap at amazon.com. I, myself, am gradually building my personal collection of digitally remastered awesomeness a la Maria! If you haven't yet heard the Callas miracle as it was meant to be heard, here's your chance. Until next time, happy operatic insanity, my friends!
Image: Piano Piano!: Inside Backside Maria Callas & Guiseppe Di Stefano - Duetten en Scenes uit Italiaanse Opera's Vol.2 - Koor & Orkest Teatro alla Scala, Milano, Tullio Serafin, Antonino Votto, Herbert von Karajan, EMI 5 C183-01612/3
Image: Brian Vasconcellos: LPs
Image: Bradhoc: Georg Solti
Image: Piano Piano!: Inside Backside Maria Callas & Guiseppe Di Stefano - Duetten en Scenes uit Italiaanse Opera's Vol.2 - Koor & Orkest Teatro alla Scala, Milano, Tullio Serafin, Antonino Votto, Herbert von Karajan, EMI 5 C183-01612/3
Image: Brian Vasconcellos: LPs
Image: Bradhoc: Georg Solti
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