Tosca Opera

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.

Complete collection of Caruso's performance. the original recording untouched by digital reprocessing makes it even more attractive to me. it makes a great contrast to modern recordings of the contemporary tenors. the modern recording sound so artificial and computer enhanced in comparison - one might as week call them computer generated arias.

Tosca is a story of lust and crime, originally written for Sarah Bernhardt by the French playwright, Victorien Sardou. Puccini’s genius lay in his remarkable ability to transform such a tale into an opera of the highest drama and passion. Tosca was central to Puccini’s career and revealed a new refinement and fluency in his work. Through Tosca, a drama of idealistic young love, Puccini was bidding farewell to young manhood, with melodic style and rousing passion.This production of one of Puccini’s best-loved works from the magnificent Roman amphitheatre in Verona features the outstanding performances of Eva Marton in the title role, with Ingvar Wixell as a superbly wicked Scarpia and Giacomo Aragall as the ill-fated Cavaradossi.

This production from the historic Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, Italy, stars the opera worlds 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, 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.

This gripping and visually stunning film has been universally hailed as one of the most satisfying of all versions of opera on celluloid. Director Gianfranco de Bosio has given an extraordinary dimension of realism to this story of love, deception and murder by shooting it all in the original Roman location. Using diverse cinematic tricks and imaginative camerawork, this opera film is much more a visual interpretation of Puccini’s music than a theatre piece filmed in original settings.

Decca has pulled together a blockbuster collection of many of opera's greatest hits from the standard repertoire. The selection is heavily weighted to the nineteenth century, and to Italian operas, but it does indeed offer a generous sampling of what the general public understands as the staples of the repertoire. It includes one Baroque aria, from Handel's Rodelinda, and several from the Classical era - two arias from Gluck's Orfeo ed Eurydice, and seven from Mozart's operas - and the rest range from the bel canto of Rossini to the verismo of Cilea and Puccini. The selection is primarily made up of arias, but includes ensembles, choruses, and orchestral excerpts.

Regarded as one of the great voices of the Metropolitan Opera, Richard Tucker made his debut there as Alfredo Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata, in January, 1945, and became a specialist in the Italian and French lyric roles. He appeared with the Metropolitan Opera in 734 performances. The only other tenors to have had longer professional careers were Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. Sony Classical celebrates 100 years of this legendary American tenor with the release of two limited- edition original album releases.

Sony Music presents Top 40 Opera: The Ultimate Top 40 Collection - 37 classical opera gems including Montserrat Caballé, Placido Domingo, Anna Moffo and others.