Callas in Tosca II
Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca had its world premiere in Rome on 14 January 1900.
Today’s selection is the end of Act II from Covent Garden in 1964: Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi, with Carlo Felice Cillario conducting.
From the archives: Maria Callas in Tosca and other music by Puccini.
Of course this isn’t the end, but it’s the end of the footage and it feels like her last moment ever on stage; well, it’s a fine exit.
The “Vissi d’arte” from this performance was, I think, the first recording of Callas’ that I ever heard: it wasn’t a good introduction, though now, a tiny bit less callow, I can see and hear past the shredded top notes.
The clip reminds me of what someone (Ira Siff?) wrote about Callas’s 1965 “Tosca” at the Met: that it was like watching the actual events on which the Sardou play had been based. I’ve seen some fine Floria Toscas (Verrett, Millo, Vaness, Racette), but none to top this!
I think it was also Siff who wrote about how in that production Callas, “a superb Tosca all night”, wobbled fearfully on her high C: the audience gasped, but she broke character for the briefest instant to flash “those huge black eyes” at them in warning; “we behaved ourselves after that” he said.
Thanks for mentioning that bit, which I had forgotten.
If the Met audience really did gasp, then it has changed a lot in the past fifty years, because lately I have heard them cheering “singing” that would peel paint off the walls! LOL