Product Details

• Actors: Hildegard Behrens, Plácido Domingo, Cornell MacNeil, James Courtney, Italo Tajo
• Directors: Kirk Browning
• Writers: Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica, Victorien Sardou
• Producers: Michael Bronson, Samuel Paul
• Format: Classical, Color, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 127 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300215261
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,657 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

This is the best of Placido Domingo's several video performances as the painter Cavaradossi, lover of the prima donna Floria Tosca and enthusiast of revolutionary ideals in the repressive atmosphere of Napoleonic-era Rome. His colleagues, Cornell MacNeil and Hildegard Behrens, are both seasoned and highly capable performers who make the deadly confrontation between Tosca and the corrupt police chief Scarpia intense and believable. Guiseppe Sinopoli conducts with style and dramatic power. But in many ways the primary reason for wanting Tosca in a video rather than an audio recording is the staging by Franco Zeffirelli--effective for the few thousand who saw it in the opera house but even more effective on camera for the much larger television and home video audience. He shifts easily from the small-scale duets in Act I to the grandiose spectacle of the "Te Deum" just before the curtain. His attention to small details helps build the tension in Act II to its violent climax, and in Act III he gives poignancy to the abrupt shift from hope to despair. The essence of Tosca is melodrama, and the singers, conductor, director, and audience all revel in it. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best "Tosca" Available on Video!, October 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Puccini - Tosca / Sinopoli, Domingo, Behrens, The Metropolitan Opera [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This version, with Placido Domingo as Cavarodossi and Robert McCracken as Scarpia, is the best one I've ever seen. Domingo is famed in this century for the excellence of his Cavarodossi, and in this video you can plainly see why. You'd have to be made of stone not to cry like a baby after hearing his "E lucevan stelle" in the last act. Hildegard Beherens has the best rendition of "Vissi d'Arte" I've heard, better than Callas, than Marton, than Van Ness. Mac's Scarpia is amazingly evil; in his costume and makeup he looks somewhat like a toad, but his voice is a beautiful, rich baritone- almost too beautiful for this villainous role. All of them together make for a perfect casting of this opera, one of Puccini's best- not a single wasted note, action, or aria. "Tosca" is a jewel among Puccini's works- more accessible than "Butterfly" and "Turandot"- a good work for those just starting their enjoyment of this art form. And this version is a fine addition to the collection of afficionado and beginner alike.

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cornell MacNeil is spectacular as Scarpia!, August 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Puccini - Tosca / Sinopoli, Zeffirelli, Domingo, Behrens, MET (DVD)

I have five "Toscas" on video and DVD. This production, done at the Met in NYC, is the best of the lot. I Have seen this same production at the Met and the scenery is wonderful. I agree it is Placido Domingo's best performances on video. Hildegard Behrens plays a very charming and believable Tosco. Her performance in ActII with Cornell MacNiel as Scarpia is particularly moving. But it is MacNeil who steals the show! He play the part of the villain with such exactness and facial expressions that at times he looks like Dracular! He is also in excellent voice for this performance. This is a "don't miss" Tosca.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the very best Tosca--here's why, June 27, 2003

By 

Mr John Haueisen (WORTHINGTON, OHIO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Puccini - Tosca / Sinopoli, Zeffirelli, Domingo, Behrens, MET (DVD)

The secret to a successful performance of TOSCA is the dramatic tension linking the three main characters: the good Floria Tosca, her lover Cavaradossi, and the evil Scarpia. For the performance to work, the audience must be convinced of the evil nature of Scarpia.

Cornell MacNeil's Scarpia oozes evil through every pore. His lewd leers at Tosca, and the ease with which he orders all manner of torture, seeming to enjoy it as much as others are repulsed by it, provides an authentic flavor to his character.

Placido Domingo's voice is at its very best, and to hear him sing Cavaradossi is, in itself, enough reason to enjoy this production. Hildegard Behrens is a convincing Tosca, especially in the dramatic "This is Tosca's kiss!" She nearly injures her voice as she growls at Scarpia, "Mori, mori, mori"--"Die, die, die." No other Tosca has better dispatched the unbearably monstrous Scarpia.

The staging, lighting, set, and Sinopoli's conducting are simply marvelous, as is usually the case at the Met. You can almost smell the incense, as Scarpia struts around inside the church. Of all the available performances of Tosca, this is the most dramatic, with excellent singing, acting, and casting. It will transport you back in history, and you will share the almost delicious pathos of the participants. This is the very best Tosca.