Customer Reviews

Puccini - Tosca / Sinopoli, Zeffirelli, Domingo, Behrens, MET

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have to confess to having very mixed feelings about this release, which judging by all the reviews I have read is not the general consensus of opinion. Still never mind - it would be a boring world indeed if we all agreed about everything. I have seen this production at Covent Garden (with the same diva as here - except at the performance I was at she was booed at her curtain call. Not by me I hasten to add). But even at Covent Garden I felt she wasn't right for Tosca - and here I still feel the same. I agree with the reviews that she is a regal Tosca, and acts well, but for me she doesn't get under the skin of the role. Watch Callas or Marton and you will see what I mean. Now, watch or listen to her singing Elektra or Brunnhilde and you can see her in a fach totally suited to this great singing actress - but for me not Tosca. Domingo is great in the role, totally convincing and giving his usual excellent performance - but I am afraid that no one can sing Cavarodossi for me like Pavarotti. I saw Sam Ramey as Scarpia at Covent Garden and he was just perfection personified. The production is perfect - the attention to detail takes your breath away, and lets face it, this is an excellent DVD. But, and for me it is a big but, it just lacks that final touch. A shame, but not quite right. However, before my review influences your decision, just remember everyone else seems to love it. How subjective reviews are!

What can I say? In the thirteen years (has it really been that long?) since I first saw this video, I have worn out two copies.

Tosca is my favorite opera of Puccini's, and this is the only good film I have seen.

I would go out of my way at any time to see Domingo, since he isn't wooden, as is the style in opera today. His voice soars, and he actually brings something to Cavarodossi.

Behrens is an unforgettable Tosca (although I've often thought Tosca should be a little younger - but this isn't a crack on her.)

In March of 1985, the Metropolitan broadcast on tv a live performance of Puccini's Tosca starring the celebrated tenor Placido Domingo and the dramatic soprano Hildegard Behrens in the lead roles of Tosca and Caravadossi. Cornell Mcneill performs a sensationally wicked Scarpia. This Met broadcast is now available on DVD and it sounds incredible. The production was the brainchild of Franco Zefferelli, the outstanding film director and his authentic touch is expressed in the costumes and scenery realistically depicting Rome, Italy in the aftermath of Napoleon. This DVD is a must have for fans of Placido Domingo, Zefferelli, soprano Hildegard Behrens and the devilish Scarpia portrayed by the incredible baritone Cornell McNeill. The strength of Puccini's Tosca lies squarely in its drama. The opera was drawn from the French play by Victorien Sardou. Melodrama marks the whole of the plot. Scarpia is jealous that the revolutionary idealist artist Mario Caravadossi has won Tosca's heart., Determined to have Tosca for himself he arranges for the romantic artist hero to be executed. Tosca, deeply heartbroken, leaps to her death from a high building. The music is perhaps Puccini's most dramatic (only Turandot reaches such heights). Observe such dramatic moments when chorus and orchestra swell into a crescendo in the scene in which a religious ceremony is conducted in the Cathedral. In this scene, Scarpia declares his lust for Tosca - "Tosca you make me forget God" and the direct polarity between the sacred chorus and the profane vocals of the mendacious Scarpia is climatic.

The talents of Domingo and Mcneill are really what make this opera so great. Mcneill's Scarpia is dead-on in its majestic malice. His dark cloak and clothes, his dramatic inflection into his arias and his commanding presence make him by far one of the greatest interpretors of the role. Samuel Ramey, of late, has come to reach equal heights as Mcneill in his performance as Scarpia. Domingo is the very essence of Caravadossi- artistic, romantic and heroic. Domingo's voice is divine and his acting above reproach. Domingo, in fact, is living proof that tenors are not just singers but also actors. Domingo far outshines even Pavarotti, who sings without any real dramatic focus nor puts anything into the drama of his roles. Domingo, on the other hand, is an actor with a powerful and lyric voice. Domingo's art has stretched beyond the limits of the stage and on to film - Rosi's Carmen and Zefferelli's La Traviata and he has been a conductor as well as opera artistic director. As for Behrens, her Tosca looks good and sounds good, satisfying, dramatic but not up to paar with such legends as Maria Callas, Leontine Price, Mirella Freni or Grace Bumbry, all who have performed incredible Toscas in their careers. Conductor Sinopoli and his orchestra pack a powerful punch in what is one of opera's greatest melodramas. A must have for fans.

Unlike some, I wasn't thrilled with the sound quality of this DVD, but it is a solid performance in every way -- outstanding in a few ways.

The outstanding: Domingo -- in fine voice, and very much looking the part of Cavaradossi; the conducting by Sinopoli -- truly dramatic and intense leadership; the Zeffirelli sets -- deluxe to the nth degree.

The solid: Behrens as Tosca -- vocally powerful, but dramatically somewhat stiff; MacNeil -- wonderfully oily as Scarpia, a distinctive interpretation, but past his prime and rather weak of voice (esp. by comparison with Domingo & Behrens).

Although the audience was a little clap-happy, applauding even for the singers' entrances (before they'd sung a word), I found myself getting into the performance with the audience. On the whole, a very good DVD -- your best bet for this opera.

This is undoubtedly a powerful performance, with both Behrens and Domingo singing and acting superbly. Sinopoli's conducting is first rate, and the sets are stunning. And yet, for reasons I can't quite explain, something is missing in Behrens' Tosca. She really puts herself into the role, yet I just don't see her as Tosca in the way that Domingo is Mario Cavaradossi. This is purely subjective on my part, and if you are a fan of Behrens, her performance will definitely excite you.

Tosca was the first opera I ever saw, in 1964, from the last row of the topmost balcony of the Rome Opera. I went expecting not to be impressed, feeling a twenty-something surliness toward "bourgeois" art. Fortunately, it was a grand production, though I can't remember who sang or conducted, and I've loved opera ferociously ever since. I was living at the time in an apartment just outside the Campo dei Fiori, with a close-up view out my window of the great domed church of San Andrea, where the first act of Tosca unfolds. The opera stage was a near-perfect recreation of that church, where I often sat and thought. I'd never seen such stagecraft before, and the recollection of its impact makes me think that opera should always maintain its tradition of visual magnificence, if only to dazzle the neophyte.
I've kept that apartment for nearly forty years now, and being there for a few days, I watched this Tosca. How could I give it less than five stars, when it seems so true to what I saw first? I have to agree with the review by "fiordiligi" that Behrens isn't Tosca, however well she sings. Domingo is almost too forceful for Cavaradossi, that eternal wuss in revolutionary plumage, but who can complain about such vocal command? The character who makes Tosca, however, is Scarpia, a villain so odious one anticipates his destruction gleefully even after seeing the opera many times. It's the villains who make melodrama appealing; the heroes are always mawkish or wispy, and the heroines are never quite fully human. Cornell MacNeil is superb as Scarpia, both vocally and visually. He's not much of a physical actor, I suppose, but the skillful use of camera close-ups reveals his face to be a mobile mask of hatefulness. The cinematography of this DVD is so good that I have to place it on a par with the singing. If you can't afford time-travel to Rome in 1964, I'd say this is at least a fine evening's consolation.

If there is only one TOSCA you must have in your collection: Buy this one! It is marvellous! It's unique! It's great and unforgettible!
Domingo, Behrens and espeially MacNeill are at their best! MacNeill doesn't play and sing Scarpia: he IS Scarpia. You believe every sentence, every gesture. Absolutely magnificent.

The stage production of the MET is unforgettible. And when you once have seen THIS final of the first act you will everything forget you have seen before!!!!! ......