Customer Reviews

Tosca (Black Dog Opera Library)

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It was once said that Puccini's "La Boheme" was all music and no drama, while "Tosca" was all drama and no music. Yet, at least to modern listeners, "Tosca," with its resonating themes, its incredible orchestrations, and its compelling story line of love, lust, loyalty, and betrayal continues to fascinate. The full score will aid the discerning listener in enjoying the scope of Puccini's genius as music and drama come together in a breathtaking rush of melody, aria, and incredible pathos. One of opera's most detestable, yet evilly engaging, villains, Baron Scarpia, stalks with regal ominousness. Floria Tosca sings one of the most poignant arias, "Visa d'arte. Visa amore." And as the plot thickens, the listener is carried to new heights of musical drama as the lovers plan their escape. But Scarpia's evil hand reaches from beyond the veil of death to thwart their flight to love and freedom. Puccini's orchestrations, his soaring melodies, and his sense of place and time have thrilled audiences for generations. Enjoy it again with the full score, and your favorite recording!

Complete music on 2 cds, unabridged libretto, history of composer, the specific opera, historical performances...What else could you ask for for under $$$! AND you end up getting so much more out of the performance when you know the story to the music. You spend less time reading the sub-title screen and more time enjoying the performance. (Not to mention you can be a "smarty pants" and share the operas history with other patrons.)

I wish they had more than 14 operas in this collection. Also great for the opera collection is "The Book of 101 Opera Librettos" also by Black Dog.

Black Dog? Are you reading this? I want more

The score in this book is perfect, it's a copy of an Ricordi Edition, if you are a conductor you can use it, don't confuise with the comment of the hardcover edition, the hardcover dosn't have the full score of the opera only this book. it's a good edition, if you like this opera buy this book.

This is one of my favorite operas but unfortunately this recording stinks. Scarpia probably had a hand in the engineering. While the performance is of high quality the dynamics are very poor. Whoever mixed it was playing the magic flute or intoxicated with the elixir of love. The quiet passages are recorded at such low levels that I have to increase the volume to hear them, but only to find myself forced to rush over to lower the drastically over amplified loud passages. As I have a much better recording (Caballe-Carreras-Wixell on Phillips) I end up looking at this book and playing the other. This was most disappointing since I also have the companion La Boheme and Butterfly and those are excellent. Save your money on this one.....