Search - Giacomo Puccini, Lorin Maazel, Birgit Nilsson :: Tosca / Nilsson, Corelli, Fischer-Dieskau, Maazel

An important recording

Dag Kyndel | Hölö, Sweden | 06/20/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have always liked this recording. Birgit Nilsson demanded from Decca a new recording with her in this role, otherwise she would not let them record her Elektra. I can understand her. She loved to perform Tosca. Here she sings wonderfully. I remember reading in "Gramophone" that a critic telled how he played parts of Decca's new recording for his wife, asking her to guess who sang the title role. She only voted for the great namnes, Tebaldi and other famous Toscas. The critic took that as a high praise of Nilsson's singing and he thought she was worth it. And, indeed she is in top form here, singing with a very beautiful, rounded and absolute secure voice, from pianissimo to a gleaming forte. Corelli is fantastic, Fischer-Dieskau very good.

If you want to test miss Nilsson in the role once more, buy at once the recently published record "Birgit Nilsson på det Kongelige Theater" (=The Royal Theatre in Copenhagen), please look for this title at amazon.co.uk. Here - among other wonderful things - I can guarantee that Nilsson's version of Tosca's prayer will overwhelm you. It is the best sung version of this prayer I ever have heard, and I have been visiting opera houses and listened to records for over 30 years."

A luxury Tosca that falls short

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/11/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This long-dismissed recording of Tosca has found a host of fans here at Amazon. I can't see why it deserves them. Maazel is so fussy with his phrasing that he can't bear to let a single aria flow naturally; every note must be shaped and molded within an inch of its life. The principals are all super-famous, and I agree with those who think Nilsoon was underrated in her Italian roles. She is fearless here, with dead-on accuracy and thrilling high notes. She's not at all Italiante, but she does very well at trying to sound vulnerable -- or at least not impregnable. Corelli is Corelli -- brazen, devoid of subtlety, but charismatic. I find his too crude by half, but he has legions of fans.



What really sink the proceedings is the decision to have Fischer-Dieskau fill the role of Scarpia. He had a career in Italian opera in Germany, and thanks to his fame the recording companies gave him license to attempt roles for which he was temperamentally unsuited. There's no natural menace and villainy to his Scarpia; every note bespeaks a gifted singer artfully trying to overcome obstacles. To some listeners the result may be successful, but I kept hearing, not Scarpia but F-D practicing his usual tricks. Nor is his high-ish baritone well suited to a role that requires a bass extension that he sorely lacks.



Outside the fan club at Amazon, critics have been severe toward this luxury Tosca, and on the whole I think they're right.



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