Release Date: 12 January 2003
Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 636943125625
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: PUCCINI
Description
Giocomo Puccini (1858-1924)ToscaBorn in Lucca in 1858, Puccini showed early signs of musicaltalent, and was an organist and choirmaster by the time he was only nineteen.With the aid of a grant secured by his mother, he entered the MilanConservatory, where he studied under Amilcare Ponchielli, the composer of LaGioconda. With Ponchielli's encouragement, he entered his first opera Le Villiinto a competition for the composition of a one-act opera, organised by thepublishers Sanzogno, but was not successful. However Le Villi was thought goodenough to be produced in Milan in 1884, and as a result of this, the publisherRicordi commissioned Puccini to write another opera. This was to be Edgar,which failed at its premiere, also in Milan, in 1889. Puccini's next two operas were much more successful: bothwere first performed at Turin, Manon Lescaut in 1893 and La Boh?â?¿me in 1896.Puccini's first verismo opera (the term used to describe operas with asupposedly 'realistic' character) Tosca was premiered in Rome in 1900, onceagain to great popular success. With its combination of melody, drama, and vividorchestral colour, it confirmed Puccini's position as the leading Italiancomposer of opera of the time. Madama Butterfly, first performed in Milan in1904, had to be recast before it gained the popularity of the earlier operas,and took longer to establish itself, as did all of Puccini's later works. Theseincluded La Fanciulla del West, first performed at the Metropolitan Opera inNew York in 1910, La Rondine (Monte Carlo, 1917), and Il Trittico (New York,1918). Puccini's last opera, Turandot was left unfinished at his death in 1924,and was first performed in this state, conducted by Toscanini, at La Scala,Milan, in 1926. Tosca was based on a melodrama by the French playwrightVictorien Sardou, whose works provided a rich seam of material for operaticcomposers (two of Giordano's operas, Fedora and Madame Sans-Gene, were based onplays by him, as was Millocker's earlier operetta Der Bettelstudent). Sardou'splay was adapted into a highly effective operatic libretto by Giuseppe Giacosaand Luigi Illica, who had also created the libretto for La Boh?â?¿me. Giacosa wasto comment succinctly on the differences between the two libretti in a letterto the publisher Ricordi in 1896: 'While La Boh?â?¿me is all poetry and no plot,Tosca is all plot and no poetry'. This recording of Tosca was the fourth to be made for EMI'sColumbia label featuring the soprano Maria Callas. Whereas the previous Luciadi Lammermoor, I Puritani and Cavalleria Rusticana had been conducted by TullioSerafin, for Tosca the conductor was the then current musical director of LaScala, Victor de Sabata. It is his unique mastery and realisation of Puccini'spowerful score that has earned this recording recognition as one of thegreatest ever made of a complete opera, in addition to the immensely strongcontributions of all the principals involved. In his memoirs, On And Off TheRecord, Walter Legge, who had
Tracklisting
Various Artists
Various
Various
Various
Tullio Serafin
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
