Giacomo Puccini: Tosca (ICA Classics Audio CD 2-disc set)

Renata Tebaldi (Tosca)
Ferruccio Tagliavini (Cavaradossi)
Tito Gobbi (Scarpia)
Michael Langdon (Angelotti)
Howell Glynne (Sacristan)
David Tree (Spoletta)
Ronald Lewis (Sciarrone)
Noreen Berry (Shepherd)
Rhydderch Davies (Jailer)

Covent Garden Chorus & Orchestra
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, conductor


This June 1955 performance of Puccini’s Tosca marked Renata Tebaldi’s first appearance with the Covent Garden Company. The roles of Cavaradossi and Scarpia were filled by two of Italy’s finest singers, Ferruccio Tagliavini (Cavaradossi) and Tito Gobbi (Scarpia). All three went on to make memorable studio recordings for Decca, Cetra and EMI.

The Times wrote on 29 June 1955, the day after the first performance of the revival, ‘The performance was tremendous, not only in the singing, which was up to the heroic standards of the past, but in dramatic tension’. The conductor came in for particular praise, ‘Mr Molinari-Pradelli gave no quarter to his singers and extracted every ounce of power out of the orchestra’.

Of Tebaldi’s Tosca, The Times wrote, ‘With an imposing presence, a fine voice, and a sure judgement of dramatic gesture she made Tosca credible and sympathetic in phrases that were moulded to exploit every intonation of her voice’.

The same critic praised Ferruccio Tagliavini, ‘his voice is generous. his mezza voice is pleasing and his tone does not harden in forte passages’ while Tito Gobbi’s Scarpia was described as ‘an aristocrat corrupted by power’.