Puccini: Tosca

The role of Puccini’s Tosca, a singer fatefully entrapped between her political activist lover and the villainous police chief hunting him down, was central to the career of American Greek soprano Maria Callas. Her recording of the opera, made in 1953 in Milan, is widely regarded as definitive. Fierily impassioned one moment, touchingly vulnerable the next, Callas’ interpretation runs the full gamut of the emotions, and is searing from start to finish. But Callas is not the only reason for hearing this recording. Both tenor Giuseppe di Stefano (as Tosca’s lover Cavaradossi) and baritone Tito Gobbi (as the rapacious Baron Scarpia) match Callas thrillingly for intensity. Conductor Victor de Sabata elicits incandescent playing from the La Scala Opera orchestra, and the well-balanced albeit mono sound makes an excitingly sharp impression. Many other recordings of Tosca have been made since, but none approaches this one for its vocal artistry and sheer visceral impact.