Tosca

This Tosca is a black and white TV film. RAI films were usually lip-synched, but this one is done better than most.

To get the negative aspects out of the way first:

The transfer to DVD (Hardy classics) is rather sloppy, they might at least have cleaned the dust from the film! Picture quality is grainy and at times flickering and with 4:3 TV format it doesn't fill the screen. It's better not viewed on a large TV but only on a smaller screen.

My biggest gripe is the audio transfer which runs about a halftone sharp and distorts the singers' voices. (The VHS by Bel Canto Society is at correct pitch but who does or can play VHS these days?!)

A comparison to the 1956 Tosca Cinecittá colour film is unavoidable as a young Franco Corelli is in both of them.

Comprimarii: The part of Il Sagrestano in both films is very convincingly sung and acted by Vito de Taranto, complete with limp and nervous tics. Angelotti is Antonio Sacchetti, he also gets to play in the colour film to someone else's singing- hard to understand as Sacchetti's singing is excellent. Renato Ercolani as a smarmy but subtly menacing Spoletta and the other comprimarii in the 1955 film are also good, both vocally and as actors.

Principals: Tosca is Renata Heredia Capnist, a virtually unknown singer, I couldn't even find a date of birth. In the film she looks a bit older than Cavaradossi, so just the right age for the jealous Diva. Heredia Capnist sang a repertoire from Mozart and Donizetti to Verismo, from Donna Anna to Fedora and Turandot. Her voice is not overly voluminous but has plenty of squillo and excellent mezza voce. Vissi d'Arte is sung beautifully - lying on the floor as per tradition- with perfect pianissimi and legato. These days they'd roll out the red carpet for a Tosca like her! She is also a convincing actress and in the spoken bits of the role she easily holds her own, bettered only by Callas.

Scarpia is Carlo Tagliabue (1898-1978), one of the great pre-WWII baritones, here near the end of his illustrous career but still an impeccable singer with great legato lines and the vocal heft needed for the role. He imbues Scarpia with all the menace the part needs. A short pot bellied satyr with spindly legs, the close-ups of his face aren't flattering but they portray the vile police chief to perfection. This is a sadistic Scarpia to be afraid of.

For most viewers the star undoubtedly will be the 34 year old Franco Corelli as Cavaradossi, only 4 years into his stage career. His voice at that time still had the quick vibrato (caprino) that led to Del Monaco's PeCorelli (bleating sheep) jibe and that Corelli got rid of by 1959. A real pity the DVD runs sharp, at 440 Hz the vibrato would be much less noticable.

Corelli is in glorious voice: amazing breath control, lots of squillo and ringing acuti, but also ravishing mezza voce and diminuendi. He isn't as self indulgent as in his Met years, scooping and portamenti are less excessive and though he milks the high notes he doesn't distort the music as he sometimes did later on. His diction is also good here.

Corelli's acting and singing is better than in the 1956 film, much more nuanced and much more alive. The costume shows off his famous cosce d'oro (golden thighs) and he even adds an athletic interlude, vaulting over the railing from his painter's scaffold.

The scenery is opera style with painted backdrops, but serviceable. The main draw are the singers who are very well directed and all of them convincing actors. The camera often gets close so that you can see their facial expressions. They also act with their eyes- Cavaradossi in the 1st act duet with Tosca looking furtively towards the chapel where Angelotti is hiding, Tosca in the 2nd act when she notices the knife... After Vissi d'arte you see Tosca on her knees and Scarpias hand (only his hand) inching closer -very creepy! The interaction between the principals is very much on, the 1st act love duet could hardly be sung and acted better, the 2nd act is gripping drama and the 3rd act does really get to you...There Corelli always was at his best though in 1955 he still sings disciogliea dai veli more or less as written and without the hugely drawn out diminuendo of later years. Thankfully the camera concentrates on the desperate Cavaradossi and not on a boring lamp as in the 1956 film (really, how can you spoil E lucevan le stelle with such a harebrained idea!).

That the singers also are the actors makes it much more believable. Franca Duval in the 1956 film is a perfect beauty, but she is about as lively as a doll and not a good match to the wonderful but rather matronly voice of Maria Caniglia. Renata Heredia Capnist cannot compete with Duval in terms of sheer beauty but she's a hundred times more convincing.

Orchestra and choir of RAI are well rehearsed and the conducting of Antonio Votto is inspired. Votto was one of the old school conductors who really knew about singing and opera and who also knew that divas are on stage and not in front of an orchestra.

Of the two Toscas my preferred one definitely is the 1955 RAI version, both musically and from the point of acting. The DVD transfer of the 1956 film suffers from the same problem of incorrect pitch as the 1955 one, so if you can stomach the picture quality, go for the earlier version. Diehard Corelli fans of course will have both, if only to see Corelli's elder brother Ubaldo (Aldo Relli) as Sciarrone in the 1956 film.