Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Tosca (1900)
Floria Tosca, Eleonora Buratto (soprano)
Mario Cavaradossi, Jonathan Tetelman (tenor)
Scarpia, Ludovic Tézier (baritone)
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Roma/Daniel Harding
rec. 2024, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Santa Cecilia Hall, Rome
No libretto enclosed
Reviewed as download
Deutsche Grammophon 4866997 [114]

After reading my esteemed colleague Göran Forsling’s impressive review of this new Tosca I thought I had better source the set and hear it for myself. His tagline introducing the review called it “The best Tosca released in the past half-century”. That’s quite a claim so I wanted to test it. Levine’s Tosca made in London in the Summer 1980 (almost 45 years ago now) was digitally recorded. If we use that as a marker, since then there have been more than ten others on mainstream releases, and several outliers too, most of which I have heard. 

There are four principals needed for a great Tosca and no compromise can be made in this. If I can reference our very own Ralph Moore here in his untouchables article: in his Tosca choice we have Callas, Di Stefano, Gobbi and de Sabata in the four roles. I agree with Ralph, in everything he says except one (I don’t like the artificial stereo effects some editions apply to those immortal Columbias). That fourth principal character, the conductor, is so vital in Tosca. It is a maestro’s opera for sure. Puccini worked so hard on the orchestration; tiny effects that can pass by unnoticed in some performances took weeks to get right. He even blew the budget on getting the right sort of bells for the many places in the work where they are so important (this new version may have the best bells of any, in fact!)

It is conducted by Daniel Harding in his first recorded project with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, of whom he is now Music Director. Harding works extensively in mainland Europe at the highest level. His work in opera has included many productions at La Scala and the festival stages of Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg. He inherits his orchestra and chorus from Antonio Pappano who made several great opera recordings in Rome.

The recording was made over three live concert performances of the work in October 2024 and studio sessions on surrounding days. As I understand it, the finished product is a blend of takes from this week with Puccini. I read an interview with Jonathan Tetelman, the tenor in the set, who said that at one concert he was tasked with getting a really good Act 1 duet down, achieving a perfect “Vittoria!” then aiming for a clean, sincere Act 3. The logic is that DG would ask him to focus on other areas in subsequent performances and then use the best of it all in the record. This bothers me a bit. As Herr Klemperer once memorably declaimed: “Ein Schwindel!” What I do like, is that DG have set their mics up close on stage and gone for big sonics. This will please audiophiles for sure, but I am not sure it will bear repeated listening (I needed a lie-down after it all) and much of it is not what you would hear from a balcony seat at any medium-sized opera house, never mind a large one.

Starting with Tetelman, our Cavaradossi, whom I imagine was a major factor in these records being made in the first place, he does in fact have a previous assignment in the role available of DVD/Blu-ray (review). In the Winter season of 2018/19, he sang Rodolfo for ENO and repeated it one year later at Covent Garden, where in a couple of performances he sang with Eleonora Buratto. He has appeared at the Met in Madama Butterfly and La rondine and a month after these Tosca performances he was strutting his Don José in Carmen in San Francisco. He sings in a bravado style, the Corelli approach you might say and highly appropriate for Cavaradossi. His upper compass has a ring to it that is exhilarating and manly. I do have an issue with his inflexibility of timbre, however. He always sounds the same and I found this a little tiresome in places. His breath control seems secure, but his notes come from his middle register (upper chest) and this worries me a little. At least there is no hint of any passaggio which happens when a singer moves from his chest register to head notes, often with a distinct gear-change. When he is singing quietly, DG have balanced the audio so we can hear a pin drop, but would he carry at these moments in a large theatre?

Having pointed out a few concerns let me direct you to some of his many successes. London’s first Cavaradossi was Fernando De Lucia. He sang “Recondita armonia” whilst working on his canvas, engrossed in his painting and thoughts of his Tosca. Since then, all Cavaradossis have turned their back on the painting and sung the aria to the auditorium. It is obvious why and we can forgive them. Tetelman’s version is fine. He makes a lovely diminuendo on “Tosca ha l’occhio nero!” and his B flat is thrilling. There is too much echo after this, however, and we hear this elsewhere too, for instance at “La vita mi costasse, vi salverò!” when his blood boils to think of Scarpia later in the scene.

Tetelman calms his enflamed Floria with a lovely “Giuro!” The duet “Qual occhio” is marvellous. His coup de glotte at “Ah! l’alma acquieta” impressive. Moving to Act 3, he is best heard singing with a lovely tender legato in “O dolci mani”. The final duet with Tosca is very special and more successful for him than the showpiece aria that starts the act. Tetelman’s many fans will doubtless be in heaven with this record. It is a highly credible reading but there is room for even better from him with the right conditions and intelligent husbandry of his resources. Alfredo Kraus would be a great model for him. He was still singing marvellously into his 60s primarily due to great technique and good people around him helping him make the right decisions.

Jonathan Tetelman is the youngest of the three main singers on this set. Let us compare all three with Ralph’s untouchable and my other more recent contenders:

The first thing that perhaps stands out is how young Callas and di Stefano were, yet they had already done so much by the time they made those records. Also, I am struck by how Scarpia is played by many a senior singer. This doesn’t need to be so. I am aware there are many more recordings available but I am really only comparing this new Tosca to digital versions as per my opening gambit.

Tosca is sung by Italian spinto Eleonora Burrato. In 2024 she sang Amelia (Simon Boccanegra) at the Scala and in Rome. In July she sang Tosca eleven times in Munich with three different Cavaradossis: Castronovo, Kaufmann and De Tommaso (I wonder what tales she could tell). Just before these Roman Toscas she was in Paris singing Madama Butterfly. She is due back at Covent Garden in July for Il trovatore.

I was very impressed with her Tosca. There are one or two issues I will get out of the way first. She takes big breaths, and the mics pick that up more than any other singer on this recording. There are moments when her tone hardens a little and there is some harshness when she pushes too hard, as on the line “Arde in Tosca un folle amor!” at the end of her “Non la sospiri”. In the Act 2 Cantata she is wobbly (but given the circumstances maybe that was intentional). In “Vissi d’arte”, which is very well done she takes two breaths in the final phrase “perché me ne rimuneri così?” which is a shame. Callas, Miricioiu and Gheorghiu do it with just one before “così”. That all said, she is nonetheless the real deal in this great role. It is true Yoncheva and Netrebko have never been given the chance to put their performances down for posterity on CD (they have done DVDs) but given this showing, her agents are going to be busy with emails from houses around the world wanting to sign her up for the role.

Her double outburst “È l’Attavanti!” is great and she shows her real spinto at “Tu non l’avrai stasera. Giuro!” She makes you wonder if the tale had gone a different way and she had indeed found the Marchesa in Cavaradossi’s arms in her villa, would there been a double-murder! She spits out “Sogghigno di demone!” at Scarpia after the vile man has described what horrors they are inflicting on her lover in Act 2. Miricioiu is even more contemptuous towards her Scarpia; her final scene in the central act is all we would hope for. I won’t spoil it.

Her accompanied recitative-like passage in Act 3 “l’empio mostro dicea” is brilliant. Harding accompanies superbly well here, too, which helps. As I mentioned before, the final duet is sublime. Try to hear her “Amor che seppe” ending with a sweet “nuvole leggere!” Just perfect. She definitely eclipses Guleghina for me, but there are moments in Gheorghiu’s assumption of the role that I still find magnificent and unmatched. Perhaps Miricioiu is not so universally well rated but for me she is Tosca.

In the role of Scarpia I have to say I was disappointed by Ludovic Tézier. He growls, snarls and gnarls far too frequently. Even the strimpellan gavotte evokes his anger. It need not be this way. Scotti sang the first Scarpia in London with refinement and impeccable manners. Scarpia is vile so playing him this way works even better. There is a post-war 78 on Columbia (DX 1514) where on the reverse side to the “Te Deum” we find the rarely recorded first scene of Act 2 beginning at “Tosca è un buon falco!” which contains that arietta “Ha più for te”. I am always surprised more attention isn’t given to it. It is like Iago’s credo in Otello. I am certain Puccini modelled it on that. On this forgotten 78, Giampiero Malaspina (aged 32 by the way) gives a lesson or two to today’s Scarpias. “Già, mi dicon venal” is Scarpia’s better known test piece. It is passionately done, and he matches Buratto well (they both took these roles on in those Munich performances earlier in 2024).

The final principal to be discussed is Daniel Harding and his instrument – that is, the orchestra. He does drive hard in places and allows them to play a fraction too loudly at times. This is not helped by the rich, full, bright recording which DG treat us to. Sometimes the pace is breathless. Harding’s experience with the late Romantics shows, however. He is superb in the finale of Act 2 and throughout you will spot little details he accentuates with mastery.

I have mentioned the sound. I do have reservations about the editing and balance at times but the sonics are so vivid, it really is a marvel as Göran Forsling rightly says. Listening in headphones you can hear audience shuffling at times. I swear I even heard someone shushing an offender as the morbid assembly trapse into the torture chamber in the second act.

The best recording in fifty years? I’m not sure, but I would say certainly the best since Pappano’s almost twenty-five years ago. We could all muse on our perfect cast if time and space were not an issue. Destinn, Jeritza pre-war, Barstow and Coelho from recent years. Whatever your verdict, there’s certainly life yet in this “shabby little shocker”.

Philip Harrison

Previous review: Göran Forsling (April 2025 Recording of the Month)

Other cast
Cesare Angelotti, Giorgi Manoshvili (bass)
Spoletta, Matteo Macchioni (tenor) 
Il sagrestano, Davide Giangregorio (bass) 
Sciarrone, Nicolò Ceriani (baritone) 
Un carceriere, Costantino Finucci (bass) 
Un pastore, Alice Fiorelli (soprano)

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