[Met Performance] CID:174210



Tosca
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, February 27, 1957




Tosca (356)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Renata Tebaldi

Cavaradossi
Jussi Björling

Scarpia
Leonard Warren

Sacristan
Salvatore Baccaloni

Spoletta
Alessio De Paolis

Angelotti
Clifford Harvuot

Sciarrone
George Cehanovsky

Shepherd
George Keith

Jailer
Louis Sgarro


Conductor
Dimitri Mitropoulos







Review 1:

Review of Francis D. Perkins in the Herald Tribune

Miss Tebaldi, Bjoerling Sing in Met's Ninth 'Tosca'

Renata Tebaldi sang the title role in Puccini's "Tosca" for the first time this season at the Metropolitan Opera House last night, with Jussi Bjoerling, who had not been heard before on this stage in the current operatic year, as Mario Cavaradossi and Leonard Warren as Scarpia. The noted Italian soprano, who is the sixth Tosca to appear at the Metropolitan in the work's nine performances thus far, was acclaimed with vocal and manual fervor; the plaudits after "Vissi d'Arte" occupied a minute and three quarters.

Dimitri Mitropoulos, who conducted, signaled for silence to let the show go on after the applause which greeted Mme. Tebaldi's first appearance of the evening. Mr. Bjoerling's arrival somewhat earlier had also halted a performance that offered much stimulating singing.

Mme. Tebaldi's voice exhibited the power, generous span of color, dynamic control and emotional persuasion that are its now well known characteristics. Its expressive hues consistently reflected the dramatic situation. Poignance marked the vocal timbre in climaxes of the stormy scenes with Scarpia; "Vissi d'Arte" began with a sense of almost exhausted quietness followed by artistically and steadily-waxing volume and tension. Her tone was at its best here and often elsewhere, although her top notes occasionally had a slight edge. Visually, her impersonation was convincing while not over-acted.

Mr. Bjoerling's singing was well phrased and expressively evocative. There was some tautness of tone production in his upper notes in the first act, but the quality of his voice was appealing; ample passion and denunciation marked his defiances of Scarpia. Mr. Warren's singing, which did not always represent his voice at its best, was persuasive in an effective if not unusually memorable impersonation.

Salvatore Baccaloni, Alessio De Paolis, George Cehanovsky, Louis Sgarro and George Keith completed the cast. The general atmosphere of the performance under Mr. Mitropoulos' conductorship fully revealed the color, momentum and dramatic force of the score.



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