[Met Tour] CID:233510



Tosca
Hynes Civic Auditorium, Boston, Massachusetts, Tue, April 24, 1973




Tosca (556)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Lucine Amara

Cavaradossi
Franco Corelli

Scarpia
Tito Gobbi

Sacristan
Fernando Corena

Spoletta
Andrea Velis

Angelotti
Andrij Dobriansky

Sciarrone
Russell Christopher

Shepherd
Rhonda Liss

Jailer
Edmond Karlsrud


Conductor
Carlo Felice Cillario







Review 1:

Louis Snyder in The Christian Science Monitor

“Tosca” Stirs Met Audience at Hynes

 

Under almost any circumstances, Puccini’s “Tosca” has enough crackling good tunes and explosive situations to make its own way. When a high degree of professionalism is involved, as it was in the Metropolitan Opera’s presentation at Hynes Auditorium on Tuesday evening, it can create quite a lot of excitement.

The big response to “Tosca” comes not unexpectedly, as the result of all-out vocalism from the singers cast as Tosca and her lover Cavaradossi, and the degree of histrionic malevolence dispensed by Baron Scarpia on Tuesday, the Met offered Lucine Amara as the impulsive prima donna, Franco Corelli as the painter-revolutionary, and Tito Gobbi as the ruthless police chief, as well as Fernando Corena in the treasonable cameo as the Sacristan of the Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle. The public loved them all.

Miss Amara, who has sung Tosca before, switched roles with the scheduled Martina Arroyo who hasn’t, so that it was to be Miss Arroyo  in “Il Trovatore” last night in Miss Amara’s announced part of Leonora. Thus many had their first glimpse and hearing of Miss Amara as the proud, beautiful, jealous, reckless Roman opera singer.

 

The grand manner

 

As it happened, Miss Amara was in superb voice –the girlish quality so characteristic of her sound took on a rounder, fuller dimension, more appropriate to the dramatic demands of the music. And while one can recall exponents of the role who lent a greater feeling of maturity to the character, a worldliness indicative of Tosca’s second-act  derring-do, Miss Amara’s conception of being tossed abruptly into a set of volatile circumstances had about it a welcome air of spontaneity. No doubt further opportunities in the part will establish the theatrical conviction and the grand manner that are incumbent on the performer of such a sweeping, melodramatic tour de force.

Mr. Corelli, looking trim and vigorous, and sounding assured and expansive, did what any world-famed tenor would do under such conditions – he sang out with all his might. The solo arias in Acts 1 and 3, the duets, the cries of “Vittoria” in Act 2 fulfilled all audience expectations; Mr. Corelli’s ease in acting the rather negative role even added unlooked-for dividends. Needless to say, audience reaction was frequent, loud and long.

 

Pros at work

 

There was an especially warm reception for Mr. Gobbi, who, perhaps more than anyone, personally conveyed the blood and thunder which are this Puccini opera’s main ingredients. Bursting onstage in the first act like some predatory beetle, black cloak rolling, sharp glances darting, terrifying the startled Corena-Sacristan (two pros deliciously at work), he dominated the stage, a picture of repressed fury.

In the palace apartment of Act 2, his Scarpia remained an equally rough customer until he saw an opportunity to mix business and pleasure. Here Miss Amara’s Tosca complemented him admirably, and her “Vissi d’arte,” sung from a recumbent position, was a deserving show-stopper. The theatrical fireworks that followed were skillfully accomplished, so that through their combined artistry, the dispatching with a convenient dinner knife of this man “before whom all Rome trembled” was accompanied by a relieved sigh from the auditorium.

Russell Christopher (an eerie Sciarone), Andrea Velis, Andrij Dobrianssky, Edmond Karlsrud onstage, and Rhonda Liss (the voice of the shepherd) in the wings, were all in the spirit of the turbulent occasion. In the pit, Carlo Felice Cillario kept things moving in what has become principally a singer’s article – to the delight, it must be added, of the adoring public.



Search by season: 1972-73

Search by title: Tosca,



Met careers