Word: tosca
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Dates: during 1950-1950
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...Director Laszlo Halasz was feeling pretty pleased with the repertory of his crack little company. Mozart was well taken care of, with bright, fast-paced productions of The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. So were the French, with Carmen and Faust, and the Italians, with Aida, La Boheme, Tosca, La Traviata. There was only one cloud in an otherwise sunny sky, but that one was a thunderhead: Wagner. Last week, with the help of an old Wagnerian, Halasz dissipated...
...same breath with Caruso and Scotti, but Claudia Muzio (1892-1936) is one of them. The daughter of an Italian operatic stage manager, she grew up backstage in London's Covent Garden, Manhattan's Metropolitan. Caruso, with whom she made a stunning U.S. debut as Tosca in 1916, once said that Claudia "knew all of our stage tricks before she wore long skirts." She had a voice to match her acting: she could, and did, sing coloratura, lyric and dramatic soprano parts with equal ease. In Buenos Aires one time, when Giovanni Martinelli momentarily lost his voice...
With an Esoteric Records release, The Duse of Song (2 sides LP), out this month, younger opera lovers can hear the voice their elders have been talking about. Even though Esoteric has re-recorded its nine arias (including the Vissi d'Arte from Tosca) from 32-year-old cylinders, and Claudia Muzio's luscious voice is heard through a fog of needle scratch, her tones are full, even and velvety from top to bottom...
Puccini: Tosco (Love Duet, Act I) (Ljuba Welitch, soprano; Richard Tucker, tenor; the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Max Rudolf conducting; Columbia, 1 side LP). Some of Puccini's most heart-pulling music, beautifully sung. Although her voice is thinner, the Met's flaming new Tosca, in Vissi d'Arte, which completes the side, stands up mighty well with her Golden-Age counterpart, Claudia Muzio...
...years was not a comeback. She was donating the proceeds of the performance towards rebuilding Vienna's bomb-damaged State Opera House. Whatever the purpose, the Jeritza-loving Viennese queued for 22 hours before the shabby little Theater an der Wien to see her again as Tosca...