Puccini Tosca opera to libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. Directed 2019 by Margarethe Wallmann at the Wiener Staatsoper. Stars Karine Babajanyan (Floria Tosca), Piotr Beczaɫa (Mario Cavaradossi), Carlos Álvarez (Baron Scarpia), Sorin Coliban (Cesare Angelotti), Alexandru Moisiuc (The Sacristan), Wolfram Igor Derntl (Spoletta), Hans Peter Kammerer (Sciarrone), Ayk Martirossian (A Gaoler), and Maryam Tahon (A Shepherd). Marco Armiliato conducts the Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper and the Chor der Wiener Staatsoper (Chorus Master Martin Schebesta). Costume and set design by Nicola Benois. Directed for TV by Ella Gallieni. Sung in Italian. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
This Wallmann show premiered 63 years ago! (Wallmann died in 1992.) The Vienna State Opera kept it going ever since to milk the cash cow more than 600 times. The performance recorded here was special because, as you see in the screenshot below, Piotr Beczaɫa was scheduled to receive the prestigious Kammersänger award. Soprano Nina Stemme was was to sing Tosca. But she was replaced at the last moment by Babajanyan. So this was an extraordinary event in Vienna.
There were many casts for the 2019 Tosca run in Vienna. Many critics wrote reviews. But I found only one review of the specific performance with the Kammersänger award. This was by Jim Pritchard, who saw this streamed by the Vienna State Opera about 10 months after the actual event. Writing for seenandheard-international.com (April 29, 2020), Pritchard generally said nice things about the performance, but he winds up calling it a “very memorable evening.” H’m. I’m very wary of anything that is “very” anything.
I then watched the official trailer below. It’s not very exciting. I fear this title may not be especially competitive. Perhaps it would be a safe choice for traditionalists who would enjoy great orchestra playing even if the singers are not all that interesting to watch.
In the screenshot below (the stars plus various topknots) you see who worked the hardest in this opera performance—he’s the sweaty conductor Marco Armiliato!
PS: Six A-list sopranos appeared in multiple casts of this Tosca. Only one of them, Kristine Opolais, was good-looking enough to lead two successful men to their deaths. Too bad Opolais didn’t wind up in this video. Opolais has one HDVD Tosca credit, but that production met a disastrous end when the director had to be replaced on short notice. I continue to hope to see Kristine in a better Tosca.
Now here’s that not very exciting official trailer:
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