What is the best Blu-ray of Puccini’s Tosca opera? We now have 7 Blu-ray productions of this wonderful thriller, including 3 graded A or A+. The 3 A-rated discs are quite different from each other, so you should check them all out carefully before buying just one:
Teatro Carlo Felice. A. 2012. Arthaus. A bit old-fashioned, but a perfect explanation of why many people love Italian opera so much.
Royal Opera House. A. 2012. EMI Classics. Slick modern production with period sets and costumes is probably the safe choice for most opera fans.
Motion picture by Benoît Jacquot (transferred to both 4K and 2K discs) A+. Arthaus. French “art-house” movie version of the opera from a famous film director. Cogent personal direction and superb acting by an elite cast of singers puts this in a class by itself even though it was shot in 2001 (35 mm) and shows its age in some respects. Alert! Be ready for a bunch of movie tricks designed to keep you on your toes! This gets the A+ as it shows what we can look forward to in the future if expert movie directors are given the resources to make good HDVDs of the opera canon.
In addition there are 4 other Toscas, all of which we have reviewed and illustrated with screenshots. See the Alphalist for more information.