Mario Cavaradossi - Recordings

Recordings

The first complete Tosca recording was made in 1919, using the pre-microphone acoustic process. The conductor, Carlo Sabajno, had been The Gramophone Company's house conductor since 1904; he had made recordings of Verdi's Ernani and Rigoletto before tackling Tosca with a young and largely unknown cast. In 1929 Sabajno recorded the opera again, with the orchestra and chorus of the Teatro alla Scala and with star names Carmen Melis and Apollo Granforte in the roles of Tosca and Scarpia. In 1938 HMV secured the services of the renowned tenor Beniamino Gigli for a "practically complete" recording that extended over 14 double-sided shellac discs.

In the post-war period, following the invention of long-playing records, Tosca recordings were dominated by Maria Callas. The earliest of her recordings in the role were of two live performances in Mexico City, in 1950 and 1952. In 1953, with conductor Victor de Sabata and the La Scala forces, she made the recording which for decades has been considered the best of all the recorded performances of the opera. Callas made several more recordings, mainly of live stage performances, the last in 1965. The first stereo recording of the opera was made in 1959, with Francesco Molinari-Pradelli conducting the Santa Cecilia orchestra and chorus with Renata Tebaldi as Tosca and Mario Del Monaco as Cavaradossi. Herbert von Karajan's acclaimed performance with the Vienna State Opera was in 1963, with Leontyne Price, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Giuseppe Taddei in the leading roles.

The 1970s and 1980s saw a proliferation of recordings, many of live performances. Plácido Domingo first recorded Cavaradossi in 1973, and continued to do so at regular intervals until 1994. In 1976 he was joined by his son, Plácido Domingo Jr., who sang the shepherd boy's song in a British recording with the New Philharmonia Orchestra. More recent commended recordings have included Antonio Pappano's 2000 Royal Opera House version with Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna and Ruggero Raimondi. Recordings of Tosca in languages other than Italian are rare but not unknown; over the years versions in French, German, Spanish, Hungarian and Russian have been issued. An admired English language version was released in 1995 in which David Parry led the Philharmonia Orchestra and a largely British cast. Since the late 1990s numerous video recordings of the opera have been issued on DVD and Blu-ray disc (BD). These include recent productions and remastered versions of historic performances.