Puccini: Tosca.(Opera Review)

* Guleghina; Licitra, Nucci; Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Muti. Subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Italian. EuroArts/ TDKDVD 115008 9 DVUS-OPTOS (Naxos, dist.), 121 mins.

Luca Ronconi's staging (La Scala, 2000) of Puccini's pot-boiler, with its severely angled sets and raked floors, fares better onscreen than it did in the house, due to the added variety of close-ups alternating with dizzying views of the caving-in walls of the Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, Palazzo Farnese and the top of the Castel Sant'Angelo, where even the cell features folded-out walls, from which it would be easy to escape. It all seems to have something to do with the collapse of the current regime--I think. Some of it is quite good-looking, in small doses.

But what really matters with Tosca is the strength of the drama, the quality of the singing and playing, and the ability of pit and stage to fuse those elements into a seemingly spontaneous affair. On this account, while it is no Zeffirelli-Callas-Gobbi contender, Riccardo Muti's Tosca--and, make no mistake, it is Muti's Tosca--makes a strong case for the opera, employing his usual device: total respect for the score.

There is naturally great interest here in the Cavaradossi of rising tenor Salvatore Licitra. This performance was taped when Licitra had been singing in opera for just two years, and it does not necessarily reflect the current state of his art. Having said that, it is representative in many ways. The tenor is congenial and comfortable onstage, his vocalism solid; most impressive is the top, which is even more vibrant when heard live. His acting is rudimentary; dozens of opportunities for play with the text, particularly in Act I, fly by untaken, and even "sensitive" dynamics, as in "E lucevan le stelle," sound a bit mechanical. There is a bluntness to Licitra's phrasing, which is still in evidence three years later.

Maria Guleghina's ...