Here is a complete performance recorded more than a half century ago of Puccini’s realistic one act opera Il Tabarro. Robert Merrill heads a cast that could not be matched today. This opera and its two partners will soon be 100 years old. Originally dismissed as a Grand Guignol thriller with little substance. It has gotten remarkably better over the years. Today it’s clearly a masterpiece wrought as skillfully as its more popular siblings. Each of the three principals brings more voice to their parts than can be imagined without listening to them. I’ll soon get around to the other two parts of Il Trittico.
Click here —–> Il Tabarro, Merrill, et al
Michele: Robert Merrill
Luigi: Mario Del Monaco
Il Tinca: Renato Ercolani
Il Talpa: Silvio Maionica
Giorgetta: Renata Tebaldi
La Frugola: Lucia Danieli
Venditore di canzonette: Piero De Palma
Due amanti: Gianfranco Manganotti, Dora Carral
Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Dirigent: Lamberto Gardelli
My 2 favorite Puccini operas are Tabarro and Fanciulla. Maybe because of the wealth of characters?? Frugola, a walking garage sale, and the words and music also describe essential things about the others. Not cardboard characters just advancing the plot. And I can’t think of any other opera where the roll of the sea is so intense as in Michele’s ‘Nulla, Silencio.’ And all this atmosphere and intensity in only an hour!!!