The tenor’s big moment in the second act of Puccini’s Tosca when is he gets to sing “Victory” twice. He’s just discovered that his favorite military dictator (Napoleon) has won the Battle of Marengo instead of the reverse which was the initial news of the affair to reach Rome.  He’s been brought onstage after a torture session and expresses his delight with the music shown below. He’s too giddy to reflect on his soon to be fatal condition. The last three syllables of his outburst are sung on an exposed high A sharp. No tenor with even half a brain (a superfluous organ in a tenor) sings the notes as Puccini wrote them. What he does is hold the high note until the precipice of anoxic brain (if he had one) damage is reached. The better the tenor the deeper the cyanosis that will turn his face a dark purple. What’s needed here is total disregard of the score, of good taste, and of restraint.

So just for fun, here are 22 renditions of “Vittoria! Vittoria!!” They are in no particular order. The music that follows the two words is omitted. I have not identified the singers. If there’s sufficient interest I will post their identities. Some are very famous, some less so. Some recording were made in performance, some in the studio. The oldest goes back almost 80 years. The excitement of the singing goes from spectacular to pedestrian. If you can ID 10 of these singers, you really know your tenors.

1. Vittoria
2. Vittoria
3. Vittoria
4. Vittoria
5. Vittoria
6. Vittoria 
7. Vittoria
8. Vittoria
9. Vittoria
10. Vittoria
11. Vittoria
12. Vittoria
13. Vittoria
14. Vittoria
15. Vittoria
16. Vittoria
17. Vittoria
18. Vittoria
19. Vittoria
20. Vittoria
21. Vittoria
22. Vittoria

 

 

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