Finale 42 – Tosca

Puccini’s Tosca has been an audience favorite since its premiere in 1900. It has everything one could ask for in an opera: beautiful and dramatically apt music, a gripping story that wastes not a line or note, and one of opera’s most spectacular endings. Tosca, an operatic diva, jumps from the parapet of the Castel Sant’Angelo.

At the end of the previous act, she stabbed Scarpia the sadistic chief of police to death as he was about to rape her after which he promised free her lover Mario from execution. He told her that Mario would have to undergo a mock execution before the couple would be allowed to flee Rome.

The excerpts below all start just before Mario faces the firing squad which he knows is real, but which the gullible Tosca continues to believe is a sham – she’s an opera singer, not a logician. She tells Mario how to feign his death and is horrified to find him dead after the executioners have left. She then hears Scarpia’s henchmen rushing to the scene. They have found Scarpia’s body and are after Tosca. She rushes to the parapet crying ‘O Scarpia, avanti a Dio!’ (‘O Scarpia, we meet before God!’) and flings herself over the edge. The opera ends with a phrase from the tenor’s aria ‘E lucevan le stelle’ sung shortly after the start of the final act. Some critics have thought this ending inappropriate thinking the music applies to him rather than the leaping soprano. I find it entirely apt as it really depicts the couple’s love.

The first example is taken from the definitive recording of the opera. Even though more than 70 years have passed since it was made, none of the many complete recordings of Tosca can touch it. The only opera recording made by the great conductor Victor de Sabata, its trio of star performers set a standard yet to be equaled. Tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano and baritone Tito Gobbi are not heard in this excerpt.

Maria Callas was likely the greatest interpreter of Puccini’s doomed diva. She has everything needed for the role. Her singing and dramatic instincts realized every nuance of Puccini’s masterpiece. De Sabata’s conducting is sharp and propulsive. Even the gunshots from the firing squad sound better on this recording than on any of the many that have followed it over the decades. Callas Tosca finale

Renata Tebaldi was almost as famous as Callas during their contemporaneous careers. A fault with this and most of the recordings of the final scene is that Toaca’s admonitions to Mario just prior to his execution are recorded at a slightly low volume. The conductor is Alberto Erede. Tebaldi Tosca finale

Birgit Nilsson was best known for her Wagner and Strauss roles. But she often sang Italian opera, in addition to Turandot which she sang more frequently than any other role. Her end to Tosca still reverberates. Lorin Maazel is the conductor on this excerpt. Nilsson Tosca finale

Mirella Freni was born in Modena the same year (1935) as Luciano Pavarotti. They shared the same wet nurse and were childhood friends. She never sang Tosca onstage – her recording of the complete opera was her only connection to this work. Nicola Rescigno conducts. Freni Tosca finale

Katia Riccarelli was one of the leading Italian sopranos of the last quarter of the 20th century. Her recording of Tosca was made under the direction of Herbert von Karajan. Riccarelli Tosca finale

Karajan was also the conductor when Leontyne Price recorded the opera. Tosca was a regular part of her repertoire at the Met where she starred for more than 20 years. Leontyne Price Tosca finale

Angela Gheorghiu, a Romanian soprano, has had Tosca at the center of her roles. In February 2022, Gheorghiu celebrated her 30th anniversary with the Royal Opera House, reprising Tosca under the direction of Anthony Pappano who is the conductor on this excerpt. Gheorghiu Tosca finale

So well constructed and popular is Tosca that Puccini’s leaping lover will continue to dive off the ancient Roman castle for as long as opera endures.