Tag Archives: Tosca

Tosca Review – All Toscas are Above Average

Posted on December 30, 2012 by philip

Years and years ago when I was a lad of sixty or so I attended performances of the Minneapolis Symphony and the Minnesota Opera.  I would then read the review of the performance in the Minneapolis paper and become extremely annoyed by the music critic Continue reading »

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2011 Review – and a look ahead to 2012

Posted on January 16, 2012 by philip

As I look back over my first full year of publishing opera reviews in SPLASH Magazine, January seems like a good time to reflect on some of the operatic highlights of the past year.  It came as something of a shock to me Continue reading »

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Tosca ROH – A Five-* Production

Posted on November 18, 2011 by philip

Tosca is one of my favorite operas.  The complex dramatic plot and the sublime music of Giacomo Puccini alone are enough to put it in my top ten. First, the music is so melodic, so listenable that I find myself humming bits of it for weeks after attending a performance.  In addition, the music and the words and the action are so perfectly blended that the whole is far greater the sum of its already great parts. Continue reading »

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Tosca at Opera San Jose – The Ultimate Opera

Posted on November 14, 2010 by philip

No question about it.  As of this moment, Puccini’s Tosca is my favorite opera.  At its best it has everything you could ask for in an opera.  It has Floria Tosca, a beautiful devout heroine who commits murder.  It has Baron Scarpia, the very personification of evil.  It has Mario Cavaradossi who submits to torture rather than betray his friend.  It has spine-chilling climaxes to each of its three acts.  And it has Puccini’s music which is not only wonderful in its own right, but which perfectly fits the plot and the action.  Not a note is misplaced, not a note is extraneous, not a note is missing.  Tosca at its best is THE essential tragic opera. Continue reading »

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Tosca

Posted on October 29, 2009 by philip

TOSCA
Puccini
October 10, 2009
Met HD
Cinemark, Palo Alto, CA

No question about it.  Tosca is my favorite opera (at least until the next time I see Rigoletto or Carmen or La Boheme or Tales of Hoffman or Barber of Seville or Figaro or Mephistopheles or  . . . ).  It has everything.  Continue reading »

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