Tosca_Cast

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Anne Roselle, the young Hungarian soprano, undertook Tosca. Mason found her Tosca less subtle than Muzio�s but an engaging, spontaneous portrayal. She sang �vissi d�arte� with Scotti, the Scarpia �panting over her shoulder�./ pg 34- 1922-1978 SFO-Bloofield

Maria Jeritza sang her famous �Vissi d�arte� from a prone position./ pg 40- 1922-1978 SFO-Bloofield

The Tosca was Lotte Lehmann, and an unusually interesting one. Redfern Mason wrote: �Her Tosca had not the sculptured beauty of Muzio; she did not wallow as Jeritza had when she sang �Vissi d�arte.� What she did was to give us a Tosca evolved out of her inner consciousness, and in that scene with Scarpia, she touched a note of beautiful humility, which neither Berhardt nor Muzio can give us.� And from Fried: �She is a personality. Her voice, opulent and beautiful, but not necessarily restricted to the charm of honeyed tone, bespeaks a penetrating expressive intelligence. She constructs the roles as it should be constructed with human conviction and with a controlled and flexible sense of its form.�/ pg 60- 1922-1978 SFO-Bloofield

Something happened which stamped the evening as memorable. In excellent voice, and with superb control, Tebaldi put across a �Vissi d�arte� shich seemed to hypnotize the audience, and when they recovered from its spell they broke into wild applause. After several minutes Curiel was faced with a decision on an encore./ pg 148- 1922-1978 SFO-Bloofield

Gobbi�s first appearance of the season was in the opening night Tosca. It was, to be sure, small-scale in approach, and there was little sense of Tosca as an impressive personality. But Tosca is, above all, a woman, and Amara�s performance was supremely feminine. When before has a Tosca had to agonizingly stage whisper �Aspetta, aspetta!� and agonizingly enough she was heard in the last row of the orchestra!/ pg 175- 1922-1978 SFO-Bloofield

Rysanek�s Tosca, only available in one performance, was very likely the most tender, radiant and human on local record. Although she laid much stress on oldtime domestic �feminine� warmth, Rysanek was the only Tosca in memory, to emerge from killing Scarpia, strong and bold enough to sound absolutely astonished at the thought of �all Rome� trembling �before him.� Also memorable: her long, hard, trance-like look at the second act knife./ pg 348- 1922-1978 SFO-Bloofield

Pieczonka is tall and statuesque, with a full, pliant voice. But rather than being the haughty, jealous diva capable of being driven to murder for her lover, she went for a more vulnerable and easily led characterization. She was more often a pussycat eager to please than a tiger seething with revenge. Her well-sung rendition of the famous prayer �Vissi d�arte, vissi d�amore� (I have lived for art, I have lived for love) received her greatest audience response./SFCV