Word: toscas
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Despite Boston's lack of adequate facilities for the presentation of grand opera, a recently-formed group of professional opera performers has inaugurated its second season with a production of Puccini's Tosca. Sarah Caldwell's troupe, which uses the slightly militaristic name of "Operation Opera," has moved from the small and incommodious Fine Arts Theatre to the large but equally incommodious Loew's State movie house, now the property of the Catholic Church and newly dubbed the Donnely Memorial...
...scenic inventiveness of the gifted young American designers whom Miss Caldwell has commissioned. One of the handsomest operatic settings I have ever seen was the elegant interior of Bartolo's house that Robert O'Hearn conceived for last spring's Barber. Robert Fletcher's decor for the new Tosca continues this very commendable tradition...
Last Monday's opening of Tosca fitted all too well into this pattern of steady, but Grade B, musical performances. Yet, it was not a bad job nor a purely indifferent offering. The main problem was one of casting. Tosca and Cavaradossi must be sophisticates; they are people of passionate conviction, important in the world of fashion and art. As portrayed by Lois Marshall and Thomas Hayward, the lovers seemed like the uncertain adolescents of Blue Denim. They sang well, though the round, supple tone of Miss Marshall is well known and pleasing, as is the light, lyric vocalism...
...last and most ambitious opera, Turandot, which he left unfinished at his death in 1924. Completed by his friend Franco Alfano, Turandot is rarely performed despite the exotic splendors of its score. Chief reasons for its neglect: a certain harshness that sets it apart from the big Puccini favorites (Tosca, Bohème, Butterfly), some devilishly difficult vocal parts, and a need for sumptuous staging...
...would gladly have substituted Tosca for Traviata, said Callas (Bing denied it), or sung three straight Macbeths: "But he offered me Lucia as a substitute which is even more ridiculous than Traviata. A few weeks ago it was reported to me that Mario Del Monaco had canceled Aida, and they gave him another opera. So why pick on me? Is it because I am an American? The others are all foreigners." Said Bing: Tebaldi had canceled Traviata only after she agreed to accept a substitute role, and Del Monaco's cancellation in Aida had been arranged in ample time...