Word: vissi
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...looking like the Queen of the Night in her black velvet and ermine gown and glittering tiara. Her lip curled shrewishly at Scarpia's overtures, but she staggered when she heard her lover's tortured screams. She wound up her big show-stopping aria, Vissi d'Arte, on her knees just in time to receive the ovation that greeted it. Meanwhile, Mitropoulos, silhouetted against the stage lights, was kneading, soothing, irritating, roiling his orchestra, bouncing around in the climaxes like a marionette on a string. With a start, Callas took the knife from the table, furiously plunged...
...mmerung in order to prevent stage accidents. Vienna was never especially fond of innovations, but some became famous. When Soprano Maria Jeritza was rehearsing Tosca with a Scarpia who knew not his own strength, she landed flat on her face on the floor just before her big aria, Vissi d'arte. She sang it from there, and seldom afterwards did it any other...
...David Poleri), murderous in the arms of the villainous police chief (Baritone Josh Wheeler), and distraught at her lover's death. Vocally, she was head and shoulders above the others, crooning pearly high notes here, dropping into gutty dramatic tones there. She sang the great second-act aria, Vissi d'arte (rendered in English as "Love of beauty") with a flair worthy of the Met. Except for clumsy phrases in the translation ("How your hatred enhances my resolve to possess you!"), and a phlegmatic but overbearing orchestra, TV's first Tosca was a rattling good show...
...Poleri was still forcing his fine voice; Baritone Walter Cassel sang beautifully, but could not resist a few hammy moments as the villainous Scarpia; U.S. Soprano Anne McKnight, who has been singing in Italy as Anna di Cavallieri. proved to have a big dramatic voice and sang an appealing Vissi d'arte, but her acting was weak. In Act II, a leak developed in the air-cooling system, and a minor rainstorm moistened some of the audience. It did not take long to fix the faulty plumbing, but it might take longer to smooth out all the wrinkles...
Puccini: Tosco (Love Duet, Act I) (Ljuba Welitch, soprano; Richard Tucker, tenor; the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Max Rudolf conducting; Columbia, 1 side LP). Some of Puccini's most heart-pulling music, beautifully sung. Although her voice is thinner, the Met's flaming new Tosca, in Vissi d'Arte, which completes the side, stands up mighty well with her Golden-Age counterpart, Claudia Muzio...