Documentation is fairly standard and there are Italian, French, German, English, Spanish and Japanese sub-titles. The picture quality on Blu-ray is excellent as is the open sand vivid surround sound track. His use of close ups tends to emphasise the exaggerated histrionics, which is unfortunate, but he’s no worse than average. Antonio Pappano backs all this up with a red blooded reading of the score. Overall it’s big, bold and brash and on video almost reaches the point of self-parody (check out some of the facial expressions) but then “subtlety” and “Puccini” aren’t words one often couples. If she had been doing this 50 years ago she’d be the one the aging critics claim has never been surpassed. She overacts in a way that is probably more disturbing on video than in the house but she sings the set pieces beautifully. Terfel is big, malevolent (no sneaking apparatchnik here) and just ever so slightly self mocking and Gheorghiu is diva qua diva. Kaufmann is stylish, powerful and every bit the story book Romantic Hero. All of them have recorded their role more than once and what one gets here is exactlt what one would expect. So, it’s really all about the performances and in this case we have three of the most noted contemporary exponents of the major roles Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel and Angela Gheorghiu. Generally though it’s pretty straightforward.
Both Cavaradossi and Tosca wear very bright colours indicative of the new dyes that became available at the period (actually I think this is a slight anachronism – must check with the fashion lemur) whereas Scarpia is more conservatively attired.
In the 2012 Royal Opera House recording Jonathan Kent certainly takes very few liberties with the piece the church is a church, the palace a palace and the castle a castle. Even quite adventurous directors seem to mostly stick to the very specific time and place of the libretto (even though, as Paul Curran pointed out to me, the plot makes no sense in the Rome of 1800). Puccini’s Tosca doesn’t seem to lend itself to Regie type treatments.
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