Cheap Puccini: Tosca (Music) (Andrea Bocelli) Price

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Customer Reviews of Puccini: Tosca

This recording needs to be judged on its own merits and not on whether it is a carbon copy of Domingo's, Callas's, or anyone else's work. There is plenty of room for many interpretations of the opera, and most of us who love Bocelli and Cedolins' version are also great admirers of Domingo, Pavarotti, di Stefano, Callas, and countless others.

Those who dismiss Bocelli's opera work often parrot tired and disproved criticisms (for example, panning his phrasing, intonation, or style) instead of providing meaningful, fair, and accurate analysis based on their own careful and well-informed listening. In contrast, consider this quotation from Boston Globe music critic Richard Dyer's January 26, 2003, review of Bocelli's Sentimento: "Most of the controversy about Bocelli feels bogus to this listener. He is not a pop singer who is inflicting an alien style on the operatic art. He became a pop star by accident, and he has used his pop-star clout to get the career he wanted all along (a career few thought he would ever have because of his disability). In fact he sings many operatic arias and semiclassical pieces with better phrasing and style than you hear from most other contemporary tenors."

Fiorenza Cedolins is an elegant, expressive Tosca with a graceful and beautiful voice. Cedolins, along with Carlo Guelfi and the others in the cast, contributes to a recording with dramatic depth that does justice to Puccini's thrilling music.

Wonderful!!!!!
Tosca is Andrea Bocelli's second full opera recording, He released Puccine's La Boheme last year. Tosca was just released although it was recorded two years ago. Bo also has three more full opera's completed that are awaiting release. This Tosca set delivers a wonderful performance by Bocelli and everyone involved.

Bocelli plays the part of the painter-revolutionary Mario Cavaradossi, and he plays it right on. Young Italian soprano Fiorenza Cedolins as Tosca, Carlo Guelfi as Scarpia, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as angelotti are all very good. Zubin Mehta's conducting is as flawless as always.

I think All Opera fans Old as well as new (brought in by Bocelli's great crossover career) will be very pleased with this Tosca Set.

Disappointing....
This Tosca may be a digital stereo recording, but it doesn't hold a candle to any other Tosca, even those mono recording made by the great Callas. One problem which besets this opera is the fact that Bocelli is turned into the main star of the opera. This shouldn't be the case, as the main characters each must have their own time on spotlight. What the producers of this opera did was they blared all the audio when Bocelli came in and tuned down the sounds when other singers sang their lines. The orchestra was also barely audible, thus leeching the opera's dramatic effect. Any music listener knows that for any successful recording to be both vocally and dramatically effective, there must be a balance between both the artists and the orchestra. Zubin Mehta is an excellent conductor. His Turandot had the best orchestra every to rear its head into Puccini's Swan Song. I just don't know what happened to him here. Whether they are trying to get the light and slender voiced tenor to sing opera for dummies, I don't know. All I have to say is this Tosca is not recommended for those who wish to explore the best of the operatic realm. Whoever said that the best products don't really sell as opposed to those made by popular artists must be delusional if he thinks that this is good enough for the effort. Powerful? I don't think so. If you really want an impressive Tosca with a gorgeous cast, get the Freni-Domingo version by Deutsche Grammophone. Still, if you don't have an open mind and stubbornly insist that Bocelli is the greatest "opera" singer around, go ahead and order this Tosca.