Tosca was the role in which – in 1965, the year this recording was made – Callas gave her last complete performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera and the Paris Opéra. This was her final complete recording of an opera, and, 12 years after her first version of Tosca, it reunited her with the Scarpia of Tito Gobbi. They were joined by Carlo Bergonzi as Cavaradossi. Gramophone praised ‘a thrilling and very complete interpretation, with scene after scene, bar after bar, brought to life by sheer intelligence and dramatic insight’.

Artists

Maria Callas (Tosca), Carlo Bergonzi (Cavaradossi), Tito Gobbi (Scarpia), Giorgio Tadeo (Il Sagristano), Leonardo Monreale (Angelotti), Renato Ercolani (Spoletta), Ugo Trama (Sciarrone), David Sellar (Un pastore), Leonardo Monreale (Un carceriere)

Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, Paris Opera Chorus, Georges Prêtre