Anja Silja would not be the soprano most people think of when it comes to Tosca. I think these were her only performances of the role; she did make a querschnitt disc of highlights auf Deutsch with King, Fischer-Dieskau, and led by Maazel for Decca about the time Maazel recorded the complete opera with Nilsson and Corelli. Most of the big moments are there except the murder scene in Act Two. It's worth searching out on Amazon. Silja is, of course, sui generis. Her Tosca is very much her own. The voice does not have the Italianate richness of timbre or beauty of tone that most of us are used to. She knows what she wants to accomplish in the role and her inflections tend to be more subtle. Like her Carmen, I'm glad we have this document if only to show how versatile Silja could be.Jonny Blanc has a beautiful lyric tenor voice that is a size too small for the part. He makes some very attractive sounds in his two arias. Rudolf Constantin is a good, if over-the-top Scarpia, who tends to bellow. Seibel leads a spirited performance, keeping the tension high throughout.The sound is from a good in-house source, the voices slightly recessed, but audible over the orchestra. My copy had some minor clicking in the last track of disc one.If you're a Silja fan, you'll want this!

In 1966, Anja Silja recorded excerpts, in German translation, of \""Tosca,\"" for Decca, under Lorin Maazel. However, the only time the singing-actress sang the opera on-stage was in 1975, in Italian, in a production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.This reviewer has heard many performances of \""Tosca,\"" and this \""live\"" recording is one of the most exciting of his experience. Mme Silja, devoid of a \""beautiful\"" voice, is almost intolerably intense as the diva of the title, and we can be grateful to Opera Depot for publishing this set.The remainder of the cast are very fine, and the conducting of the late, underrated Klauspeter Seibel is first-rate.