In the 1970s, before Los Angeles had a permanent opera company, the New York City Opera routinely toured to the city. For its 1974 season, the opening night was to have been Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, starring Beverly Sills; however, Sills fell ill shortly beforehand, forcing the company to find a substitute title. They managed to secure Birgit Nilsson and José Carreras for Puccini’s Tosca, treating the audience to a rare intergenerational pairing of artists separated by nearly thirty years in age.

By 1974, Birgit Nilsson’s voice had lost some of its earlier flexibility, but it had gained substantially in power, creating something of an imbalance in the dramatic dynamic between her Tosca and the Scarpia of Richard Fredricks. José Carreras, then just 27, delivers a Cavaradossi of exquisite beauty and sublime lyricism; remarkably, he would make his Metropolitan Opera debut in the same role just five days later. Samuel Ramey makes a strong impression as Angelotti, giving this remarkable performance a commanding start.