Yes, a really fabulous "Tosca"... Highly recommended!

Puccini: ToscaPasadena Civic AuditoriumFebruary 28, 1968Tosca - Phyllis CurtinCavaradossi - Franco CorelliScarpia - Benjamin RaysonAngelotti - Eugene BrundageSacristan - Charles GonzalesSpoletta - Octavio OrochenaSciarrone - James GibbonsJailor - George PowellShepherd - Mariel AnayaConductor: Allen Jensen

Like the Tosca with Anna Moffo that Opera Depot also offers, this performance is a lot of fun and makes one glad that there are opera lovers out there who are willing to take the risk of making pirate recordings. Is this a Tosca for the record books? Well, no, but it proves to be an exciting evening at the opera - people who had tickets got their money's worth. The big draw is Corelli, singing at an out-of-the-way opera house in (at that time) an out-of-the-way city where he didn't have to be nervous about critics or jealous claques. As Andy writes above, he sings like a God and probably looked like one too. He holds the high notes out (though not as obnoxiously as in the Parma pirate). Curtin was better known in a generally different repertoire (no less than Rudolf Bing told here he wouldn't hire her for Tosca at the Met because she wasn't Italian.) No matter. She too sings extremely well, having no difficulty with the music or the drama. Rayson is an excellent Scarpia. He doesn't have the experience of a Gobbi or the sheer voice of a MacNeil, but he delivers. The supporting cast (not identified) is far better rehearsed than the folks in the Moffo Tosca. The anonymous conductor holds things together pretty well considering that this was probably a one-off performance.The sound is from a good in-house source, the voices heard clearly over the orchestra most of the time. Get this if you love Corelli, Curtin, or Tosca in general!

I was there. I had heard Franco in Fanciulla, Chenier, and the Verdi Requiem. I also had most of his recordings. But this Tosca was even more intense. I had wanted to stand up and scream, "Bravo" at the "Vittoria." But I seem to have melted. And later in E Lucevan le Stelle I was held on a vocal tightrope at the incredible PPP. My most awesome opera experience. I had seen Lucia with Sutherland, Faust with Trigle and Domingo and more

Corelli, in a provincial house without anything to be nervous about, gives a fiery if unsubtle performance with long-held high notes all over the place; the conductor is unwilling or unable to interfere. Phyllis Curtain has the notes but not the temperament. She is glaringly obvious at every turn. Every famous dramatic point is spoiled; her colloquy with Scarpia ("Quanto?" etc.) is as dramatically inept as any I've heard. The baritone, Benjamin Rayson, hold his own. Corelli completists like myself will want this, but his Cavaradossi is heard to much better effect in many other recordings.