Giacomo Puccini - Tosca - Opera-film with Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna and Ruggero RaimondiDVD9 - PAL - 16:9 - All Regions - Italian - LPCM, Dolby Digital, DTS - 126 min. -
Subs: Italian and German
Released 2002
Floria Tosca - Angela Gheorghiu
Mario Cavaradossi - Roberto Alagna
Baron Scarpia - Ruggero Raimondi
Cesare Angelotti - Maurizio Muraro
Der Mesner - Enrico Fissore
Spoletta - David Cangelosi
Sciarrone - Sorin Coliban
Benoit Jacquot & The Royal Opera House Chorus & Orchestra, Covent Garden
A Film by Benoit Jacquot, after the libretto of Puccini’s Opera. With Angela Gheorghiu as Floria Tosca, Roberto Alagna as Mario Cavaradossi, Ruggiero Raimondi as Baron Scarpia. Conducted by Antonio Pappano with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. How often has it been said that opera can’t be translated into film? That the camera lens accentuates an opera’s artificiality and turns the protagonists into caricatures? Benoît Jacquot’s masterfully inventive two-hour Tosca, will change the minds of the most diehard opera buffs and win over newcomers to the art. What’s even more astounding is that this is Jacquot’s first venture into opera. Yet, that may be just the point. What makes his film so compellingly audacious is that from the very start he juxtaposes black-and-white scenes of the conductor, Antonio Pappano, and the actor/singers in the recording studio with the staged opera in order to reveal the energy and work that goes into realizing a mighty work of lyrical art and ensemble acting. At other times, he uses soft-focus and grainy black-and-white and color footage of the Roman countryside, the Castel Sant’ Angelo and the interiors of Baroque churches to illustrate what the actors are singing off-screen.
