Sunday Classics preview: Puccini makes a scene, (2) "Tosca"

No, we're not actually going to hear Pavarotti as Cavaradossi (I never heard him get especially happy results in the role), but here he is -- grinning about something -- in Act I of Tosca.

by Ken

As I explained in last night's Gianni Schicchi-based preview, we're listening this week to a couple of very basic examples of how Puccini makes an aria into a scene.

Tonight we're in the opening scene of Tosca. Our subject, of course, is Cavaradossi's almost-entrance aria, "Recondita armonia, and for tonight we're just going to think of it -- mostly, anyway -- as one of the supremely beautiful two- or three-minute spans of music ever imagined. However, we will already be coming up against its dramatic context in two ways:

(1) Our excerpts pick up and stop at different points, as indicated by the letter keys keyed to our master English text, below.

(2) In all our performances, we hear the accompanying mutterings of the appalled Sacristan. It's possible to omit them, of course, and this is routinely done when the aria is performed as a stand-alone excerpt. After all, not many tenor recitalists are able, or wish, to have a bass on hand.

Well, maybe just once we should hear the aria without the Sacristan's interpolations. On LP I've got a zillion recordings, but from my CD options I thought we might hear the wonderful German tenor Joseph Schmidt, singing (in German) "Wie sich die Bilder gleichen" ("How the pictures resemble each other") in 1929.


[d] in German, with orchestral postlude extracted from [e]: Joseph Schmidt, tenor; Berlin Municipal Opera Orchestra, Selmar Meyrowitz, cond. Recorded 1929
[AFTERTHOUGHT: It may be just as well that the Sacristan is MIA here. While in his native Italian he rolls off the tongue as "il Sagrestano," in German he has the unfortunately thuggish-sounding moniker of "der Messner."]

Before we hear "Recondita armonia" again, we're going to begin, as we did last night with Gianni Schicchi, by musically setting the scene. In this case, it's the very scene into which our aria is nestled.

PUCCINI: Tosca: Act I opening, "Ah! Finalmente!"

We're in Rome, you'll recall, more specifically in the Church of Sant' Andrea della Vale. (Each of the opera's three acts is set in a real Roman location.) At curtain rise, the escaped political prisoner Angelotti -- we'll worry about who he is tomorrow -- enters, knowing only too well that the forces of the brutal Roman police chief, Baron Scarpia (who of course is dramatized musically in those three thundering chords heard for the first time at the very start of the opera) are in hot pursuit.

[ANGELOTTI enters, dressed as a prisoner, torn, disheveled, trembling with fear, almost running. He gives a quick glance around.]
ANGELOTTI: Ah! Finally! In my dumb terror
I thought I saw a policeman's jowl in every face.
[Turns to look around attentively, and calms down as he recognizes the place. He gives a sigh of relief seeing the column with with the basin of holy water and the Madonna.]
The basin . . . the column . . .
"At the foot of the Madonna,"
my sister wrote me.
[Advances, searches at the feet of the Madonna, and draws from it, with a muffled cry of joy, a key.]
Here's the key, and here's the chapel.
[With great care he inserts the key in the lock of the Attavanti Chapel, opens the gate, enters the chapel, recloses, and disppears.]

Danilo Seraiocco (bs), Angelotti; Philadelphia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti, cond. Philips, recorded live, March 1991 and Jan. 1992

ON TO "RECONDITA ARMONIA"

Tomorrow we'll fill the brief gap between where we've just left the terrified Angelotti and where we're going to pick up. But for now let's jump to the aria. Here as promised is our master English text:

[a]
[The Angelus sounds. The SACRISTAN kneels and prays quietly.]
SACRISTAN: Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae,
et concepit de Spiritu Sancto.
Ecce ancilla Domini;
fiat mihi secundum Verbum tuum
et Verbum caro factum est
et habitavit in nobis . . .
[b]
[CAVARADOSSI enters from the side door and sees the SACRISTAN on his knees.]
CAVARADOSSI: What are you doing?
SACRISTAN: Reciting the Angelus.
[CAVARADOSSI mounts the scaffold and uncovers the painting. It's a Mary Magdalen with large azure eyes and a great shower of golden hair. The painter stands mute in front of it, observing attentively. The SACRISTAN, turning toward CAVARADOSSI to speak to him, sees the uncovered painting and lets out a cry of wonder.]
SACRISTAN: Holy vessels!
Her portrait!
CAVARADOSSI: Whose?
SACRISTAN: That unknown woman
who in recent days has come here to pray.
Totally devoted . . . and pious.
[Motions toward the statue of the Madonna, from which ANGELOTTI earlier removed the key.]
CAVARADOSSI: It's true. And she was so
engrossed in her prayer
that I painted, without her noticing, her beautiful face.
SACRISTAN [to himself]: Flee, Satan, flee!
[c]
CAVARADOSSI: Give me my paints.
[The SACRISTAN complies. CAVARADOSSI paints rapidly, pausing frequently to observe. The SACRISTAN comes and goes, carrying a small basin in which he continues to wash the paintbrushes. Suddenly CAVARADOSSI stops painting; from his pocket he lifts a medalion containing a miniature portrait, and his eyes go from the medalion to the painting.]
[d]
Hidden harmony
of diverse beauties! Flora is dark,
my ardent beloved . . .
SACRISTAN [to himself]: Joke with knaves, and let the saints be.
CAVARADOSSI: And you, unknown beauty,
crowned with blond locks,
you have azure eyes --
Tosca has black eyes.
SACRISTAN [to himself]: Joke with knaves, and let the saints be.
CAVARADOSSI: The art in its mystery
blends together the diverse beauties.
But while I'm painting her,
My sole thought, Tosca, is you!
SACRISTAN [to himself, aside]: These various skirts
who set themselves in competition with the Madonna
give off the stench of Hell.
[e]
Joke with knaves, and let the saints be.
But with these Voltairean dogs,
enemies of the holy realm,
there's no point talking.
Joke with knaves, and let the saints be.
For sure, they're sinners, the whole lot.
Let us rather make the sign of the cross.
Excellency, shall I go?
CAVARADOSSI: Do as you please. [Continues to paint.]
SACRISTAN: The basket is full.
Are you serving penitence?
CAVARADOSSI: I'm not hungry.
SACRISTAN [with irony, rubbing his hands]: Oh! I'm sorry!
[He can't suppress a gesture of joy and a glance of avidity toward the basket, which he picks up and sets aside.]
Be sure to close up when you leave.
CAVARADOSSI: Go!
SACRISTAN: I'm going. [Goes out at the rear. CAVARADOSSI, turning his back to the Chapel, works. ANGELOTTI, believing the church deserted, appears behind the gate and inserts the key to open it.]
CAVARADOSSI [turning at the creaking of the lock]: There's someone in there!

PUCCINI: Tosca: Act I, "Dammi i colori" . . . "Recondita armonia"

The first performance we're going to here is literally the aria and just the aria -- our [d]. Then we back up to include [c], which begins with the painter Cavaradossi's request that the Sacristan hand his paints up to him on the scaffold where his easel is set up, followed by the orchestral picture to which he begins to paint, and then his abrupt cessation of painting to observe the startling observation he's just observed.


[d] only: Plácido Domingo (t), Cavaradossi; Jack Bittner (b), the Sacristan; New York City Opera Orchestra, Emerson Buckley, cond. Live performance, Oct. 5, 1967


[c]-[d]: Giuseppe di Stefano (t), Cavaradossi; Melchiorre Luise (bs), the Sacristan; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Victor de Sabata, cond. EMI, recorded August 1953

Now let's push on just a bit more, to include the "aftermath" of the aria, our [e].


[c]-[e]: Giacomo Aragall (t), Cavaradossi; Spiro Malas (bs), the Sacristan; National Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded Feb.-May 1984

Act I, "Che fai?" . . . "Dammi i colori" . . . "Recondita armonia"

Now let's back up just a bit, to Cavaradossi's entrance, interrupting the Sacristan's morning prayer.


[b]-[e]: Richard Tucker (t), Cavaradossi; Salvatore Baccaloni (bs), the Sacristan; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Dimitri Mitropoulos, cond. Live performance, March 15, 1958


[b]-[e]: Franco Corelli (t), Cavaradossi; Ezio Flagello (bs), the Sacristan; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Kurt Adler, cond. Live performance, Apr. 7, 1962

Act I, "Angelus Domini" . . . "Che fai?" . . . "Dammi i colori" . . . "Recondita armonia"

Finally, let's add just one more bit, our [a]: the Sacristan reciting the "Angelus," which Cavaradossi interrupts when he enters.


[a]-[e]: Enrico Fissore (bs), the Sacristan; Roberto Alagna (t), Cavaradossi; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano, cond. EMI, recorded August 2000


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST --

We hear how "O mio babbino caro" and "Recondita armonia" become riveting dramatic centerpieces.


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