Gramophone Magazine
May 2019
DVD of the Month

Anja Harteros, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Ludovic Tézier

Salzburger Bachchor & Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann

Premiered in 1900 with huge success, Puccini’s ‘melodramma’ Tosca is a political thriller with a heart-breaking love story. With his gripping opening scene, stage director Michael Sturminger sets the tone for a cinematic, richly detailed Tosca which is set in the Mafiosi world of modern-day Rome and which is ‘the perfect thriller … reminiscent of Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’’ (Kleine Zeitung), a ‘film noir’ (FAZ). In this production soprano Anja Harteros is ‘a phenomenal Tosca!’ (Kurier), ‘unparalleled in the world’ (Der Standard) and Aleksandrs Antoņenko is ‘a Cavaradossi of superlatives’ (Kieler Nachrichten). The Staatskapelle Dresden under Christian Thielemann ‘show again that he is not only a master of German repertoire but also strikes the right note in Italian repertoire’ (Focus).

Recording date: Salzburg Easter Festival, April 2018

Sound format: PCM Stereo, DTS 5.0

Picture: NTSC 16:9

Subtitles: Italian (original language), English, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese

Booklet: English, German, French

Total running time: 120 mins

"The setting here is clearly the present day… for the most part it works very well…The outstanding Anja Harteros is a chic Tosca in shades and slacks…Tézier’s aristocratic baritone suits the suave Godfather scenario…Thielemann wouldn’t necessarily be everyone’s – anyone’s? – idea of a natural Puccini conductor but there’s a certain plush symphonic grandeur to the Staatskapelle’s playing which is highly persuasive." - Gramophone Magazine, May 2019.