OPEN AIR OPERA FESTIVAL BREGENZER FESTSPIELE 2007
PUCCINI: TOSCA
Nadja Michael
Zoran Todorovic
Gidon Saks, etc
Wiener Symphoniker
Ulf Schirmer, conductor
Production: Philipp Himmelmann
Stage Setting: Johannes Leiacker
NTSC, Region Code: 0 (worldwide)
Sound: 5.1
Subtitles: I / D / E / F
The Bregenz Festival has long since moulted itself from insider-tip of the festival scene to critically acclaimed highlight of the opera summer. The “Opera on the Floating Stage” casts a spell over thousands every year. In the summer of 2007 a new production of Giacomo Puccinis “Tosca” stood on the programme. The ZDF pronounced: “The Bregenz Festival offers grandiose broadband sound and a brilliant cast in a stirring and spectacular Puccini night”. The sensational story about the celebrated singer Floria Tosca, her lover, the painter Cavaradossi and the jealous and sadistic Scarpia has, in over 100 years, lost none of its fascination. It may be that critics turn their noses up over the impious combination of blood and incense: the public know better. Immortal arias such as “And the stars shone” and “My life was devoted only to beauty” alternate with immense choir scenes such as the “Te Deum”. By the way, as it should be with a tragic opera, at the end none of the protagonists have survived…The Bregenz production is played with the top stars Nadja Michael, Zoran Todorovic and Gidon Saks; at the music stand Ulf Schirmer and the Vienna Symphonic provide the well arranged Puccini sound. ( Phoenix Edition )
