Melodiya Releases "Tosca" Recording With Milashkina and Atlantov

Finalmente: Milashkina & Atlantov onstage in Tosca.

"One of the most popular operas of the world repertoire, Tosca was finished in the last year of the 19th century. It was based on the French playwright Victorien Sardou’s drama written for Sarah Bernhardt. The premiere of the opera that took place in 1900 in Rome was not accepted with much enthusiasm, and only the performance at La Scala under Arturo Toscanini became a true triumph. The story of singer Floria Tosca and her beloved painter Mario Cavaradossi who fell victim to bloody despot Baron Scarpia on the background of the revolutionary events in Italy of the early 19th century is still able to move to the innermost of one’s heart as the heat of dramatic fervour is masterfully captured in the music. Numerous audio and video recordings of the opera featuring the world’s best singers and conductors were made in the previous century. This recording was realized by the USSR Bolshoi Theatre in 1974. The celebrated internationally recognized soloists of the opera company of the 1970s Tamara Milashkina, Vladimir Atlantov, Yuri Mazurok and others perform the opera in the original language under the prominent conductor Mark Ermler." [Source] International release date is July 15, 2015. Pre-order your copy by clicking here. More photos, and some excerpts from the recording, after the jump.

How A Photograph Gives Renée Fleming A Full-Circle Moment

This image of Renée Fleming was shot by photographer Matthew Rolston for Vanity Fair magazine in the early 1990s. What is the significance of this photo today? Read all about it after the jump.

Sondra Radvanovsky Not Afraid To Throw Herself Into Tosca Role

The calm before the storm: La Radvanovsky as Puccini's heroine Tosca. (Photo: Catherine Ashmore)

"In the title role, the American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky was quite stunning. Her voice has astounding power with thrilling high notes. Her acting ranged from coquettish and suspicious with Cavaradossi to tragic when submitting to Scarpia, but was convincing throughout....Finally, there is Tosca's leap to her death. All too often, this is a tentative little step across the parapet, giving the impression that the soprano is a bit worried that he might sprain her ankle or chip a fingernail as she plummets to her doom. Claire Rutter showed us how it should be done at ENO a year or two ago, and Radvanovsky followed her lead with a wondrously graceful slow fall backwards. This was not just a good leap, it was a great leap, well worth an extra star on its own." [Source] For more information about the production, please click here. Also, after the jump, a wonderful marketing photo for the production that depicts the jump.

Beverly Sills Lives On In Rare Recordings Released From Ohio

Beverly Sills as Tosca (Photo: Cleveland Public Library)

"DoeHeads – those die-hard fans of Douglas Moore’s opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe – have new reason to rejoice. Among the eight live recordings of operas performed at Musicarnival in Warrensville Heights in the 1950s and 1960s soon to be available to the public is a 1958 production of Baby Doe starring soprano Beverly Sills in one of her signature roles. There’s a lot more here than Moore, who served as director of music at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the 1920s and conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in the premiere of his Four Museum Pieces in 1923. Sills, who lived in Cleveland in the late 1950s, appears in four other productions in the Musicarnival series, including the title roles in two great potboilers – Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Tosca – she performed only in John L. Price’s tent theater-in-the-round. By the end of

Reunited And It Feels So Good? Alagna and Gheorghiu on Video

Floria Tosca Appears With Justin Timberlake on SNL

"When there's two guys and only one girl, just remember the golden rule." Check out Justin Timberlake in the digital short from Saturday Night Live this weekend. As he goes to visit a lady friend he meets an unusual piece of art hanging in her apartment hallway. See who the girl is he's visiting and watch the clip after the jump.

Olympic Gold Medalist Evan Lysacek Goes to the MET

According to his facebook page, Evan Lysacek attended the Metropolitan Opera performance of Tosca on March 31, 2011, featuring Violeta Urmana in the title role, Salvatore Licitra as Cavaradossi and James Morris as Scarpia. (As a sidenote: This performance marked the 40th Anniversary of his debut!) [Source, Source]