1968 / TOSCA / Puccini

TOSCA – PUCCINI

Presented on Jun 7, 11, 13, 19 Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season

Magda Olivero – Tosca
Lino Martinucci – Cavaradossi
Cesare Bardelli – Scarpia
Helge Bömches – Angelotti
Enrico Fissore – Sacristan
Raimondo Botteghelli – Spoletta
William Young – Sciarrone
Ann Murray – Shepherd

Napoleone Annovazzi – Conductor
Enrico Frigerio – Producer

Magda Olivero as Tosca, backstage at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin in June 1968
Choristers Maura Devine, Anne Deegan and Angela Fanning with Lino Martinucci (who was singing Cavaradossi) in “Tosca” backstage at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin in June 1968

Martinucci had already sung an impressive Cavaradossi in Tosca but as expected he was overshadowed by the sheer artistry of Magda Olivero’s Floria Tosca, a performance that both Maureen Lemass and Florrie Draper found riveting… Chorus master Giuseppe Giardina remembers that spring season of ’67 for its excellent “Turandot”, “Tosca” and “La Favorita”. He felt the DGOS chorus showed further improvement and it was a source of utmost satisfaction to him. Since it would probably be Magda Olivero’s last season in Dublin it was wonderful that Irish opera-goers had heard her “Tosca”.

(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)