Renata Tebaldi: A Portrait
VAI DVD 4324, $29.95

Tebaldi’s complete Bell Telephone Hour performances, as well other important television appearances. Bonus selections are never-before-issued performances of “Un bel dì” and “Con onor muore” from the Bell Telephone Hour (1961). 131 minutes, Color/Black & White, with optional English subtitles. Playable in all regions.

Disc One

Puccini: LA BOHÈME Act 1 Finale - with Jussi Bjoerling (1956)

Puccini: MADAMA BUTTERFLY Un bel di • Con onor muore (1959)

Puccini: TOSCA Vissi d'arte (1961)

Cilèa: ADRIANNA LECOUVREUR lo son l'umile ancella (1961)

Puccini: TOSCA Scenes from Act 1 with Eugene Tobin & George London (1961)

Mascagni: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA Voi lo sapete (1967)

Ponchielli: LA GIOCONDA Suicidio (1967)

Bonus:

Puccini: MADAMA BUTTERFLY Un bel di • Con onor muore (1961)

Disc Two

CONCERTO ITALIANO

Puccini: GIANNI SCHICCHI O mio babbino caro

Tosti: "L'ultima canzone: (sung by Louis Quilico)

Mascagni: LE MASCHERE Overture (CBC Festival Orch./ Barbini)

Rossini: La Regata Veneziana

Puccini: IL TABARRO Nulla! Silenzio (Tebaldi, Quilico, Mauro, Sukis)

Puccini: TOSCA Act II Finale (Tebsldi, Quilico, Braun)

Renata Tebaldi’s numerous appearances on television made her unique among her contemporaries. Four complete operatic performances as well as televised concerts and guest appearances on major variety programs in the U.S. and abroad have made their way to home video. The soprano’s glowing physical presence made her a natural for the TV cameras while the sumptuousness of her voice asserted itself through even the flimsiest of television speakers.

Tebaldi made three appearances on the Bell Telephone Hour between 1959 and 1967. As collected here, the six arias demonstrate the soprano at the height of her powers in five of her greatest roles. (Though Tebaldi never performed Cavalleria Rusticana on stage, she did make a stunning studio recording of the opera.) The two Butterfly arias from 1959, radiantly sung, are amongst Tebaldi’s first TV appearances, taken from a program that also holds the distinction of being one of the earliest extant color telecasts. By 1967, Tebaldi was clearly comfortable in the spinto-dramatic repertoire with an awesome use of the chest register in the Cavalleria and Gioconda arias. This collection will delight the myriad fans of one of this century’s most beloved divas.

Ernest Gilbert