TBA

• After the release of the live recording of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera in October 1993 (GLO 5109), another live recording with the great and still very much beloved soprano Gré Brouwenstijn in response to the many, many requests we received for more recordings with this supreme singer.

• The title-role in Tosca was one of Brouwenstijn's great parts which she sang in major operatic theaters all over the world, including the Bolshoi in Moscow and the Vienna State Opera with Herbert von Karajan as conductor!

• We are well aware of the fact that Tosca is one of the most recorded works from the operatic repertoire, but this is a thrilling performance, again showing the high level of performance for which Brouwenstijn was so justly famous.

• The other central part in the work, that of Scarpia, was taken int his performance by baritone Jan Derksen, whose impersonation of the evil Baron equals that of great interpretors of the part such as Leonard Warren and Tito Gobbi!

• The recording was made in 1969 and it is full stereo with a good balance between stage and orchestra and a marked theater atmosphere.

• It is also an important issue because of the fine conducting of Roberto Benzi, who is sadly underrated as an operatic conductor nowadays, although once he made a great career in the theater.