Puccini - Tosca / Corelli, Caniglia, Guelfi, Pugliese, de Fabritiis, RAI Rome Opera

Rating:
Summary: VAI Provides Wonderful Treasures but.....
Review: As a person who believes that there is Franco Corelli and then there are some opera singers I was thrilled when I found that VAI had come out with this 1956 RAI film. I have copies of the Bel Canto Society Tosca videos that are magnificent but after all they aren't DVD's. The first copy of the DVD sent to me from VAI was damaged - seemingly a production flaw. Their customer service was marvelous - with no questions at all they immediately sent me a replacement that plays perfectly.

The picture is wonderful considering VAI was still dealing with a source from 1956. The color and clarity are far better than on the VHS copies. The sound is wonderful but not noticeably better than on VHS but this is probably unavoidable.

Now we get to the reason for a missing star. The synchronization of sound and picture is far from close. I don't think this can be blamed on the lip-synching that must have been done as it is not nearly so noticeable on the VHS version. With that caveat I still have to recommend this DVD. It gives us one of opera's true treasures on the format we now all want. The problem is it also makes me want to upgrade my TV set and DVD player. - More, please, VAI.