Tosca
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Tosca
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Narrated by:
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David Timson
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By:
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Thomson Smillie
About this listen
Tosca is Puccini at the peak of his theatrical power. The story of the jealous, impassioned opera singer Floria Tosca and her doomed love for the painter Mario Cavaradossi is played out against backgrounds both historically and geographically overwhelming. It is set in three great and historical locations of Rome during the Napoleonic era. Spectacle, sensuality, and cruelty battle for our attention in one of the most truly "action-packed" works of theatre.
Enticing us with just a couple of the "great tunes" from this deeply affecting opera, David Timson then begins setting the biographical and operatic scene. The enduring popularity of Tosca is quickly understood - its appeal generated largely from exactly the same elements which once caused academics to brand it a "shabby little shocker". The master of melody is at his finest, as David Timson illustrates with characteristic enthusiasm.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2002 Naxos AudioBooks (P)2002 Naxos AudioBooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Fun intro (or recap) of the opera
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Editorial reviews
Thomson Smillie’s series of Opera Explained audiobooks on individual operatic works is the perfect introduction for the would-be opera fan. Each title in the series runs about an hour, features plenty of recorded clips, and is narrated with pluck and good humor by David Timson. Your opera education starts here.
Giacamo Puccini, sometimes called "the master of melody", set his opera Tosca in Rome at the turn of the 19th century, when Napolean’s army was threatening to invade. The opera includes scenes of brutality, execution, and love, and is one of the most performed of all time.
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Masterful weave of the personal and political
- By Trevor M. on 10-26-24
By: David Hare, and others
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz Bundle (Annotated)
- By: Lyman Frank Baum
- Narrated by: Whitney Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 101
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 101
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Story5 out of 5 stars 101
Book 1: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, better known and loved today as simply The Wizard of Oz, is a tale that has been cherished by readers and listeners throughout the years. This timeless story has inspired Broadway shows, cartoon series, and many films over the past few generations. I hope that this book has inspired your sense of creativity and wonder as much as it has mine.
By: Lyman Frank Baum
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The Energy Curfew Music Hour
- By: Chris Thile, Claire Coffee, Punch Brothers
- Narrated by: Chris Thile, Punch Brothers
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story5 out of 5 stars 29
It’s time to unplug with the Grammy-winning Punch Brothers, fronted by singer-mandolinist Chris Thile, as they bring you a multi-episode musical variety show with dazzling musical guests, like Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Jon Batiste, Norah Jones, James Taylor, and many more.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Gifted musicians and storytellers right in their element and at the height of their powers
- By Megan G Kahl on 10-27-24
By: Chris Thile, and others
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Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon
- Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops, and the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream
- By: David McGowan
- Narrated by: Bill Fike
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 825
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 692
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Story4 out of 5 stars 695
The very strange but nevertheless true story of the dark underbelly of a 1960s hippie utopia. Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and early 1970s was a magical place where a dizzying array of musical artists congregated to create much of the music that provided the soundtrack to those turbulent times. But there was a dark side to that scene as well. Many didn't make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery to this day.
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5 out of 5 stars
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My first review. This book changed me.
- By Robert on 06-30-19
By: David McGowan
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A Streetcar Named Desire
- By: Tennessee Williams
- Narrated by: Carla Gugino, Audra McDonald
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,229
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,086
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,078
With Emmy, Grammy, and six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald as Blanche DuBois alongside Carla Gugino as Stella, O’Hara takes a fresh and visceral look at the emotionally charged relationship between these two iconic sisters. Haunted by her past, Blanche seeks refuge with Stella and Stanley (Ariel Shafir) in New Orleans, where she wrestles with the nature of her sister’s husband, her sister’s denial, and her own unraveling mind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Classic With Fresh Insight
- By Talia Shafir on 12-04-20
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Song of the Northwoods
- By: Jessica Huang
- Narrated by: Michele Selene Ang, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Emma Kikue, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 3,899
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 3,574
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Story4 out of 5 stars 3,563
After a betrayal at work costs Song Kuan her job, she retreats to her friend Lucy’s idyllic family cabin on a lake in Minnesota to lick her wounds. She devotes herself to recording Ice Cold Cases, a true-crime podcast that she and Lucy cohost with the gleeful energy of obsessed fans—until an anonymous tip about a missing-person case disrupts their equilibrium. Then Lucy disappears, leaving Song alone in an unfriendly and unfamiliar town where locals don’t take kindly to strangers asking questions.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Asians in MN! I loved it. The vivid sounds of Northern Minnesota totally took me there, and I was hooked into the mystery.
- By Sheila Morris on 04-26-22
By: Jessica Huang
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Coreyography
- By: Corey Feldman
- Narrated by: Corey Feldman
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,920
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,640
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,635
In this brave and moving memoir, Corey Feldman is revealing the truth about what his life was like behind the scenes: His is a past that included physical, drug, and sexual abuse, a dysfunctional family from which he was emancipated at age fifteen, three high-profile arrests for drug possession, a nine-month stint in rehab, and a long, slow crawl back to the top of the box office.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Didn't like the Two Coreys, but liked this.
- By ricketsj on 04-29-14
By: Corey Feldman
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Petty: The Biography
- By: Warren Zanes
- Narrated by: Warren Zanes
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,067
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,839
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,835
No one other than Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, could author a book about Tom Petty that is as honest and evocative of Petty's music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write. Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Tom Petty was a Southern shit kicker, a kid without a whole lot of promise. Rock and roll made it otherwise.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Tom Petty gets some bio love
- By tru britty on 12-15-15
By: Warren Zanes
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The Chris Farley Show
- A Biography in Three Acts
- By: Tom Farley, Tanner Colby
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer, L. J. Ganser, Mark Boyett
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,381
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,102
The New York Times best-selling biography of an American comedy legend. After three years of sobriety, Chris Farley's life was at its creative peak until a string of professional disappointments chased him back to drugs and alcohol. He fought hard against them, but it was a fight he would lose in December 1997. Farley's fans immediately drew parallels between his death and that of his idol, John Belushi. Without looking deeper, however, many failed to see that Farley was much more than just another Hollywood drug overdose. In this officially authorized oral history, Farley's friends and family remember his work and life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredibly sad....
- By Marie B on 04-12-15
By: Tom Farley, and others
What listeners say about Tosca
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- T. Angell
- 03-12-16
Excellent introduction to Tosca
I thought I was just sitting down for an IPA at Cassell's in Los Angeles one afternoon, but wound up getting in a conversation with the bartender and a regular, who in about an hour taught me a lot of things I didn't know about jazz and opera (I'm a newbie at both). I had been studying Tosca as part of my one-per-month goal for 2016, and as I was leaving the bartender wrote down Thomson Smillie's name and recommended this recording. It is as good as he said, and I just bought the Smillie lecture for L'elisir d'amore for my next opera.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Essam
- 02-23-15
Excellent presentation as usual
As expected from this series by r Smiley , excellent explanation and excerpts giving an overall superb Tosca explanation .
A background of Puccini's style and works is represented as well.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Aaron
- 03-21-18
A fine introduction
This is my first listen to any of Smillie’s guides to opera, and I am delighted to find how excellent it is. You are given, in economical fashion, a sense of the opera’s historical context, its dramatic elements, and its musical characteristics. The excerpts of Puccini’s work perfectly punctuate the overview, whetting your taste for the full musical experience.
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1 person found this helpful