I wish more legit actors would watch performances like this and absorb some of the breadth and pace out-of-time of operatic acting at its best.
I’m talking about their Tosca in Stuttgart in 1961. It’s on you-tube in individual segments.
Let alone the two magnificent voices, they are visually and kinetically riveting. London said that Tebaldi was his favorite Tosca, although he was great with everyone (on the audio evidence–this and the Ed Sullivan show with Callas are the only surviving footage). There is extraordinary contact and concentration between them.
Before her too-precipitate weight loss, Tebaldi was lush and opulent.
London stands straight as rod, with feet sometimes turned out to show extra (aspiration to, on the part of Scarpia) elegance. And yet you are always aware that he is a stunted as well as malevolent psyche.