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Monday, September 25 THE DANNY THOMAS HOUR (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). Geraldine Chaplin, Robert Stack and Michael J. Pollard make "The Scene" in a hippie-v. square-generation drama involving acid and psychedelia.
Tuesday, September 26 AFRICA (ABC, 9:30-10:30 a.m.). Repeat of the second hour from the recent four-hour special, highlighting tribalism and the many problems of Ghana.
CBS REPORTS (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). "The Germans," a study of the land and its people as represented by the citizens of Nürnberg: how they feel about Nazism, democracy, minorities, education, traditions.
RECORDS
Operatic, Choral & Recital
PUCCINI: TOSCA (2 LPs; London). Birgit Nilsson's voice is purest gold, and it takes men of equal quality to sing against her. She has found ideal antagonists in this recording: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Tosca's brutally intelligent tormentor and Franco Corelli as her devoted lover are almost overwhelming in their dynamic and masculine artistry. Yet Birgit summons all the fire in her Swedish soul and emulates, if not exactly incarnates, the Latin passions of Tosca, daring anyone to typecast her as merely a Wagnerian soprano. With Conductor Lorin Maazel whipping his orchestra along in unrelenting fury, the album becomes a musical Fort Knox.
ALBAN BERG: WOZZECK (2 LPs; CBS Masterworks). To many students of music, Berg's masterpiece represents an enduring statement about human nature and musical revolution. To others, it is nothing but a stumble through an atonal desert. This recording will be appreciated by Berg's admirers, for Pierre Boulez's conducting is impeccable, and so is the courage of Walter Berry, who convincingly sings his way to murder and death through the cactus-like orchestration.
PUCCINI: LA RONDINE (2 LPs; RCA Victor). Magda, Puccini's sad "swallow," is close kin to Verdi's Violetta, the "wayward one." Puccini's little courtesan also leads a gay, cynical life in Paris until she meets her one true love, with whom she flees to the peace of a country villa. Then, to the strains of a rending melody, she leaves her lover when she realizes that her scarlet past would shock his proper parents. Anna Moffo illuminates the most lyrical and substantial elements in her poignant role, and her characterization is nicely set off by Tenors Daniele Barioni and Piero de Palma.
DONIZETTI: L'ELISIR D'AMORE (2 LPs; Angel). The Elixir of Love is an 1832 comic opera that is a delightful collection of bouncy silliness couched in florid melody. Mirella Freni and Nicolai Gedda reproduce their entrancing Metropolitan Opera performances of two seasons ago, and they are complemented by the astonishing bass of Renato Capecchi, who combines unbelievable agility with mahogany-like richness in the role of a quack selling a love potion.