The extracts from these three operas were filmed by the BBC at the height of Tito Gobbi's operatic career, at a time when he was in demand internationally and in particular at Covent Garden, where he famously sang the role of Scarpia in the 1964 production of Tosca directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Maria Callas sang the title role, with Act II having been shown on British television to great acclaim. Gobbi was closely associated with the role of Scarpia, not least because he performed Tosca some 900 times, singing Scarpia for the first time in 1939'.