Maria Callas

[czgirb]

Does anybody know the following recording?

[Tsaraslondon]

Does anybody know the following recording?

The sound is pretty ropey, in the same category as the famous Aida with that top Eb in the Act II Finale.

As for the performance, this is Callas's first ever Leonora, and she hasn't fully sung in the role. There is some spectacular singing, it has to be said, but a few questionable choices regarding top notes and embellishments. When she sang it the following year at Naples, under the baton of Tullio Serafin, she had considerably refined her interpretation, possibly due to Serafin's influence. Interesting, though, how much she gets instinctively right even in this earlier performance. Baum is execrable, Simionato and Warren something of an asset.

[Guido]

Just listened to her Liebestod (Dolce e Calmo!) - It's just extraordinary. What would the landscape of German opera have looked like if she'd focussed her attention there? Maybe she was more temperamentally suited to the Italian rep, but this is just wonderful!

[Tsaraslondon]

Just listened to her Liebestod (Dolce e Calmo!) - It's just extraordinary. What would the landscape of German opera have looked like if she'd focussed her attention there? Maybe she was more temperamentally suited to the Italian rep, but this is just wonderful!

Opinions are divided on her Wagner, but I think this recording is truly beautiful, and blow the fact that it's sung in Italian. This is a warm, womanly, feminine Isolde, not some Nordic goddess having a night off. Her legato, as usual, is well nigh impeccable, and reminds us what dividends can be reaped when a bel canto training is applied to Wagner. After all, all Wagner's original singers were trained in the bel canto tradition.

I also love her Kundry, the only complete Wagner role of hers that was recorded. Again, it is beautifully sung, not barked, and she makes a sensuous temptress.

[Guido]

Apart from the fact that it's in Italian, what could possibly be the issue with the singing? It's just so good! And how old was she when she made this recording? Must have been very young.

Haven't heard her Kundry - an obvious next step it seems.

[Tsaraslondon]

Apart from the fact that it's in Italian, what could possibly be the issue with the singing? It's just so good! And how old was she when she made this recording? Must have been very young.

Haven't heard her Kundry - an obvious next step it seems.

If it's the Turin RAI recording, with Atturo Basile conducting, it was made just before her 26th birthday. She also recorded Casta Diva, and the Mad Scene from I Puritani at the same sessions. Both performances are superb, the Mad Scene from I Puritani never bettered, even by Callas herself in the complete recording of 1953, though that is pretty stunning too. The Bellini is the aria I most often play to Callas non believers. It usually strikes them dumb with disbelief.

[Guido]

Such facility and power is difficult to imagine in todays opera singers - how lucky those audiences were.  Imagine being that supremely accomplished at anything aged 26...

If we look at the two biggest coloratura star sopranos today, Dessay and Damrau it hardly bears comparison. I find both hard to like most of the time - just the basic uglyness of the sound, and never the feeling of total ease as with their predecessors. Compare to Sills, Auger, Horne in the previous generation and then Callas, Sutherland of course... why is this?!

That is a stunning recording of the Puritani scene - have been listening over the past few days. I also very much like Sills, who seems to have equal facility in this role at least.

[Harry Powell]

I think her Kundry's overrated by her fans. Her approach is a veristic one, little if any trace of a real psycological portrait and she falls into some vocal exaggerations (in the low notes). The recording is so muffled that one cannot tell much more. I remember very well that Wagnerites have been always indifferent to this Kundry: recent Italian critics too. You can't deny she makes some impact, but that's not enough and Wagner's dramatic soprano wasn't close to Callas. A simple question of vocal "distribution", accento and affinity with the vocal writing.

[Guido]

I think her Kundry's overrated by her fans. Her approach is a veristic one, little if any trace of a real psycological portrait and she falls into some vocal exaggerations (in the low notes). The recording is so muffled that one cannot tell much more. I remember very well that Wagnerites have been always indifferent to this Kundry: recent Italian critics too. You can't deny she makes some impact, but that's not enough and Wagner's dramatic soprano wasn't close to Callas. A simple question of vocal "distribution", accento and affinity with the vocal writing.

Haven't heard it yet, so cant comment. What about the Liebestod? Do you agree with me and Tsaraslondon about that at least?

[Harry Powell]

Good performance, remarkable for the fluent legato but marred by a blurred diction.
I'm very interested in Italian Wagner, but Callas' contribution isn't as valuable as that by earlier singers.

[zamyrabyrd]

Hey, I just found some rare clips of the awesome 1958 Lisbon Traviata.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSmItkgh94Q&feature=related

I don't remember seeing the 2nd scene from Act II ever. Also there are some shorts from the last Act. The inimitable fil di voce must be measured in microns.  It's amazing how Callas changed her voice according to the needs of the drama from act to act.


ZB

[Tsaraslondon]

Hey, I just found some rare clips of the awesome 1958 Lisbon Traviata.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSmItkgh94Q&feature=related

I don't remember seeing the 2nd scene from Act II ever. Also there are some shorts from the last Act. The inimitable fil di voce must be measured in microns.  It's amazing how Callas changed her voice according to the needs of the drama from act to act.


ZB

thank you so much for posting these clips, ZB. Even through the gloom, one can get an idea of what made Callas great.

[Harry Powell]

I didn't know that video. Thank you. It seems that legendary "Traviata" might still surprise us even after a recording from the Portuguese radio (much better than the in-house take that Emi's edited) surfaced a couple of years ago.

[Guido]

I'm pretty sure it's the same performance, if only because I'm also pretty sure that only one of that series of performances exists in sound.

After this I listened to Renee Fleming's version. It's actually technically pretty stunning, though, as usual, she now and again indulges in infuriatingly unstylish crooning, and, taken on its own merits, would no doubt bring the house down, which indeed it does. But (isn't there always a but?) there is little of Callas's almost insolent ease, nor her imperious command. I was much more impressed by Fleming's performance than I expected to be, given that I don't normally like her in Italian opera, but it didn't thrill me.

I know you said you liked it, but I still just have to defend this recording which is one of my all time favourites in any genre of anything ever. (and also the next commenter is more negative). Fleming's absolutely on fire here, and in the last scene (or last 20 mins rather), those bottom Gs are terrifying, the top absolutely soaring, the coloratura completely thrilling. It's not fair to compare this to Callas I think - they're obviously very different creatures, and one was the greatest singing actress of all time - especially in this of all repertoire where Callas is supreme - who is going to measure up? Sadly (and predictably) her recent Met outings of this role have been nowhere near as successful - she just shouldn't be singing this stuff anymore. Also sadly, Diana Damrau is scheduled to sing this in a future Met season. Hmm....

Have been listening to the Callas Carmen this morning. Without compare. I find myself being irritated by the other characters because I'm just waiting for the next time she's going to sing. And the other singers are hardly slouches!

[Guido]

This is rather touching: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL5yhQ1T7-g&NR=1

[Tsaraslondon]

Very touching indeed. It's from the Callas documentary, Zeffirelli made shortly after Callas died, still, IMO. the best of the Callas documentaries. Caballe always held Callas in very hard regard, and Caballe was the only one of the then modern clutch of singers that Callas really appreciated. I believe she gave Caballe some of the jewellery she used to wear as Norma.

[Guido]

Just watched the Barbara Walters and Mike Wallace interviews. The questions are so personal and intimate and rude, I'm amazed that she answered them.

[Harry Powell]

Callas was also very fond of Leyla Gencer.

[Tsaraslondon]

Callas was also very fond of Leyla Gencer.

Really? That's the first time I've heard that and I've read just about every Callas biography I could get my hands on.

[Harry Powell]

She attended a performance of the Verdi Requiem and conceded her approval. She even gave Gavazzeni a pleased look as Gencer took the difficult piano on a B-flat in the "Libera me". I must remember where I read about this, but I'm pretty sure Gavazzeni himself told it.

Harry