What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Todd]

I had forgotten that I owned this recording.  Spun it as background music this afternoon.  Sure, a live '53 festival recording has the flaws one expects - the orchestra is good but not infallible, some singing in some parts sounds rough - but as a whole, I remember now why I bought it.  Whatever momentary lapses may occur vocally are offset by overall fine singing, and Krauss, one of the greatest ever Straussians, keeps things lighter than some other versions, and he also keeps things moving along at a fast pace.  As with all his Strauss, he knows how to make the tempi sound exactly perfect, as if they should be taken at no other pace.  (He of course works similar magic in Wagner.)  It's not the best ever - that remains for now and for all time Kleiber '79 - but it sure is a splendid rediscovery. 

[Tsaraslondon]

Callas started 1956 at La Scala with further performances of Norma, with which she had opened the season and then a revival of the Visconti La Traviata with Gianni Raimondi replacing Di Stefano as Alfredo. She then embarked on her next new role, that of Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, which turned out to be the one flop of her time at La Scala. According to Giulini, who conducted, it was "an artistic mistake, utterly routine, thrown together, with nothing given deep study or preparation," and he was so disheartened that he never again conducted an opera at La Scala. Without a strong hand directing, Callas overplayed the comedy and her Rosina emerged as shrewish rather than minxish. However the studio recording she made the following year in London, also with Gobbi and Alva, is a sparklingly effervescent affair and one of the most recommendable recordings of the opera, despite cuts that were traditional at the time.

Callas's Studio Il Barbiere di Siviglia

[Tsaraslondon]

The next new role Callas added to her repertoire was in another resurrected opera that had fallen into obscurity. This is the opera and production that could be said to have put nineteenth century bel canto opera back on the map. There is no doubt this is the performance that ignited the whole bel canto revival and, without it, the careers of Sutherland, Caballé, Sills and Gencer would probably have been very different.

The score is quite heavily cut, but the performance is absolutely thrilling and, when hearing the audience reaction, you would scarcely believe that the vast majority would have been hearing the music for the very first time. It is also one of Callas's very greatest nights in the theatre and she is in splendid voice.

Callas in Anna Bolena- La Scala, Milan April 14 1957

[Tsaraslondon]

In June 1957 Callas sang her second Gluck role at La Scala. Though they didn't know it at the time, it also turned out to be the last time she worked with Visconti. Though the sound is rather better than the 1954 Alceste, the performance not as good as a whole. Callas herself is in splendid voice, but nobody else, apart from the Diana on Cossotto, is in her class and Sanzogno conducts in soggy style. No doubt a Giulini at the helm would have transformed it. Still, it is good to have another example of Callas's prowess in classical opera.

Callas in Ifigenia in Tauride – La Scala 1957

[Que]

The king and his nobles at Versailles had a lot of time on their hands: Roland (Orlando) has a prologue and five acts, filling 3 discs. One of Lully's later operas and one of my favourites.

[Tsaraslondon]

Continuing my journey through Callas's stage roles I come to two of the three roles she sang at La Scala in the 1957/1958 season, which also turned out to be her last full season at the house. The third role that season was a revival of Anna Bolena.



The season opened with a new production of Un Ballo in Maschera by Margherita Wallman, in which Callas was singing Amelia for the first and only time in her career, though she had already recorded it in the studio the previous year. This always comes as something of a surprise because the role would seem tailor made for her gifts and indeed she is in fabulous voice on the recording we have of the opening night. Gavazzeni is a much more propulsive conductor than Votto on the studio recording and the sound is one of the better La Scala broadcasts.

Callas's Two Recordings of Un Ballo in Maschera



After the revival of Anna Bolena, Callas's next new role was yet another rarity that hadn't been heard in many a year, Bellini's Il Pirata. It is unfortunate that none of the La Scala performances were recorded because there she was partnered by Corelli and Bastianini. The recording we have is of a concert performance in New York, which was arranged by the American Opera Society after Bing had cancelled her Met contract. Ferraro and Ego are not in the Corelli or Bastianini class and Callas is not in her best voice. Still, she gives lessons in meaningful phrasing and we are fortunate that we have this recording.

Callas in Il Pirata – Carnegie Hall 1959

[Todd]

Had a hankerin' for some sappy, gooey, OTT Puccini.  This hit the spot, as it always does.

[ritter]

Will be revisiting the Verdi operas set in Spain (well, probably bits and pieces of them).

Started with Acts IV and V of Don Carlo, in the 1962 recording from La Scala conducted by Gabriele Santini, with a distinguished roster of soloists.

[Tsaraslondon]

Callas returned to La Scala fro the operning of the 1960/1961 season in her last new role in a production which was supposed to be directed by Visconti, but he withdrew in protest after his film Rocco e suoi fratelli had been censored by the Italian authorities. Byt his time the furore that attended every one of Callas's appearances was enormous and her entrance is greatted by a prolomged ovation which actually stops the show.

Callas and Corelli in Poliuto _ La Scala, Milan 1960

[Tsaraslondon]

Having worked my way through Callas's stage roles, I move on to the four roles she recorded without ever singing them in the theatre, The first of these is Nedda in I Pagliacci, a role that you wouldn't expect to interest her much. Still she makes more of the character than most. Most at that time just played her like a heartless little gutersnip, but Callas paints a picture of a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a man evidently prone to violence.

A great recording. Callas as Nedda in Pagliacci

[ritter]

CD1: Selections from Tristan und Isolde


Jessye Norman's live recording of the Liebestod from Salzburg under Karajan is one of the very greatest renditions of that page, so I had high hopes set on these selections. Well, they have not been met, alas.

I think the main culprit is conductor Kurt Masur, whose conducting is flat and uninteresting or, to to put it plainly, boring! This seems to spill over to the vocal soloists.  Norman appears detached in the Act I excerpts, and the usually magnificent Hanna Schwarz is not in good form. Ian Bostridge (a singer I have never had much appreciation for) is fine as the sailor.

In Act II we get Thomas Moser as an adequate Tristan, and things IMHO improve markedly in the "pure music" of "O sink hernieder Nacht der Liebe", where the complete lack of theatrical thrust in Masur's conducting is not a problem... Let's see how the Liebestod is, but I cannot imagine it improving on the legendary recording under Karajan mentioned above.

Of course it's good to have Norman in this music, but I perfectly understand her denying permission for this to be released.

[Tsaraslondon]

La Bohème was the first staged opera that really started my opera obsession (a wonderful, traditionally staged Glyndebourne Touring Opera production) and this was my first recording of it. Since then of course, I've seen quite a few other stage productions and heard quite a few different recordings, but none has ever moved me quite so much, not even the famed Beecham, nor the Karajan with Freni and Pavarotti. People will tell you that Callas, who never sang the role on stage, was not a natural for the role and maybe they are right. However, such is her magic that she enters fully into the character and at no point do we hear the voice of Norma or Lady Macbeth or Medea. The voice character she adopts for Mimi is absolutely right for the character.

Furthermore the whole cast could harldy be bettered. Rodolfo was one of Di Stefano's best roles and he and Panerai's Marcello play off each other brilliantly, as they do with the other Bohemians, Zaccaria and Spatafora. Moffo is a much warmer voiced Musetta than the sparky soubrettes we often get too. Of course it should have been conducted by Serafin, but Callas was in a funk with him for conducting the La Scala studio Traviata without her and he is totally absent from her 1956 recording schedule. Votto is efficient, no more. Karajan had conducted her recording of Il Trovatore just before this. What a shame he didn't hang around to conduct La Boheme too. Still, this remains my favourite recording of the opera and today it worked its magic again. I was in tears by the end.

Callas in La Boheme

[Iota]

CD1: Selections from Tristan und Isolde


Jessye Norman's live recording of the Liebestod from Salzburg under Karajan is one of the very greatest renditions of that page, so I had high hopes set on these selections. Well, they have not been met, alas.

I think the main culprit is conductor Kurt Masur, whose conducting is flat and uninteresting or, to to put it plainly, boring! This seems to spill over to the vocal soloists.  Norman appears detached in the Act I excerpts, and the usually magnificent Hanna Schwarz is not in good form. Ian Bostridge (a singer I have never had much appreciation for) is fine as the sailor ...

This reminds me I still have a largely unlistened to box of Beethoven symphonies conducted by Masur, which I acquired about twenty years ago. When I first opened it I put on the Fifth and found it undilutedly dull, it put me off him completely for years. That and the Rattle Mahler 5 with the BP were my two biggest ever disappointing purchases. (Something I always wanted to get off my chest, so apologies for my off-topic wanderings.)

[Tsaraslondon]

In the summer of 1957, having just finished recording the role of Turandot, Callas embarked on the third role she recorded without ever singing it on stage. Manon Lescaut is far from being my favourite Puccini (and I much prefer Massenet's operatic version of the L'abbé Prévost novel), and I've always felt that Callas sounds tired after the rigours of recording Turandot, a role she shouldn't have been tackling at that stage in her career, even in the studio.

That said, I really enjoyed listening to this set today.True, there are times when one misses the richer tones of a Tebaldi or a Caballé, but do either of those ladies really begin to give us the character of Manon in all her complexity, her venality and her love of luxury as well as her loveable innocence and naivety? The last act, which is often an anti-climax after the dramatic third act, is here absoluetly riveting and Serafin, who is now back in the pit conducts a thrillingly dramatic version of the score. Di Stefano yet again has a role particularly suited to his gifts and Fioravanti is an excellent Lescaut. Cossotto is a bonus as the ballad singer.

Callas in Manon Lescaut

[ritter]

Another "Spanish" Verdi opera: Il Trovatore.


Act IV.

I've never cared for this work (or for any of the "Romantic Trilogy"), but Act IV has its moments, such as the Miserere, and the often-omitted "Tu verrai che amore in terra..." (which Ricciarelli does beautifully here). I also like Carreras, and don't really need a more heroic tenor in this rôle.

[Tsaraslondon]

The fourth and last role Callas only sang for the gramophone was Carmen and it was probably the only one she seriously considered singing on stage.Both Visconti and Zeffirelli wanted to direct her in it and Sir David Webster was always trying to persuade her to sing it at Covent Garden.

Her Carmen has always been controversial, but I've always found it fascinating. It's one of those performances that is never quite the same each time I hear it. I always hear something new.

The Callas Carmen

[Wendell_E]

Another "Spanish" Verdi opera: Il Trovatore.


Act IV.

I've never cared for this work (or for any of the "Romantic Trilogy"), but Act IV has its moments, such as the Miserere, and the often-omitted "Tu verrai che amore in terra..." (which Ricciarelli does beautifully here). I also like Carreras, and don't really need a more heroic tenor in this rôle.

Thanks for the reminder. I've been curious about this recording, but had never heard it, so I gave it a listen via Amazon Music. I like it a lot, but I do love the "Romantic Trilogy", especially Il Trovatore.

[ritter]

Riccardo Zandonai's last, incomplete opera: Il Bacio.


This is a recording of the posthumous world première, on Italian radio in 1954 (I think the work has never again been performed). Francesco Molinari-Pradelli conducts the Milan RAI Orchestra. The best known singer is Lina Pagliughi (who is not the lead, as that would be Rosetta Noli). The tenor is Angelo Lo Forese.

This is a romantic comedy set in ancient, but already Christian Rome. Only Acts I and II were composed, and the kiss that seals the lovers' union and gives the work its title happens at the end of the missing Act III.

Some elegant orchestral and vocal writing, typical of this composer, but no great melodies. It all is very atmospheric, but not really memorable.

[springrite]

I had forgotten that I owned this recording.  Spun it as background music this afternoon.  Sure, a live '53 festival recording has the flaws one expects - the orchestra is good but not infallible, some singing in some parts sounds rough - but as a whole, I remember now why I bought it.  Whatever momentary lapses may occur vocally are offset by overall fine singing, and Krauss, one of the greatest ever Straussians, keeps things lighter than some other versions, and he also keeps things moving along at a fast pace.  As with all his Strauss, he knows how to make the tempi sound exactly perfect, as if they should be taken at no other pace.  (He of course works similar magic in Wagner.)  It's not the best ever - that remains for now and for all time Kleiber '79 - but it sure is a splendid rediscovery. 

I am giving the same recording a spin.

[Tsaraslondon]

There is no doubt Callas's voice was on the waning side by the time she recorded these two recital discs, and the second volume finds her in frailer voice than the first, but how brilliantly she gets to the heart of each aria, of each character, though she never sang any of these roles in the theatre. Genius doesn't beging to cover what she was.

Happy Birthday, Maria.

Callas a Paris