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The Very Best of Maria Callas
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Bizet: Carmen (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Nicolai Gedda, Georges Pretre, Paris Opera Orchestra
: essential recording:This recording was made near the end of Maria Callas's career. It is a role she never sang onstage, but it suited her almost perfectly, and she gives a deep, compelling performance on this recording. The mezzo-soprano tessitura was comfortable for her voice, and the role did not call for a pretty sound. Nor did the recording studio require the kind of huge vocal power expected in an opera house. And furthermore, the character of a strong-willed, capricious, ...
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Puccini: Madama Butterfly (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Lucia Danieli, Nicolai Gedda, Herbert von Karajan, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan
from: EMI Classics
: essential recording:This recording was made near the end of Maria Callas's career. It is a role she never sang onstage, but it suited her almost perfectly, and she gives a deep, compelling performance on this recording. The mezzo-soprano tessitura was comfortable for her voice, and the role did not call for a pretty sound. Nor did the recording studio require the kind of huge vocal power expected in an opera house. And furthermore, the character of a strong-willed, capricious, ...
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Verdi: La Traviata (complete opera live 1955) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Carlo Maria Giulini, Orchestra & Chorus of La Scala, Milan
: essential recording:This live recording of the 1955 Visconti production at La Scala is the best of the available Maria Callas Traviatas. Aside from a minor pitch problem or two, she's in great voice, coloring phrases to reveal character and investing the coloratura with variety and passion. Her 'Addio del passato' is heart-breaking. She fully captures Violetta's pride and vulnerability in the scene with Germont, though her partner, Ettore Bastianini, sings insensitively, if beautifully. Giuseppe Di Stefano is all one ...
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Puccini: Tosca (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Victor de Sabata, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan
: essential recording:Little can be added to what's been written about this landmark recording, except that Walter Legge's 1953 mono production yields nothing to modern Tosca recordings for vivacity and theatrical impact--especially Maria Callas's. The miraculous Victor de Sabata conjures up a vibrant, inspiring orchestral canvas that enables Callas and her stellar cohorts to work their magic. Tito Gobbi and Callas spur each other on to heights in which the characters take over from the singers in the listener's mind. ...
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The Best Opera Album in the World...Ever!
from: Angel Records
: essential recording:Little can be added to what's been written about this landmark recording, except that Walter Legge's 1953 mono production yields nothing to modern Tosca recordings for vivacity and theatrical impact--especially Maria Callas's. The miraculous Victor de Sabata conjures up a vibrant, inspiring orchestral canvas that enables Callas and her stellar cohorts to work their magic. Tito Gobbi and Callas spur each other on to heights in which the characters take over from the singers in the listener's mind. ...
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Puccini: Tosca (1953) with Callas, di Stefano, Gobbi, cond. by de Sabata
from: EMI Classics
: : Little can be added to what's been written about this landmark recording, except that Walter Legge's 1953 mono production yields nothing to modern Tosca recordings for vivacity and theatrical impact--especially Maria Callas's. The miraculous Victor de Sabata conjures up a vibrant, inspiring orchestral canvas that enables Callas and her stellar cohorts to work their magic. Tito Gobbi and Callas spur each other on to heights in which the characters take over from the singers in the listener's mind. Giuseppe ...
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Maria Callas, the Voice of the Century
from: EMI Classics
: : Little can be added to what's been written about this landmark recording, except that Walter Legge's 1953 mono production yields nothing to modern Tosca recordings for vivacity and theatrical impact--especially Maria Callas's. The miraculous Victor de Sabata conjures up a vibrant, inspiring orchestral canvas that enables Callas and her stellar cohorts to work their magic. Tito Gobbi and Callas spur each other on to heights in which the characters take over from the singers in the listener's mind. Giuseppe ...
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Verdi: Rigoletto (Complete Opera); Maria Callas; Tito Gobbi; Giuseppe di Stefano
: :Nobody steals the spotlight when Maria Callas is onstage, but Tito Gobbi never lets us forget that this show is called Rigoletto, not Gilda. Neither singer has one of the century's prettiest voices; both have dramatic presence, impact, and subtlety--based as much on their control of verbal nuance as on musicianship--that make their characters three-dimensional, the story meaningful, the emotions real, varied, and intense. His role is bigger and more complex than hers is. He is almost constantly onstage, and ...
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Rossini: The Barber Of Seville with Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Alceo Galliera, Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus
: essential recording:Maria Callas surprised some fans when this recording appeared in 1958 by singing some of Rosina's music in the mezzo-soprano range. Originally used by Rossini, the mezzo range helped Callas in characterizing Rosina not as a bird-brained, twittering, helpless ingenue but as a crafty, intelligent woman, smarter than any of the men around her (even the resourceful Figaro). Callas's Rosina knew exactly what she wanted and how she would get it. It is a brilliant performance, made even ...
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