Maria Callas

Visconti’s sensational 1955 production of La Sonnambula for La Scala, Milan, was revived and recorded two years later. As a girl, Callas had fallen in love with the role of Amina; as an adult it suited her voice perfectly, and her interpretation set a benchmark that few have equalled.

Among the many highlights of Callas’s profoundly satisfying performance is her cadenza for Ah non giunge in which she executes a remarkable diminuendo on a stratospheric E-flat, a feat unrivalled in the history of the gramophone.

This is by any standards a classic recording.

“Callas does not appear to ever strain for a note. Her voice is always agile and flexible, with an upper register that is forceful but transparent. Callas always retains her lyric sweetness, She sings with nearly perfect evenness through passages of florid ornamentation.” Audiophile Audition on this recording

Puccini’s Turandot, first performed in 1926, was the only work in which Callas sang that was younger than herself and is a perfect vehicle for a dramatic soprano with a steady, steely and brilliant voice capable of rising to top C. Although she had last sung the strenuously demanding title rôle on stage in 1949, her subtlety in is apparent in this dramatically and musically effective 1957 recording.

Schwarzkopf (Liu) and Fernandi (Calaf) perfectly complement Callas as the legendary Chinese princess whose icy heart is melted by the power of love.

"Callas had not performed the role of the formidable princess for eight years, but her first entrance in ‘In questa reggia’ is commanding… the taxing high tessitura seems to pose her relatively few problems…Not a role that was central to Callas’s repertoire but a good example of her ability to breathe new life into an old warhorse.” MusicWeb International on a previous issue

This 1955 La Scala recording, with its matchless pairing of Callas and Karajan, dates from 1955.

The Callas authority Tony Locantro contributes a wide-ranging essay that considers Callas’s Puccini roles on stage and in the studio (with the odd lawsuit along the way).

As he notes, Puccini was not a composer that Maria Callas particularly favoured in her stage repertoire, and yet two of his operas – Tosca and Turandot – played a major part in her career. In the recording studio, however, Callas showed a great affinity with Puccini’s heroines and made a number of outstanding recordings of his music, including La bohème, Madama Butterfly and Manon Lescaut in addition to her stage roles of Tosca and Turandot.

Callas had never sung Butterfly on stage when she made her recording, yet the studio performance shows a complete understanding of the musical and dramatic requirements of the role. She brings the character to life so vividly that one might assume that she had honed the interpretation over many performances in the theatre.

This vintage mono recording has been newly remastered to ART standard at Abbey Road.