Tito Gobbi

Baritone

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Tony Palmer’s Film about Maria Callas

30th Anniversary Edition

with Franco Zeffirelli, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, Aristotle Onassis, Graziella Sciutti, Luchino Visconti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Tito Gobbi, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Arda Mandikian, Nicola Rescigno, Nadia Stancioff, Nicola Rossi Lemeni, Lord Harewood, Sir John Tooley, John Copley, Jacques Bourgeois, Madame Biki, Elvira Di Hidalgo, Arianna Stassinopoulos, Michel Glotz & Polyvios Marchand

There are so many astonishing facts about Maria Callas...

First, she was born not in Greece but in Manhattan and went to school there. Second, considering her colossal influence and in contrast to the pumped-up, preposterous, overpaid pipsqueak divas of today, her actual international career was tiny - 18 years at most. Third, and in spite of her reputation, her cancellation record was the lowest of any great singer of her day. Fourth, she rarely looked at the conductor during an opera, simply because she could not see him - she was very short-sighted, and often appeared (partly as a result) to be in a trance while on stage. Fifth, she was betrayed by most of those intimate with her throughout her life, and eventually abandoned by many of those who should have known better and who claimed to have loved her. Sixth, she died almost penniless - even her grotesquely rich long-time lover, Onassis, whose marriage to Jackie Kennedy she only discovered by watching the 6 o'clock news, had invested her money in half a cargo boat, which sank. Paradoxically, although she died 30 years ago, her records today outsell every other recorded classical artist, and single handedly keep EMI Classics afloat. Last, hers was not the most beautiful voice of her time, as she frequently admitted. Some days it worked; other days it just didn't.

In the end, those who met her in Paris in the seventies agree that she was one of the loneliest, most desperate of women they had ever encountered, slowly drugging herself to death. "Every day, thank God, is one day less", she told Di Stefano. A summons to tea (for half an hour at most) often lasted until the early hours, with the guest or guests pleaded with not to leave.

It was pathetic and horrible, but it was Callas. It was always Callas, and that was the secret and the magic. We witness on stage a broken woman who sings nakedly from her heart, about herself and her life, who acts with such incredible power and unashamed truth that we stagger back before what we know, in our hearts, is all of her. No artifice here; no vulgar posturings to which her absurd imitators - and there are many - aspire. Gheorghiu, Battle, Garrett - they cannot touch her hem. Maria - just a woman, who often spoke of Callas in the third person, in trouble, asking, begging sometimes, for our understanding and our love. She deserves it, because there was no greater singing actress in our time. And she was only 53 when she died.

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	Format: NTSC
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Tony Palmer DVD - TPDVD103

(DVD Video)

$19.99

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Vissi d’arte – The Puccini Love Songs

CD 1

Manon Lescaut

1 In quelle trine morbide (Act II) - (Manon)

2 Oh, sarò la più bella! (Act II) - (Manon/Des Grieux)

3 Sola, perduta, abbandonata (Act IV) - (Manon)

Manon Lescaut……………………………………………………..Maria Callas

Chevalier Des Grieux……………………………………….Giuseppe di Stefano

Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Milano / Tullio Serafin

(P) 1959/1997* EMI Italiana Spa

La bohéme

4 Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì (Act I) - (Mimì)

5 Ehi! Rodolfo!...O soave fanciulla (Act I) - (Schaunard/Colline/Marcello/Rodolfo/Mimì)

6 D’onde lieta uscì (Act III) - (Mimì)

7 Dunque è proprio finita? (Act III) - (Rodolfo/Mimì/Marcello/Musetta)

8 Sono andati? (Act IV) - (Mimì/Rodolfo/Schaunard/Musetta/Marcello/Colline)

Mimì………………………………………………………………..Maria Callas

Musetta………………………………………………………………Anna Moffo

Rodolfo……………………………………………………..Giuseppe di Stefano

Marcello……………………………………………………..…Rolando Panerai

Schaunard……………………………………………………. Manuel Spatafora

Colline…………………………………………………………..Nicola Zaccaria

Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Milano / Antonino Votto

(P) 1958/1997* EMI Italiana SpA

Tosca

9 Mario! Mario! Mario!...Son qui (Act I) - (Tosca/Cavaradossi)

10 Mario! Mario! (Act I) - (Tosca/Scarpia)

11 Vissi d’arte (Act II) - (Tosca)

12 Senti, l’ora è vicina (Act III) - (Tosca/Cavaradossi)

Floria Tosca…………………………………………………………Maria Callas

Mario Cavaradossi………………………………………… Giuseppe di Stefano

Baron Scarpia…………………………………………………………Tito Gobbi

The Sacristan………………………………………………..…Melchiorre Luise

Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Milano / Victor de Sabata

(P) 1953/2002*

Suor Angelica

13 Senza mamma

Sister Angelica…………………………………………………..…Maria Callas

Philharmonia Orchestra / Tullio Serafin (P) 1954/1997*

CD 2

Madama Butterfly

1 Quanto cielo!...Ancora un passo or via (Act I) - (Chorus/Butterfly/Sharpless)

2. Vieni la sera (Act I) - (Pinkerton/Butterfly/Suzuki)

3 Un bel dì (Act II) - (Butterfly)

4 E questo? e questo? (Act II) - (Butterfly/Sharpless)

5 Una nave da guerra….Scuoti quella frondi - (Suzuki/Butterfly)

6 Con onor muore (Act II) - (Butterfly/Pinkerton)

Madama Butterfly………………………………………………….Maria Callas

Suzuki……………………………………………………..………Lucia Danieli

Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton………………………………………..Nicolai Gedda

Sharpless………………………………………………….……..Mario Borriello

Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Milano / Herbert von Karajan

(P) 1955/2008*

Gianni Schicchi

7 O mio babbino caro

Lauretta………………………………………………………….…Maria Callas

Philharmonia Orchestra / Tullio Serafin (P) 1954/1997*

Turandot

8 Signore, ascolta (Act I) - (Liù)

9 In questa reggia (Act II) - (Turandot/Calaf)

10 Straniero, ascolta! (Act II) - (Turandot/Calaf/Chorus/Liù/Emperor)

11 Tu, che di gel (Act III) - (Liù)

12 Del primo pianto (Act III) - (Turandot/Calaf/Chorus)

Princess Turandot……………………….…………………………..Maria Callas

Prince Calaf……… …………………………………………..Eugenio Fernandi

Liù (10)…………………………….………………….…Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

Liù (8 & 11)…….………………………….……………………….Maria Callas

The Emperor Altoum………………………………………..…..Giuseppe Nessi

Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Milano 9, 10 & 12

Philharmonia Orchestra 8 & 11

Tullio Serafin

(P) 1958/2008* EMI Italiana SpA except 8 & 11 (P) 1954/1997*

Recorded in co-operation with E. A. Teatro alla Scala, Milano except CD 1 track 13 and CD 2 tracks 7, 8 & 11

(P) as shown. The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by EMI Records Ltd except where otherwise stated. *Digital remastering (P) as shown by EMI Records Ltd except where otherwise stated. This compilation (P) 2008 EMI Records Ltd.

Compilation Producer: Tony Locantro

Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi & Nicolai Gedda

This 2 CD set is one of four special albums being released by EMI Classics on 8 September 2008 to celebrate the 150th Anniversary on 22 December of the birth of Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

Puccini is one of today’s most popular operatic composers. His works dominate the programmes of the world’s leading opera houses, and his compositions are heard frequently on radio and television, in film soundtracks and in TV commercials.

Maria Callas is an iconic figure in the world of opera and she continues to be acclaimed as one of the greatest interpreters of the music of Puccini in living memory.

All of Puccini’s well known operas are represented, including Manon Lescaut, La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot and the less frequently performed Il trittico (Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi).

The programme covers all of Puccini’s main soprano arias as well as the principal love duets, in which Callas is joined by her regular partner on records Giuseppe di Stefano in several items as well as by Nicolai Gedda in Madama Butterfly and Eugenio Fernandi in Turandot.

EMI - 2161022

(CD - 2 discs)

$17.49

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Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia

Maria Callas, Luigi Alva, Tito Gobbi, Fritz Ollendorff, Nicola Zaccaria, Gabriella Carturan & Mario Carlin

Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, Alceo Galliera

This 1957 Walter Legge production was made on the back of Callas’s success in another of Rossini’s comic operas, Il turco in Italia: it was a triumph for the diva in Rome in 1950 and she recorded it with equal success for EMI at La Scala four years later.

Oddly, as Tony Locantro’s notes recount, Callas had failed on stage with Rosina at La Scala in 1956 (largely because of a poor production); but Legge held to his guns, and the result – her first stereo recording, in the sympathetic space of Kingsway Hall – is now a classic of the gramophone: ‘She turns in a buoyant, joyful performance. Tito Gobbi’s Figaro and Luigi Alva’s Almaviva also came from the Scala production, and their experienced teamwork adds considerably to the whole achievement. Galliera’s idiomatic conducting gives the singers first-class support.’

“If a criticism is to be made of Callus's Rosina, it is lack of warmth. But there is much to admire, as there is in Alva's Count, Gobi's Barolo and Galleria's conducting.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2007 ****

EMI Great Recordings of the Century - 3920462

(CD - 2 discs)

$35.49

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Verdi: Aida

Maria Callas, Richard Tucker, Fedora Barbieri, Tito Gobbi & Giuseppe Modesti

La Scala Orchestra and Chorus, Tullio Serafin

Historical Recording 1955

“How beautifully she caressed the phrases [in the final duet] starting “Vedi? di morte l’angelo”, touching gently the notes marked staccato, ravishing the ear with the downward portamento from the high B-flat.” Opera

Naxos Historical Great Opera Recordings - 8111240-41

(CD - 2 discs)

$11.49

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Leoncavallo: Pagliacci

Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Rolando Panerai, Nicola Monti

Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan, Tullio Serafin

Recorded at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 1954

Naxos Historical Great Opera Recordings - 8111024

(CD)

$6.99

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Puccini: Madama Butterfly

Victoria de los Angeles, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi & Maria Huder

Rome Opera Orchestra, Gianandrea Gavazzeni

(recorded 1954)

Regis - RRC2070

(CD - 2 discs)

$11.49

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Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana

Elena Souliotis, Mario del Monaco & Tito Gobbi

Santa Cecilia Academy Orchestra, Silvio Varviso

A First Choice Recording from Building a Library CD Review BBC Radio 3

Building a Library

First Choice - April 2001

Decca Critics' Choice - 4767216

(CD)

$11.49

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Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor

Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Raffaele Arié, Valiano Natali, Anna Maria Canali, Gino Sarri

Chorus and Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Tullio Serafin

Recorded 1953

“Today, for a very modest price, all lovers of bel canto operas and their performance on record can listen and make their own judgement on what was, without doubt, a seminal recording of the genre. For me this is Callas’s finest recording in terms of interpretation allied to security of singing and this re-mastering accords it full justice.” MusicWeb International

Building a Library

First Choice - October 2008

Naxos Historical Great Opera Recordings - 8110131-32

(CD - 2 discs)

$11.49

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