Notes and Editorial Reviews
Marking the 40th anniversary of Maria Callas’ death (16th September 1977), Maria Callas Live captures the legendary soprano in action on the stages of the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. Thanks to new audio remastering from the best available sources, this 45-disc set reveals Callas’ compelling genius as a singing actress with a new truthfulness and immediacy. Containing 20 complete operas – including 12 works she never recorded in the studio – and five complete filmed recitals (with two different stagings of Act 2 of Tosca) on Blu-ray, Maria Callas Live is the indispensable complement to Callas Remastered, Warner Classics’ landmark collection of her studio recordings.
This luxury box set comprises 42 CDs (20
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complete operas) and 3 Blu-ray discs (5 recitals). Twelve of the operas were never recorded by Callas in the studio: Verdi (Nabucco, I vespri siciliani, & Macbeth), Wagner (Parsifal), Donizetti (Anna Bolena, Poliuto), Rossini (Armida) Bellini (Il pirata), Gluck (Alceste, Ifigenia in Tauride), Spontini (La vestale), and Giordano (Andrea Chénier). Apart from that, we are also able to witness the historic performance of Verdi’s Aida in Mexico City, where she interpolated a high E flat at the end of the Triumphal Scene, exciting the audience to ecstatic applause; La traviata (Lisbon 1958), conducted by Franco Ghione with Alfredo Kraus; her only incarnation on stage of Gilda in Rigoletto; Bellini’s Norma, at the height of her vocal powers in London; Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in the legendary performance with Karajan at the Städtische Oper Berlin; Cherubini’s Medea, and Bellini’s La sonnambula under Leonard Bernstein at La Scala, and the heartbreaking Puccini Tosca from Covent Garden, 1964. Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Amalia Pini (Mezzo Soprano),
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Gino Bechi (Baritone),
Gino Sinimberghi (Tenor)
Conductor:
Vittorio Gui
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli
Period: Romantic
Written: 1842; Italy
2.
Parsifal by Richard Wagner
Performer:
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Rolando Panerai (Baritone),
Africo Baldelli (Tenor),
Boris Christoff (Bass)
Conductor:
Vittorio Gui
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra Rome,
Italian Radio Chorus Rome
Period: Romantic
Written: 1877-1882; Germany
3.
I vespri siciliani by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Giorgio Kokolios Bardi (Tenor),
Boris Christoff (Bass),
Enzo Mascherini (Baritone)
Conductor:
Erich Kleiber
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Florence Teatro Comunale Orchestra,
Florence Teatro Comunale Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1855; Italy
4.
Aida by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Giuseppe Taddei (Baritone),
Oralia Dominguez (Mezzo Soprano),
Mario Del Monaco (Tenor),
Maria Callas (Soprano)
Conductor:
Oliviero de Fabritiis
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Mexico City Palacio de Bellas Artes Orchestra,
Mexico City Palacio de Bellas Artes Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1871; Italy
5.
Armida by Gioachino Rossini
Performer:
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Mario Filippeschi (Tenor),
Alessandro Ziliani (Tenor),
Francesco Albanese (Tenor)
Conductor:
Tullio Serafin
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Florence Teatro Comunale Orchestra,
Florence Teatro Comunale Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1817; Italy
6.
Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Giuseppe Di Stefano (Tenor),
Ignacio Ruffino (Bass),
Piero Campolonghi (Baritone)
Conductor:
Umberto Mugnai
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Mexico City Palacio de Bellas Artes Orchestra,
Mexico City Palacio de Bellas Artes Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1851; Italy
7.
Norma by Vincenzo Bellini
Performer:
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Mirto Picchi (Tenor),
Giacomo Vaghi (Bass),
Ebe Stignani (Mezzo Soprano)
Conductor:
Vittorio Gui
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra,
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831; Italy
8.
Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Gino Penno (Tenor),
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Enzo Mascherini (Baritone),
Italo Tajo (Bass)
Conductor:
Victor de Sabata
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,
Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Period: Romantic
Written: 1847/1865; Italy
9.
Medea by Luigi Cherubini
Performer:
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Gino Penno (Tenor),
Giuseppe Modesti (Bass),
Maria Luisa Nache (Soprano)
Conductor:
Leonard Bernstein
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,
Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Period: Classical
Written: 1797; France
10.
Alceste by Christoph W. Gluck
Performer:
Renato Gavarini (Tenor),
Rolando Panerai (Baritone),
Paolo Silveri (Baritone),
Maria Callas (Soprano)
Conductor:
Carlo Maria Giulini
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,
Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Period: Classical
Written: 1767; Vienna, Austria
11.
La Vestale by Gasparo Spontini
Performer:
Nicola Rossi-Lemeni (Bass),
Franco Corelli (Tenor),
Enzo Sordello (Baritone),
Ebe Stignani (Mezzo Soprano),
Maria Callas (Soprano)
Conductor:
Antonino Votto
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,
Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Period: Romantic
Written: 1807; Paris, France
12.
Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano
Performer:
Mario Del Monaco (Tenor),
Maria Amadini (Mezzo Soprano),
Aldo Protti (Baritone),
Maria Callas (Soprano)
Conductor:
Antonino Votto
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,
Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Period: Romantic
Written: 1896; Italy
13.
La sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini
Performer:
Gabriella Carturan (Mezzo Soprano),
Cesare Valletti (Tenor),
Giuseppe Modesti (Bass),
Maria Callas (Soprano)
Conductor:
Leonard Bernstein
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,
Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831; Italy
14.
Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti
Performer:
Rolando Panerai (Baritone),
Nicola Zaccaria (Bass),
Giuseppe Di Stefano (Tenor),
Maria Callas (Soprano)
Conductor:
Herbert von Karajan
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Berlin State Opera Orchestra,
Berlin State Opera Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1835; Italy
15.
Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti
Performer:
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Nicola Rossi-Lemeni (Bass),
Gianni Raimondi (Tenor),
Giulietta Simionato (Mezzo Soprano)
Conductor:
Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,
Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Period: Romantic
Written: 1830; Italy
16.
Iphigénie en Tauride by Christoph W. Gluck
Performer:
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Anselmo Colzani (Baritone),
Fiorenza Cossotto (Mezzo Soprano),
Francesco Albanese (Tenor)
Conductor:
Nino Sanzogno
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,
Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Period: Classical
Written: 1778-1779; Vienna, Austria
17.
La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Alfredo Kraus (Tenor),
Laura Zannini (Mezzo Soprano),
Mario Sereni (Baritone),
Maria Callas (Soprano)
Conductor:
Franco Ghione
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Lisbon San Carlos National Theater Orchestra,
Lisbon San Carlos National Theater Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1853; Italy
18.
Il pirata by Vincenzo Bellini
Performer:
Pier Miranda Ferraro (Tenor),
Glade Peterson (Bass),
Costantino Ego (Bass),
Maria Callas (Soprano)
Conductor:
Nicola Rescigno
Orchestra/Ensemble:
American Opera Society Chorus,
American Opera Society Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1827; Italy
19.
Poliuto by Gaetano Donizetti
Performer:
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Franco Corelli (Tenor),
Nicola Zaccaria (Bass),
Ettore Bastianini (Baritone)
Conductor:
Antonino Votto
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,
Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Period: Romantic
20.
Tosca by Giacomo Puccini
Performer:
Victor Godfrey (Bass),
Maria Callas (Soprano),
Renato Cioni (Tenor),
Tito Gobbi (Baritone),
Edgard Boniface (Bass)
Conductor:
Carlo Felice Cillario
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra,
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1900; Italy
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