Mr Spock
demokratischer - sektor
- Μηνύματα
- 18.410
- Reaction score
- 50.370
The most eagerly anticipated opera release of 2017, Warner's set of 20 remastered complete live opera performances and five filmed recitals by soprano Maria Callas (1923–1977), hit the real and virtual stands on September 15. Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the soprano's death, which occurred on September 16, the physical edition of Maria Callas LIVE: Remastered Live Recordings 1949–1964 includes a 200-page, multi-language booklet that frames introductions to each opera with numerous photographs of Callas both rare and frequently reproduced. Each of the 20 opera sets within the box also boasts a handsomely reproduced front photo, usually from the performance.
As I write this, the box set is already back-ordered at arkivmusic.com but available at a higher price through amazon.com. In addition, online services are scrambling to post links to the 800 plus 24/44.1 remastered audio tracks in the 20 audio-only recordings. You can find HDTracks' collection here.
Maria Callas LIVE: Remastered Live Recordings 1949–1964's first three operas are the 1949 Nabucco, 1950 Parsifal, and 1951 I Vespri Siciliani. Each offers the only available "complete" recording of Callas in those operas. The set culminates with the 1955 Berlin Lucia di Lammermoor, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, 1960 Poliuto, and 1964 Tosca, followed by Blu-rays of the 5 concerts: Paris 1958, Hamburg 1959 & 1962, and London 1962 & 1964. All told, Callas never made commercial recordings of 12 of the 20 operas in the set.
Although virtually all the set's audio-only performances have been available in whole or part in various pirate editions, Warner claims to have uncovered better sources in some instances. In addition, Mastering Engineer Christophe Hénault at Studio Art et Son is credited with significant pitch correction, hiss reduction, etc.
Before discussing the sound, one question must be addressed. Why is Warner devoting so much energy to remastering often dimly recorded live performances by a soprano who died 50 years ago, and whose prime amounted to a mere 10 years (1949–1959)? Simply put, Maria Callas changed our understanding of opera. Not only was she responsible for the bel canto revival that brought us Rossini's Armida and Donizetti's Anna Bolena, but she did so via a remarkable, anything-but-conventional voice that could encompass both florid, coloratura roles and heavier, more dramatic assumptions. When both Callas' light, flexible voice and heavier emissions came together, and she moved between pathetic utterings and cries of fury, as they did in Bellini's Norma, Donizetti's Anna Bolena, and Verdi's Nabucco, Macbeth, I Vespri Siciliani, Rigoletto, and La Traviata—all of which are included in this set—the results were spectacular.
Callas' voice was anything but conventional. On record, only the 19th century diva Lilli Lehmann also proved herself fully capable of convincingly singing both Wagnerian drama and Mozartian high coloratura. Callas' low tones, especially her stone-cold chest voice, were those of a mezzo, while the highs seemed from another voice entirely. Those highs, it must be noted, were often steely. In the opera house, they had cutting power; on recordings, you may sometimes wish that the microphone had been placed farther away.
In addition, parts of Callas' midrange were often covered, with diction a bit murky. Throughout the range, the sound rarely approached anything we could call sweet or "pretty." But the voice was nonetheless remarkable for its power, flexibility, and ability to convey emotion.
Of equal import is Callas' extraordinary emotional veracity and virtually flawless sense of timing. Tragic emotions seemed allied to her being, with pain and suffering central to the voice. Anger and rage, too, burned at her core. Beyond the roles in which she was famed for her fury, her early Aidas—the 1951 Mexico City performance in which she interpolated an astounding E-flat at the end of the Triumphal Scene is in the box—include renditions of "Ritorna vincitor!" so forceful that you can be sure anyone within earshot was quaking at the thought of anything less than total victory.
She also took risks. In her earlier performances, she routinely interpolated forceful high Cs, Ds, and E flats. She also tended to push her dramatically dark low tones up past the natural range break and into the middle voice. All this, along with a fiery personality that helped provoke one scandal after another, took their toll on her voice. Those who try to pretend that Callas' emotional life did not affect her voice, and that the voice is not a window to the personality and the soul, are proponents of bifurcated thinking that ignores the mind-body-spirit connection.
As early as 1955 (Lucia), when Callas was 31, the occasional wobble intruded on otherwise near-flawless vocal production. A few years later, high notes began to erode, and the wobble moved a bit lower into the range. By the end, the highest notes were gone, notes above the stave were frayed, and breaks between registers were painfully exposed. When Callas sang her final operatic role onstage, she had not yet turned 42.
In the midst of her infamous Dallas performance of Cherubini's Medea, Callas received a telegram from Rudolf Bing firing her from the Met, she claimed that she had refused to sign her Met contract for the next season because he kept offering her the same old roles. Truth be told, 1958 was the last year that she dared attempt onstage the high notes in some of those roles. The set's 1953 La Scala performance of Medea, with Bernstein conducting, shows Callas in complete command. The 1958 Dallas performance, which is available elsewhere, is absolutely frightening, because Callas is in such a fury over Bing's telegram that she literally screams her way through the role. How long can a voice last when you take your personal drama onstage, and allow anger to command a performance?
Tosca was one of the few roles that Callas was able to perform convincingly until the end. With only one high C, and a famed aria ("Vissi d'arte") that climaxes on a sustained B-flat, Tosca allowed her to triumph even as other roles fell by the wayside. The final live opera recording in the set, the 1964 ROH London Tosca conducted by Cillario, is an invaluable supplement to the indispensable staged Act II Tosca that is included on the set's third Blu-ray. For those who wish to understand what the Callas mystique was about, viewing this performance, which also includes Tito Gobbi as the most delicious, aristocratic sadist imaginable, is essential.