Maria Callas - The Very Best of Maria Callas
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Free Music Notes for The Very Best of Maria Callas
Free Music Review: Callas Teaches Us About Suffering
Hit: 5 Stars
I have tried for a long time, when I have heard these recordings on other pressings, to describe exactly why I am so eternally attached to Callas and her voice. I believe that no other artist, save for Van Gogh or Michelangelo, and I do put her in that pantheon of genius, was able to transform suffering into great art through music, and create a distinguished legacy for all future generations to hear. When she cries "Euridyce! Euridyce! Mortel silence, vaine éspérance!" I am transported down into the underworld with Orphé, searching for my lost lover and fighting off despair with every note. And so it is with every single cut on this CD. There has never, ever been a singer, whether popular or classical, who can even begin to approach the profound depths of Callas' musical consciousness and genius. This is not the rantings of a queen, but someone who has listened to just about every major artist of the last 50 years, attended over 2,000 opera performances, and have come to realize that she alone stands as the supreme interpreter of <i>dramma per musica</i>. She said many times "It is not enough to have a beautiful voice. First, you must learn the music exactly as written, note for note. Then you must take the music and your voice and set to work on every phrase as if a new voice was required for each role". This is a promethean, olympian task, and so few artists have even bothered to explore this approach as an option in their careers. Magda Oliveiro, Leyla Gencer and maybe Caballé at times were able to fill these big shoes with anything approaching Callas' mastery.
The lesson from her legacy is this: if you are going to pursue an artistic path in life, nothing less than complete subjugation to its demands is acceptable. Was every recording and every performance she ever gave us perfect? Absolutely not, and she had her share of duds. But what is miraculous is that even in her bad work (the Mozart album from the 60s for example) her infallible sense of rhythm and tempo left an impression, if not the vocal quality. That is due to the fact that she was a complete artist: everything mattered to her. She was the only opera singer I know of who would sit in on chorus rehearsals to get the feel for what the conductor would do with tempo and the "architecture" that was being used in the overall concept of a production. She was dead serious about her art, but she was also a complete and unabashed genius, and she never took her eyes off the goal. Thank God there was someone like her to show us the way.
Free Music Review: a revelation!
Hit: 5 Stars
This remastered collection of Maria Callas' art has converted me. I've been hard on the Callas legend for most of my listening life, and hard on her singing, and not only in these pages. I always wanted more from the VOICE, feeling that its limitations created decline in other aspects of her art. Even ceding her genius, always there remained an uncomfortable appreciation; the voice itself was in the way. Listening to this superlative disc simply opened my eyes and ears! After 40 years of listening to this stuff and experiencing so many singers again and again, with this recording Callas is suddenly a revelation for me. This is singing imbued with an amazing integrity. I'm astounded. Ebben? ne andrò lontana (La Wally) offers an unheard of Callas, channeling her dramatic understanding INTO the music, instead of alongside it. I always felt Callas a fearful singer, when it came right down to it. How wrong could I have been! One track after another, this collection presents a fearless art in full bloom, a singer capable of a pathos that not only grabs you, but blesses. Her J'ai perdu mon Eurydice (Orphée et Eurydice) is mesmerizing, completely free and true. The Puccini is almost classical in its restraint, and is a wonderful experience because of it. Her singing of the arias from Gioconda and Louise is incandescent. I dont know what brought me to the light, but I recommend you listen to THIS recording of Maria Callas. The sequence of arias presented is especially fine, and Serafin, Pretres, and Karajan contribute notably - and Maria Callas is a complete revelation in every way, a supreme musician in command of a high art. Check it for yourself.Free Music Review: Vocal Wonder!!
Hit: 5 Stars
Here we have a soprano with the incredible range of 3 Octaves, three secure octaves!!!! Singing Carmen's and Dalilah's music while she also had Armida's coloratura-fest in her throat, plus the dreamy and haunting quality of Gilda's innocent but dramatic "Caro nome".... Are there any two women as different as Carmen and Gilda? This is like letting Agnes Baltsa do Gilda and Ileana Cotrubas (A sublime Gilda) do Carmen. That doesn't work, right? Well, Callas performed this miracle. And even more astonishing: She sang Bellini's Elvira and Wagner's Brünnhilde in the same week and the critics were at her feet! Imagine Nilsson doing Puritani and Sutherland doing Brünnhilde? Doesn't work, right? Callas once more made the impossible possible. A sublime Lucia di Lammermoor who also was the greatest Lady Macbeth? Is that possible? With Callas it is, and only with her. This album shows how Callas remains the only Primadonna Assoluta after Lilli Lehmann in this century!Free Music Review: Now I understand!
Hit: 5 Stars
I grew up on opera but not on Maria Callas. Joan Sutherland, Schwartzkoff, Victoria Los Angeles, and Mady Mesple (to name a few) crowded the airwaves of our home growing up. I had heard that Maria Callas was THE Diva of opera and bought one of her obscure recordings from a low budget bin while in Paris 10 years ago. It didn't impress me that much. Perhaps it was recorded during her voice decline. I could certainly tell she had a powerhouse voice but many of those arias were unknown to me and I didn't connect all that well with the CD.
After reading some of these reviews I decided to give her one more chance. Surely 50 million opera fans can't be all wrong! So I bought this disc and listened to it the other day. There are plenty of pieces to listen to and her voice is a force to be recond with. I get it! She was truely great; as any opera buff will tell you - and rightfully so!
Free Music Review: My first opera CD and loved it!!
Hit: 5 Stars
This is my first opera album. I've never interested in opera music. I always thought opera is boring (like what I thought about classical, but that's a different story). Last night I picked up the CD. Oh boy am I glad I got it!It's only 3rd track into the album and I can't help myself pulled away from my [office] desk into Callas voice. While I don't know a word about what Callas sings, her expressive voice transduced emotion like nothing I've heard before.
I am very glad I got this album as my first opera CD because it totally changed my impression about opera. Opera isn't as dull as I thought it is, after all ;) Bravo to Callas for providing such wonderful performances. You've just become my #1 Diva.