This collection of Puccini recordings by Maria
Callas (1923-1977) was issued, alongside many others,
in the one hundredth and fiftieth anniversary year of the composer’s
birth. Puccini was born in Lucca. His father and forebears
were
musicians, a circumstance that owed much to the town’s
long and strong association with sacred music. Whilst the
composer had a struggle for his first operatic work to
be staged, Maria Callas had early stage exposure. She
was
born in New York of Greek parents in 1923. In 1937 at age
14 she returned to Greece for her musical education, and
sang the role of Santuzza in
Cavalleria Rusticana in
a student production when only 15 years old! She joined
the Athens Lyric Theatre singing the name part in
Tosca,
the
Fidelio Leonore, and Santuzza again. However
like Puccini she struggled for recognition, often singing
roles far too heavy for a young voice. It was not until
1947 singing
La Gioconda in the vast Verona Arena
that she attracted attention and was engaged by the conductor
Tullio Serafin to sing
Isolde (in Italian). In 1949,
having sung Brünnhilde eleven days earlier, she sang Elvira
in Bellini’s
I Puritani in Venice. To learn and
perform two operas of such diverse fach in such a time-scale
was a formidable achievement of intellect and vocal skill.
No
singer in the twentieth century has aroused as much controversy
as Callas. Some have criticised her coloratura as lacking
brilliance, although her Violetta in
La Traviata was
much admired. Whilst the undoubted sour and curdled notes
of her later career were a trial, her acting and ability
to characterise and identify with a role, on stage and
on record, are indisputable. She never sang a lot of Puccini
on stage where Verdi and Bellini’s
Norma were dominant.
Nonetheless, in the various Puccini heroines she undertook
on record, she created unique interpretations. It is perhaps
as Puccini’s eponymous
Tosca that she is now defined
in the minds of many. This is due to the recording she
made in 1953 alongside Di Stefano and Gobbi at La Scala
with the theatre’s redoubtable Music Director, Victor de
Sabata (CDs 1 and 2). Also contributing is the fact that
it was her last stage role, at Covent Garden on 5 July
1965 in Zeffirelli’s memorable production. A stereo version
of
Tosca was her final studio opera recording (CDs
14 and 15). Act two of that production is available on
video and illustrates Callas’s consummate acted portrayal
even allowing for frayed top notes. The surprise in this
collection is that it includes not only Callas’s two studio
versions of
Tosca, but also a live recording of
the January 1964 performances from
Covent Garden!
The
15 CDs are presented in slipcases within an elegant hinged
cardboard presentation box (at around £30 in the UK, more
expensive in the US - $100). The associated booklet has full
casts and recording details as
well as a 2008
essay
titled
Callas and Puccini by Tony Locranto. This
is given in English, German and French. The first CD as
well as act one of her first recorded
Tosca also
contain all the libretti in PDF format with translations
in the same languages. Callas’s Puccini studio interpretations
are listed and reviewed below in the sequence of their
recording dates.
Her
vast recorded legacy started when Dario Sorio of Cetra
issued her first recordings derived from radio performances
in Turin. He signed her for three other opera recordings.
Only two were ever made as bigger predators, including
Walter Legge of Columbia-Angel, now EMI, were circling.
Fate took a turn in Legge’s favour when Sorio moved to
Angel Records, the American arm of EMI, its relationship
with RCA Victor having come to an end. After an assiduous
courtship Callas followed Sorio, and Legge had his artist;
Callas signed an exclusive contract in July 1952. Legge
also signed the tenor Giuseppe Di
Stefano and baritone Tito Gobbi to constitute a core triumvirate
with Callas for many of the complete opera recordings that
he and the soprano were to set down together over the next
dozen or so years.
By
the time of the contract with Legge, Callas was making
considerable waves in the long neglected
bel canto repertoire.
She had broken into international recognition singing
Norma in
South America in 1949. It was to be her calling card at
Covent Garden, La Scala and the Met, whilst her portrayal
of the title role in
Lucia de Lammermoor caused
waves around the operatic establishments in the early 1950s.
This became her first recording under her new Columbia/Angel
contract combining use of the La Scala theatre with its
august orchestra and chorus. This did not prove possible
for three of the first five operas recorded as the sessions
were scheduled during the theatre season. However, in August
1953 came the first recording in the La Scala theatre itself,
Puccini’s dramatic
Tosca.
CDs 1 and 2. Tosca. (1900)
Recorded August 1953. Teatro
alla Scala, Milan.
Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito
Gobbi
Chorus & Orchestra
of La Scala, Milan/Victor de Sabata [43.12 + 66.22]
Recorded
complete, anecdote and legend surround the recording and
particularly the number of re-takes the perfectionist de
Sabata and Legge demanded. Although when first issued,
the performance was not greeted with the unalloyed joy,
it has since become recognised as one of the all-time recorded
greats. By absolute standards, none of the three principals
is vocally perfect. Callas herself does not always sustain
a perfect legato, Gobbi has raw patches in his tone and
Di Stefano is stretched at climaxes. However these failings
are more than adequately compensated for by overall strengths.
Di Stefano sings with ardent lyrical beauty in his great
solo pieces (CD 1 tr.4 and CD 2 tr.21) and particularly
in the Act 3 duet with Tosca (CD 3 trs.22-25). No Scarpia
on record has been so threatening, or snarled so effectively,
as Gobbi; his taunting of Tosca in the church, prior to
the Te Deum, is chilling (CD 1 trs.15-16). But, above all,
what makes this performance truly great is Act 2, where
Gobbi and Callas, as they did in so many theatres, act
off each other (CD 2 trs.1-17). The sparks of the drama,
aided by the orchestral tension built up by de Sabata,
really fly. There are moments of involvement and identification
of singer and of a role rarely caught on a recording. In
my view it is the vocal acting and dramatic tension developed
in Act 2 that justifies the iconic status of this recording
(see
review).
CD 3. Puccini
Arias.
Recorded September 1954, London
Philharmonia/Tullio Serafin [45.14]
Manon Lescaut
Il quelle trine morbide
[2.56]
Sola, perduta, abbandonata
[5.53]
Madama Butterfly
Un bel di vedremo [4.34]
Con onor muore [3.44]
La Bohème
Si, mi chiamano Mimi [4.48]
Donde lieta usci [3.32]
Suor Angelica, Senza Mamma [5.35]
Gianni Schicchi, O mio babbino caro [2.34]
Turandot
Signore,
ascolta [2.30]
In
questa reggia [6.24]
Tu
che di gel sei cinta [2.50]
In June 1954 diva and producer Legge were back in the La Scala
theatre for
Pagliacci, Serafin again the conductor.
This was followed two months later by the first of five
Verdi recordings that were made over the next twenty-seven
months. But it was to the different clime of Watford Town
Hall that Legge took Callas for her first two recital recordings,
again with her trusted mentor, Serafin.
On
the Puccini disc her rendering of
Donde
lieta usci from
La Bohème is to die for. It’s in the manner in which Callas
conveys Mimi’s feelings as she tells Rodolfo to collect
her belongings and she will send the concierge to collect
them (CD 3 tr.6). The flip side is that I find her
Si.
Mi chiamano Mimi less convincing, being too forward
in her manner for the tentative girlish Mimi (tr.5).
Hr
characterisation in the two arias from
Madama Butterfly (trs.3
and 4) is excellent. Also noteworthy is her singing of Liu’s two poignant arias from
Turandot – they tear at the heartstrings
(trs. 9 and 11). In marked contrast her rendering of
In
questa regia is unsteady. Callas never sang Mimi on
the stage whilst her Turandot was heard widely in Italy
a few years before this recording. Of particular interest
is how Callas manages the varied tessitura of
Senza
mamma and the lighter
O mio babbino caro (trs.7
and 8) whilst being wholly convincing in both. Perhaps
the best-characterised singing on the disc is to be found
in the manner in which she conveys Manon’s desolation in
Sola, perduta, abbandonata (tr.2).
This
early recital disc shows Callas’s affinity with Puccini
as well as finding her in commendably fresh voice. It also
reflects her affinity with the composer’s writing.
CDs 4 and 5. Madama Butterfly (1904)
Recorded August 1955
With Nicolai Gedda, Lucia
Danielli
Chorus & Orchestra
of La Scala, Milan/Herbert von Karajan [68.54 + 69.43]
It was two years after her recital discthat Callas returned to Puccini with this recording
of the composer’s most penetrating portrayal of the female
psyche. In 1955 Callas was queen of La Scala appearing
in no fewer than six productions. With the likes of Giulini,
Bernstein and Karajan on the theatre rostrum, and Visconti
producing, it must have been a memorable season. In the
two years Callas had shed
over twenty-five kilos of weight. To her singing status
at La Scala, Callas added other facets of the diva lifestyle
and behaviour. With her newly svelte figure she began to
be concerned about the social circles in which she moved.
Her picture appeared regularly in the newspapers other
than in the review pages.
Callas
had made a happy association with Karajan with whom she
had worked to great acclaim in
Lucia di Lammermoor and
Legge matched the pair for the summer recording of
Madama
Butterfly with Nicolai Gedda as Pinkerton. Callas only
ever sang the role on stage three times. Together with
Karajan she creates a very individual performance representing
Butterfly’s evolving maturity, her soon to be dashed joy
and the move to her destiny, in a manner few have equalled.
To achieve this she adopts a light, even white, vocal tone
for much of the role, only adding more colour at particularly
fraught moments especially in act two in the portrayal
of Butterfly’s delusion. Regrettably on one or two high
notes Callas pushes her voice too far, her tone becoming
stretched and thin. This was to be a recurring pattern
as her lifestyle began to influence her vocal capacity
though it never affected her ability to convey a character
in a wholly individual way. This is the strength of her
very personal portrayal of Butterfly. Most regrettably
the rest of the cast are mediocre and Gedda is a serious
disappointment for me.
CDs 6 and 7. La Bohème (1896)
Recorded August-September
1956
With Giuseppe di Stefano,
Anna Moffo, Rolando Panerai
Chorus & Orchestra
of La Scala, Milan/Antonino Votto [53.03 + 52.52]
It
was another year before Callas returned to recording Puccini.
She recorded the role of Mimi in
La Bohème under
Votto a mere fortnight after completing the vocally heavier
Il
Trovatore Leonora under Karajan. Both recordings were
made in La Scala. The second sessions of
La Bohème on
3 and 4 September were followed immediately by a five day
studio sequence when she recorded Amelia in
Un Ballo
in Maschera as Legge rushed to fill his company’s catalogue
with Decca and RCA competing strongly in the LP stakes.
These three roles are distinctly different in colour and
make diverse demands on the soprano, particularly the
Trovatore Leonora
which tends towards the spinto end of the lyric voice.
Like
her Butterfly, Callas’s Mimi is very individual. It was
a role she never sang on stage. That seems no limitation
and her assumption is very appealing with little sign of
vocal strain and a better interpretation of
Si, mi chiamano
Mimi than on the Puccini recital disc above (CD 6 tr.7).
She appears particularly comfortable alongside Di Stefano,
her usual partner, as Rodolfo. The two blend well in
O
soave fanciulla (CD 6 tr.8) and the pairing allows
Callas to draw on her full range of vocal emotion in act
three (CD 7 trs.1-5) and also as the dying Mimi (trs.13-14).
Panerai is a better Marcello than he was as Luna in
Trovatore whilst
Moffo, in one of her earliest recordings, is an appealing
Musetta.
CDs 8 and 9. Turandot (1924)
Recorded July 1957
With Elisabeth Schwarzkopf,
Eugenio Fernandi and Nicola Zaccaria
Chorus & Orchestra
of La Scala, Milan/Tullio Serafin [76.57 + 41.03]
The
year 1957 was an amazing one for Callas. It started in
February in London with a stereo
Il barbiere di Siviglia, continued
the following month at La Scala with
La Sonnambula and
concluded with near contiguous sessions to set down the
title roles in Puccini’s
Turandot and
Manon Lescaut.
Her availability in the recording studio was perhaps a
reflection of her reduced theatre commitments with her
socialite lifestyle more conducive to recitals.
Callas
had made a big impression in the title role in the early
1950s before concentrating on the
bel canto repertoire.
However by the time of her first recital disc, CD 3 above,
her
In questa reggia shows signs of strain. Her
high notes are not easy on the ear. That said, Callas invests
the Princess with just the right balance of cold frigidity
and imperiousness to give a balanced perspective on the
character and the plot. Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf, Legge’s wife, in her only recorded collaboration
with Callas is an unidiomatic and rather bland Liu (CD
8 trs.13-16 and CD 9 trs.4-6). Eugenio Fernandi, too little heard on record, is a fine Calaf with
a clear ringing voice in
Nessun dorma (CD 9 tr.2). Nicola Zaccaria is a moving Timur whilst the veteran Serafin draws
dramatic climaxes from the La Scala orchestra.
CDs 10 and 11. Manon Lescaut (1893)
Recorded July 1957
With Giuseppe Di Stefano
Chorus & Orchestra
of La Scala, Milan/Tullio Serafin [76.25 + 44.12]
Less
than a week after the Turandot sessions, and again with
Serafin on the rostrum, she recorded the composer’s
Manon
Lescaut. Like Mimi in
La Bohème this was another
role that Callas never sang on stage. I do not know how
far Serafin prepared her, but it comes over as one of the
best of her Puccini interpretations. She varies her vocal
tone and nuance as Manon evolves from the flighty fickleness
of act 1, through being Geronte’s rich self-centred mistress
of act 2, to her desperation and desolation in the final
scene. It is particularly in the last act, with her ability
to act with the voice, that Callas is able fully to convey
Manon’s emotional state in
Sola, perduta, abbandonata (CD
11 tr.12). Giuseppe Di Stefano
is in good form as Des Grieux and ardent in the act two
duet (CD 10 tr.18).
CDs 12 and 13. Tosca. (1904)
Live
Recording. Covent Garden. London. 24 January 1964
With Renato Cioni. Tito
Gobbi
Chorus and Orchestra of
The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden/Carlo Felice Cillario
[41.52 + 67.13]
This recording is the surprise package of this collection
and inevitably it must be compared with the studio recording
below. There are two plus points that hit me straightaway.
First is the greater drama in the performance. This owes
much to the idiomatic conducting of Carlo Felice Cillario.
Whilst no De Sabata - and few were - he points the music
and moves the opera along, supporting his singers to the
last beat in an exemplary fashion. The frisson of a live
performance is present from the opening dramatic chords.
There are a few intrusions of applause and stage noise.
Renato Cioni’s silver-toned Cavaradossi whilst not having
Bergonzi’s tonal beauty, is fully involved and a vital
part of what must have been a great evening.
Gobbi
and Callas sing to and off each other in act two in a manner
one would be lucky to see in the theatre but which is well
caught here. Yes, the listener has to allow that Callas’s
Tosca is not the vocal assumption of the La Scala recording,
but the soprano knows how to husband her resources. She
does so with admirable professionalism to the extent that
one has to listen to her, not the performance, to notice.
Singing in the large theatre Gobbi is a little more raw-toned
than in the Paris recording, but the compensation is the
dramatic bite and verbal nuance of his phrasing. Act two
was caught on camera in black and white and has been issued
on DVD with the sheer drama of the interaction of the two
being spine-tingling to view as well as to hear. If I have
any regret about this collection, it is that EMI did not
buy the rights on that recording and include it here. But
then some people are never satisfied!
CDs 14 and 15. Tosca (1904) (Second
studio recording)
With Carlo Bergonzi, Tito
Gobbi
Paris Opéra Chorus & Paris
Conservatoire Orchestra/Georges Prêtre
Recorded Salle Wagram,
Paris. December 1964 and January 1965
[43.10+58.68]
After
hearing the live Covent Garden performance the Paris recording
lacks a lot of vitality. This owes much to Prêtre’s
flaccid conducting and perhaps also to the resonant acoustic.
In direct comparison between the two, Callas is not as
involving or even as vocally secure in the studio. Certainly
the act two confrontation between her Tosca and Gobbi’s
Scarpia does not have the impact of the live recording,
although the baritone covers and colours his tone to advantage.
Bergonzi’s singing of
Dammi I colori …Recondita armonia (CD
14 tr.2) and
E lucevan le stele (CD 15 tr.14) are
very pleasant on the ear for one of the tenor’s fans. Otherwise
the live recording has it by several lengths.
Robert J Farr
EMI
CLASSICS 2158942 [15 CDs] 
