Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Verdi Heroines
Macbeth (1847)
Nel di della vittoria... Vieni! t'affretta...
Or tutti sorgete [7:50]
La luce langue [4:10]
Una macchia è qui tuttora [11:18]
Ernani (1844)
Surta è la notte ... Ernani, Ernani, involami [6:16]
Don Carlo (1867)
Tu che la vanità [10:46]
Otello (1887)
Mi parea. M'ingiunse di coricarmi...
Mia madre aveva una povera ancella... [5:19]
Piangea cantando... [7:14]
Ave Maria, piena di grazia [4:36]
Aroldo (1857)
O Cielo! Dove son io? [9:46]
Don Carlo
O don fatale [4:44]
Aida (1871)
Ritorna vincitor! [7:08]
Maria Callas (soprano)
Philharmonia Orchestra/Nicola Rescigno (Macbeth, Ernani,
Don Carlo - Tu che la vanità )
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire/Nicola
Rescigno
rec. 19-21, 24 September 1958, No.1 Studio, Abbey Road, London (Macbeth,Ernani,Don
Carlo - Tu che la vanità ); 17-27 December 1963, 20-21 February
1964, Salle Wagram, Paris except (Aida) April 1964, Salle Wagram, Paris.
EMI CLASSICS 4332912 [79:12]
This is simply the latest re-issue of a compilation first re-mastered and
issued in 2007 in the EMI “Great Recordings of the Century” series,
already ably and enthusiastically reviewed by my colleague Dominy Clements.
The selection was made from three celebrated Verdi recital albums recorded
between September 1958 and April 1964. I have often remarked that the decline
in Callas’s voice was by no means linear or progressive; in many ways
she sounds as good in 1964 as six years previously; the latest recording here,
“Ritorna vincitor”, finds her in excellent, authoritative voice,
in no way appreciably inferior to her “Macbeth” arias. The bad
patch came in 1962 and 1963 and these takes were made when she was in better
voice; you may hear on the EMI “Callas Rarities” double disc set
that even as late as 1969 she was singing Verdi spectacularly well.
Well filled though the disc is at over 79 minutes, room could not be made
for everything and the one item I particularly miss is her carpet-chewing
version of Abigaille’s big aria from “Nabucco” but what
remains still constitutes a treasurable compendium of Callas at her finest
in Verdi.
Whenever I re-listen to those three spectacularly chilling and powerful “Macbeth”
arias, I regret afresh that she never made a studio recording of what I believe
to be her greatest Verdi role. These are definitive accounts, truly “the
voice of a she-devil” that Verdi stipulated. The glory of her cavernous
- some would say hollow - lower register is frequently in evidence yet she
is also capable of the utmost delicacy, as in her inflection of the word “immaginar”.
Even the top D of the “andiam” on which she exits is in place,
leaving the most remarkably haunting impression. Yes; the top notes flap,
the tone too often hardens or curdles but always her voice is in service of
the dramatic purpose and the subtleties of her expression of text continue
to imprint themselves indelibly on the listener’s mind, rendering subsequent
accounts otiose. Again, one notes her heart-stopping use of portamento and,
those trenchant low notes; this was a voice made to express scorn, rage and
despair - qualities which these arias demand in plenty.
For all that I had previously known and loved most of the recordings here,
I was for some reason unfamiliar with the extended ten minute excerpt from
“Aroldo” and would urge waverers to start by sampling her account
of that marvellous aria “Ah! Dagli scanni eterei” which amply
displays both her vocal accomplishment and her gift for textual nuance.
The recorded sound is good even if the orchestra is a little distant in the
“Otello” excerpts. Callas’s long-time, trusted conductor
friend Nicola Rescigno provides pace, power and urgency and sensitively accommodates
the diva’s expressive requirements with subtle rubato.
Ralph Moore
A voice made to express scorn, rage and despair.
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