Allas Sings Arias From Verdi Operas Callas Remastered Maria Callas, Nicola Rescigno, Orchestre de la Société Des Concerts du Conservatoire, Orchestre du Théâtre National de L'opéra de Paris

Callas first sang at Milan's legendary La Scala for the opening of the 1951-1952 season (in Verdi's I vespri siciliani) and she became closely identified with the theatre, notably in productions directed by Luchino Visconti and his protege Franco Zeffirelli. Spontini's La vestale was staged for her there in 1954, Bellini's Lasonnambula in 1955, and her final La Scala performances came in 1962 with Cherubini's Medea. 'This wonderful record gives us… Callas at her most spell-binding and enthralling,' wrote Gramophone. 'Callas at La Scala… shows the diva at her most exciting and most beautiful'.

Relentlessly pursued by Fate, Leonora in La forza del destino is a haunted heroine whose passions and fears are expressed on a grand scale. Callas’s stage experience of Forza was limited to her early career in Italy – in fact, Leonora was her first Verdi role – but, as Lord Harewood, founder of Opera magazine, observed, her recorded assumption exhibited ‘an unparalleled musical sensibility and imagination and a grasp of the musico-dramatic picture which is unique’. She took her place in a powerful cast conducted by her mentor Tullio Serafin.

Until she achieved a triumph in the delicate coloratura role of Elvira in I puritani - in Venice in 1949 under the tutelage of maestro Tullio Serafin - Maria Callas had been making her name in dramatic roles, such as the epically scaled title role in Die Walküre, which she had been singing just days before. Her success in Bellini's final opera set her firmly on the path to bel canto supremacy. Joining her as Arturo in this 1953 recording is one of her best-loved colleagues, the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano.

Violetta, the most complex and fully-rounded of Verdi's heroines, was one of the roles that defined Maria Callas as an artist. She performed it more than 60 times between 1951 and 1958, most famously in Luchino Visconti's production at La Scala in 1955/56. It is often said that the role demands a different kind of voice for each act, and, when she made this recording for the Cetra label in 1953, Callas offered youthful, ringing power complemented by coloratura prowess and the capacity for great delicacy. More than 60 years on, her characterisation, in its subtlety and truth, still sets the standard for La traviata.

Callas first sang Bellini's Norma in 1948, when she was just 25. She went on to perform the role of the heroic, but vulnerable Druid priestess -the ultimate embodiment of bel canto - more frequently than any other. In this second studio recording her conductor was again Tullio Serafin (he originally tutored her in the role in 1948), and the venue was again La Scala - where the opera was premiered in 1831. By 1960, Callas brought a wealth of new nuance to her interpretation, and she is aptly partnered by the creamy-voiced Christa Ludwig (in a rare recording of an Italian role) and the towering Franco Corelli.

Like Lucia di Lammermoor and Elvira (I puritani), Amina, the gentle heroine of La sonnambula,was a role that had become associated with light-voiced coloratura sopranos. Callas brought both a new substance and subtlety to the role when Luchino Visconti staged it for her at La Scala in 1955. This recording was made two years later, when the production was revived.

A famous backstage photo was taken in Chicago after one of just three performances that Callas gave of Madama Butterfly; it shows the soprano in her Japanese costume, snarling furiously at a bailiff who had served a writ on her - the very image of the tempestuous diva. By contrast, in her recording of the role, 'it is, miraculously,' as the critic John Osborne observed, 'the 15-year old girl and not the great Callas who stands before us.' Her genius for vocal characterization finds an apt complement in Herbert von Karajan's conducting: 'a wholly sympathetic rendering [that]brings out more of the detail of the score than I have ever heard before', wrote Gramophone.

"Turandot" - Opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini. Recorded in July 1957 in Milan. Performers includes Maria Callas, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Eugenio Fernandi, and more…

Recorded in 1949 when Maria Callas was just 25, this debut recital encapsulates the young soprano's astonishing maturity, versatility and technical finesse. She had already sung all three roles showcased here - Wagner's Isolde and Bellini's Norma and Elvira (I puritani) - in the theatre. As Gramophone, which described the recital as 'incandescent and spellbinding', wrote: 'The Liebestod is a beautiful example of sustained interpretation, with a long line running through the whole piece, each phrase finding part-fulfilment in the next until the climax is reached,' concluding overall that: 'The eloquence of phrase and the technical control put at the service of a discerning heart and mind are obvious to hear'.

The stirring young voice of Charles K. L. Davis brings you in this album a number of the world’s favorite arias, his voice ranging from lines of lyric beauty to passages of dramatic power. The melodic splendor of Puccini, the vigor and brilliance of Verdi, the exquisite expressiveness of Mozart – all are here, along with others – demonstrating many styles, moods, and feelings. Members of the New York Philharmonic (The Stadium Symphony Orchestra of New York) are joined by famed Metropolitan Opera conductor Wilfred Pelletier.