Rescigno

Bland, incurious and passionless, this documentary about the great tenor Luciano Pavarotti is like a promotional video licensed by a team of copyright lawyers – and about as challenging as a Three Tenors gig at Wembley stadium. Pavarotti’s glorious voice all but drowns in a 114-minute montage of obsequious syrup…

Maria Callas - Pure (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time - 77:54 minutes | 1,15 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Digital booklet

Opera singers come and go, but just a few – the legends – live on. And Maria Callas was the greatest legend of them all, though not just for the wonder of her voice. She changed the way people thought about opera, but she also became famous as the glamorous celebrity who fell in love with Aristotle Onassis, leaving her elderly husband to live with him on his yacht Christina and enjoy the high life with the international jet set.

Callas Live Recordings - Rehearsal in Dallas 1957 - CD 3 of 11
Classical | 1 CD | FLAC CUE LOG | NO COVER NO BOOK | 218 MB
EMI B000069V79 | Release Date: 2002

Here's something a little different: Callas not in recital, but getting ready for one. We follow the established pattern: the roles are Verdi's Violetta, Donizetti's Elvira (I puritani) and Anna Bolena, Lady Macbeth, and Konstanze. This disc is more interesting as a glimpse into the workshop than as the presentation of a finished product: there are lots of stops and starts, and sometimes Callas doesn't sing out with her full voice, or she takes a high note or passage an octave down. Nicola Rescigno conducts the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The sound is more recessed than on the previous two discs, but still acceptable.

Callas Live Recordings - Live in London 1958 and 1959 - CD 5 of 11
Classical | 1 CD | FLAC CUE LOG | NO COVER NO BOOK | 79MB
EMI B000069V7O | Release Date: 2002

The sound really gets in the way on this disc. In fact, it is terrible. Still, it is worth listening as hard as you can in order to take in Callas' truly nightmarish Sleepwalking Scene from Macbeth. Puccini was only infrequently included in her recital programs; here we have her Tosca, Mimì, and Butterfly, and Callas sounds a little uncomfortable in the last of these. Even "Casta diva" no longer sounds as secure as it did previously. Callas' vocal difficulties, including wobbling high notes, became more troublesome as the 1950s progressed, and there is ample evidence of them here. Still, in the scenes from Macbeth, Mefistofele, and Il pirata ("Oh! s'io potessi dissipar le nubi") we hear how Callas' ability to realize a role's dramatic potential fully became more powerful, the more that the voice itself was compromised. The conductors are Sir John Pritchard, Sir Malcolm Sargent, and Rescigno.

Callas Live Recordings - Live in Hamburg 1959 - CD 6 of 11
Classical | 1 CD | FLAC CUE LOG | NO COVER NO BOOK | 217 MB
EMI B0000BWTKD | Release Date: 2002

This is latter day Callas at her very best, working for her repertoire and making the repertoire work for her. Her "Tu che invoco" from La vestale is a demonstration of how Classical form and proportion can actually intensify emotion, rather than stifle it under protocol. And by 1959, she had polished Lady Macbeth's opening aria into a penetrating portrait of all-devouring ambition – not pretty, but powerfully and precisely sung. Her Rosina ("Una voce poco fa") is charming and fun, but like Lady Macbeth, don't mess with her, Callas seems to say. "Tu che le vanità" from Don Carlos is imbued with an almost fatal sadness, with no loss of nobility. The recital ends with the closing scene from Il pirata. Almost 18 minutes long, this selection gives Callas the opportunity to build a more complete character than anywhere else in the program, and the result is gripping and bigger than life. Hearing Callas sing this music pretty much ruins my chances for enjoying anyone else's performance of it in the future. Rescigno is the understanding conductor, and he leads the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Callas Live Recordings - Live in Stuttgart 1959 - CD 7 of 11
Classical | 1 CD | FLAC CUE LOG | NO COVER NO BOOK | 107 MB
EMI B0000BWTKE | Release Date: 2003

Four days later, Callas sang exactly the same program as in Hamburg. The only difference is that this time Rescigno conducted the South German Radio Symphony Orchestra! Her voice was in marginally better condition in Hamburg, and the sound on the Hamburg disc is better too.

Maria Callas in Concert: Hamburg 1959 & 1962
Italian | Subtitle: It/Fr/En/De | 1:58:42 | 720 x 576 | PAL | 4:3 | 25fps | MPEG-2 | LPCM | 48kHz | 4.3GB
Genre : Classical/Concert
Publisher: EMI

It is a pity that so few recordings of Maria Callas in concert exist to leave the testimony of this genius of the singing and actor's play that she was. Only 5 recitals have been filmed (Paris 1958, Hamburg 1959 and 1962, Covent Garden 1962 and 1964), recorded on 3 DVD.
2nd of the 3 posts.

The 1958 Hamburg concert finds Callas just one year before the loss of her voice and although her voice is not what it was in 1952 you can still hear the Vocal Miracle. The 1962 Hamburg concert finds Callas in a very tired voice but nevertheless exciting. Overall this one of the very few operatic visual documents of the Greatest Operatic Singer who ever lived!