Maria Callas sings: Norma, Tosca, Butterfly, Rosina & Lakmé (Centenary 2023 // Remastered)

Maria Callas (1923-1977) sings: Norma, Tosca, Butterfly, Rosina & Lakmé // Remastered
00:00 Album available // Bellini: Norma by Maria Callas
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07:16 Album available // Puccini: Tosca by Maria Callas
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10:29 Album available // Puccini: Madama Butterfly by Maria Callas
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15:08 Album available // Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia by Maria Callas
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21:25 Album available // Maria Callas: 90 Opera Arias
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On December 2, 1923, Maria Kalogeropoulos, known as Callas, was born. Eighteen years later, the young soprano began a career in Athens that would take her to the top. Let's take a look back at some of the most memorable moments - joyous and sometimes painful - of the "prima donna assoluta" who died in 1977.

While the young American soprano of Greek origin had made her professional debut in 1941 at the Athens National Opera, on August 2, 1947, in Italy, in the imposing Verona Arena, the curtain fell on the last act of Ponchielli's La Gioconda conducted by Tullio Serafin, Maria Callas' true mentor: the ovation that rose greeted the birth of a star. The phenomenon was soon repeated on a number of Italian opera stages, including Venice's Fenice (for Wagner's Tristan and Isolde) and above all Florence's Teatro, where she sang her starring role in Bellini's Norma for the first time. It was also in 1947 that she met Gian-Battista Meneghini, a bel canto-loving industrialist 28 years her senior, who became her impresario and married her in 1949.

Although she had already sung at La Scala de Milan in 1950, replacing Renata Tebaldi in Verdi's Aida (the famous rivalry - encouraged by the press - with this other opera star is said to stem from this moment), Callas made her real debut in the Italian temple of lyric art on December 7, 1951 in Verdi's Sicilian Vespers. La Scala was to become her home, the setting for illustrious productions (from Luchino Visconti to Franco Zeffirelli), conducted by such stars as Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini and Victor Sabata, who recorded a memorable Tosca, an absolute reference in Callas' discography. Prima donna assoluta, she opened the Scala season six times, and performed there for the last time in 1962.

In 1954, a new Maria Callas sang Spontini's La vestale at La Scala. After a drastic diet begun a year earlier, she lost 30 kg and became an absolute diva, performing in the greatest operas without sparing her voice. Her weight loss had an impact on her voice, but contributed to her on-stage presence and spread the word. "Since she forced opera to remember that it was also a theatrical event, parades of plump singers and plump opera singers pushing their arias to the front of the stage are no longer acceptable", wrote AFP (Agence France Presse) at the time of her death.

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In 1973, she embarked on a final international recital tour. In Paris, "bouquets rained down on the stage, accompanying ovations and Viva Maria", but critics were "less enthusiastic". "If the technique and musicality of the voice were not in question, the high notes were judged to be particularly painful", reports AFP.

On September 16, 1977, Maria Callas died of a heart attack at her Paris home, aged 53. "I've just seen her on her bed. She was the very image of La Traviata as performed in 1956 at La Scala in Milan. There's not a wrinkle on her face. She looks like she's resting," testifies Michel Glotz, her former artistic director. "Article written by franceinfo Culture - Lorenzo Ciavarini Azzi (with AFP)"

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) La Traviata: Opera in three acts.
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Видео Maria Callas sings: Norma, Tosca, Butterfly, Rosina & Lakmé (Centenary 2023 // Remastered) канала Classical Music/ /Reference Recording