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Maria Callas is acknowledged as one of the greatest operatic sopranos of all time. Her fame has transcended the usual boundaries of classical music, and she has been the inspiration for several movies, an opera, and a successful Broadway musical. Her extensive catalogue of recordings remains among the most coveted and controversial for both her fans and detractors. WOSU's opera aficionado, Christopher Purdy, takes a look at this legendary soprano and offers observations and recommendations.
Christopher Purdy: My personal recollections of Callas's Boston concert
The concert was in Boston's Symphony Hall as part of the Callas-DiStefano comeback tour. The top ticket price was $25.00, unheard of in 1974—the top price at the Met back then was $17.50. I skipped school to be in line at the box office just as the advance sale began. I expected the line to go out the door...When I arrived early in the morning, the lobby of Symphony Hall was full, but that's it. No long lines.
In 1974 I was still “new” to Callas. I had only heard the recordings of her that the local public library stocked. These were the old Angel pressings, then 20 years old, all in bad shape from repeated playing. I heard her Carmen and thought she had the ugliest voice I had ever heard. Carmen needs charm and lightness, which was never Callas. Then, one night, I saw a piece of her Tosca Act II film from Covent Garden on TV, and I became hooked. After that I listened to Callas in a new way. I ruined the library's copy of the 1960 Scala-Serafin Norma: I still think the opening recitatives before the “Casta diva” are her best interpretive work.
So in early 1974 I was very excited about seeing and hearing Maria Callas. The press had reported that her voice was gone, that she was canceling, that DiStefano was in worse shape than Callas. At the hall before the performance, the buzz was that DiStefano wasn't even in Boston, and that Callas was either hysterical backstage or refusing to go on. When DiStefano's cancellation was announced, no one was too surprised. Pianist Vasso Devetzi would share the concert with Callas.
Callas Onstage
When Maria Callas came out onstage in that salmon pink gown, her walk to the piano was long, slow, and dramatic. She spoke before singing. She told us she was terribly nervous, and she hoped things would go well. The audience became uncomfortable. Would she sing and mortify us all? Would she sing and be wonderful?
Finally she announced the first aria: "Suicidio" (I was told later that this was transposed down for her). I don't know if it was her open desperation, fear, nerves or if the “old Callas” was struggling to get out, but with those first four notes she was transformed into a raging dramatic presence. The chest tones of "fra le tenebre" sounded like Ezio Pinza. She had complete authority. The color and the timbre of her voice were intact. I am not going to tell you that she produced a perfect legato or that she was in complete control of her voice. She struggled more than any artist should in public. She possessed considerable voltage at both ends of her voice. Sadly, her middle voice had disappeared.
The concert continued with “Vissi d'arte.” The piece was no longer her aria, and her nerves seemed to kill even what was left of her power. She sang “Voi lo sapete”…then Puccini and Verdi, reading the words from a notebook. The audience cheered her on. I think she felt the crowd loved her and appreciated what she was going through. “You are a marvelous audience,” she told us. “Thank you.” A man got up and yelled, “Miss Callas...noi t'amo!” She said, “No, not this year. Next year.” (It was reported later that she thought he had said, “Puritani!”)
Meeting Maria Callas
A mob waited to see Callas after the concert. The guard, his voice rich with Italian pronunciation, had told us earlier to "fugeddaboutit. She don't see nobody.” I was with some friends, and we went around the corner for a pizza. When we came back half an hour later, the crowd had disappeared. I knew my way backstage at Symphony Hall, and there was no one to stop us as we went in the stage door and upstairs to the artists’ room. There sat Maria Callas, in a black pants suit, her hair down over her shoulders, wearing large, thick glasses. The maid was packing up.
“I'm sorry to bother you,” I stammered. “But thank you for this evening.” Callas thanked us for coming, signed programs, and gave me a signed photo still on my office wall. “I'm going to Boston University next year to study music,” I said. “It means a lot of work,” said Callas. Then she shook hands all around and said, “The very best of luck to you.” And she went off and we went off: a night I'll never forget.
Purdy's Recommended Recordings, Videos, and Books
Maria Callas recorded nearly 30 complete operas and 15 aria recitals. To those interested in purchasing copies of her work, she once said, “It’s all there for anyone who cares to listen.”
Her own favorite among her records is the 1959 stereo version of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda made at La Scala, conducted by her mentor Tullio Serafin. This opera introduced Callas to Italy back in 1947—she rarely sang it after that.
All material listed below is available at the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
Aria Recitals
VERDI ARIAS, Volume I. EMI Classics CDM 66460
Philharmonia Orchestra, Nicola Rescigno conducting
Arias from Don Carlo, Nabucco, Ernani and above all—Macbeth
The VERY BEST OF MARIA CALLAS. EMI Classics 57230
Arias form Carmen, Andrea Chenier, Madama Butterfly, Norma, La Wally, Aida, Adriana Lecouvreur, Tosca, Samson et Dalila
Complete Operas
Bellini: NORMA. EMI Classics CDH 62642
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan, conducted by Tullio Serafin
Unquestionably Callas's finest role—and one of her personal favorites. She sang Norma nearly 100 times, about one-fifth of her total stage appearances. She first sang the role in 1948, and her final performances were in Paris in 1965. In between, she made two studio recordings; this is the first. I also like the 1960 stereo remake, on EMI as well. The latter performance has less voice, but is more vulnerable, and in many ways more beautiful.
Bellini: NORMA. GALA 6757 543824-2
(December 7, 1955, opening night)
Studio recordings are great, but Callas live on the stage is more powerful. This is fifty-year-old AM radio sound (on a rainy night, yet), but everyone is "on"—including the Italian audience.
Cherubini: MEDEA. EMI Classics CDC 67909
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan
Medea was revived for Callas at the 1953 Florence May Festival. The conductor of that production, Tullio Serafin (1877-1967), became Callas's mentor. Serafin's quarrel with the management at La Scala led him to withdraw from the 1953 performances of Medea in Milan. Thirty-five-year-old Leonard Bernstein filled in to make his European operatic debut. Thereafter, Callas and Bernstein were life-long friends. “We got along like a house on fire,” Bernstein remembered. “I understood everything she wanted, and she understood everything I wanted. She was pure electricity.” This Medea finds them both in peak form.
Donizetti: ANNA BOLENA (Anne Boleyn). EMI Classics CDM 66471
(Recorded live at La Scala April 14, 1957)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan, conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Donizetti's opera was revised for the first time in 100 years with this production. Callas is at her peak in the title role. The Act I finale with the repeated cries of "Giudici!" (Judges!) as Queen Anne Boleyn is sent to the Tower, and the introspective, sad “mad scene” at the end, will give you an idea of what all the Callas excitement was about. Her long-time colleague and friend, the great Italian mezzo Giulietta Simonato, sings Jane Seymour.
Puccini: TOSCA. EMI Classics CDC 56304
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan, conducted by Victor de Sabata
This 1953 recording has never gone out of print. Fifty years old, in clear mono, it remains the bench mark of all performances of this popular opera.
Callas began her career as Tosca in Athens during World War II, but sang few performances of the role during the prime years of her career. Though she claimed to dislike the title role of Puccini's Tosca ("She's just a nervous girl, really"), it became the vehicle for her comeback to opera in London in 1964; as Tosca she gave her final staged performance at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in 1965.
For this recording she's joined by long-time partners tenor Giuseppe di Stefano and baritone Tito Gobbi. Each of the three "owned" their roles. Callas brings great drama and authority, vulnerability and sexiness to the title role.
Verdi: LA TRAVIATA. EMI Classics CDM 66450
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini
Callas called Verdi's Violetta one of her favorite roles. Opening night of Luchino Visconti's famous production at La Scala, 1955, the recording serves as an example of what happens when an oft-played score is rehearsed with care and commitment.
On Video
Until recently it was assumed that almost no video existed of Maria Callas in actual performance. The years have proven this untrue with the opening up of European film and TV archives. In addition, several video documentaries have been produced since her death in 1977.
MARIA CALLAS AT COVENT GARDEN 1962 and 1964
Includes Act II of TOSCA , fully staged with Tito Gobbi and Renato Cioni in Franco Zeffirelli's production. The camera work is so-so and the lighting can be poor, but Callas and Gobbi come through powerfully.
Books in Print
Over forty biographies of Maria Callas, in five different languages, have been published since her death in 1977. Maria’s mother, her sister, her ex-husband, her secretary, and Aristotle Onassis’ secretary all have made gossipy contributions that have little to do with Callas’s art. An early exception is by WQXR Radio personality George Jellinek, now out of print but worth seeking out.
Ardoin, John. The Callas Legacy: A Complete Guide to Her Recordings. New York: Scribner, 1999
John Ardoin has written a thoroughly researched and musically informative examination of Callas’s recordings. This is must reading for anyone who desires to develop a serious appreciation of Maria Callas as an artist.
Edwards, Anne. Maria Callas: An Intimate Biography. New York: St. Martins Press, 2001
Short on music, but Edwards is an experienced biographer. A good read.
Gage, Nicholas. Greek Fire: The Story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis. New York: Knopf, 2000
Maria Callas’s liaison with Aristotle Onassis began in 1959. Despite his marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy ten years later, Gage makes a convincing argument that these two passionate Greeks remained in each other's lives until Onassis died in 1975. Callas herself died two years later. Gage’s book is appropriately respectful and informed about Callas the artist. He proposes that Callas bore a child to Onassis in 1960, a son who lived only two hours. A sad, troubling, and well-documented book.
Pestales-Diomedes, Nicolas. The Unknown Callas: The Greek Years. Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 2001
Very little was known about Sofia Cecilia Anna Maria Kalogeropoulous's formative years in Greece until this book was published. Pestales-Diomedes illustrates her childhood in war-torn Greece, dodging bullets enroute to the Athens Conservatory, early appearances as Tosca at the Athens Opera at the age of 17, allegations of collaboration and a mother—cast convincingly—as Evil Incarnate. Fascinating.
Scott, Michael. Maria Meneghini Callas. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992
A clear-eyed, well-written account of Maria Callas’s career in opera, with her later artistically inactive years relegated to a brief final chapter. This book goes a long way towards examining how Callas became Callas.
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