Maria Callas: "Care compagne, teneri amici"-Sonnambula 1955

[DanBarthy]

Her 'trinados' are perfects (3:37) !

[kgarmaker123]

WOW! fablous in every word! that E Flat at the end could kill.

[philipc67]

1955 was arguably her best year, starting with an unexpected but fantastic ANDREA CHENIER with del Monaco at la Scala, then the Bernstein SONNAMBULA, the Zeffirelli TURCO IN ITALIA, the legendary Giulini/Visconti TRAVIATA (her best Violetta, Lisbon 1958 pales), the Karajan BUTTERFLY recording, the famous Karajan LUCIA with di Stefano in Berlin, the second Chicago season with PURITANI , BUTTERFLY and TROVATORE (with Bjoerling), and the opening night of La Scala with her best ever NORMA. Superb!

[thehouseon9thstreet]

1955. Callas' best year.

[MrPipposiculo]

Rimango sempre in tensione nell'ascoltarla, e non si riesce a far altro.....

MrPipposiculo

[killerbunny123123]

direttore: leonard bernstein....the composer????!!! The one who wrote "candide"? wow...

[belcantismo]

@killerbunny123123

The composer of this aria is Vincenzo Bellini and yes, the conductor Leonard Bernstein is the same that composed "Candide".

[aageletakis]

Ultimate example of how lightly Callas could tread at her best, how she could combine meaning with forid coloratura and how she instinctively knew when to delay a musical phrase and when to speed it up - with nobody on a studio console adjusting things to her advantage. Singing like this will never be repeated. This magical night took place two decades before I was born. If I could sacrifice a year of my life to be there I would consider myself the most fortunate man of my generation.

[dyby]

This is singing at its best. There will never again be a voice like this.. What is unbelievable is that this is the same voice that sang Brunnhilda, Turandot, Kundry and here she is singing Bellini to tossing off roulades, staccati and trills perfectly. WOW!!!

[galehout]

non forza mai, e tiene sempre il suono nel suo volume naturale, perché è interessata alla poesia e non all'ostentazione

[lalabadee]

7:40.. will never be duplicated on this planet.. and what a finish.. bellini and callas side by side running to catch the bus :-)

[Redboy4]

and what a run it was :)

[arturo8402]

I find that I enjoy her live performances even more so than her recorded ones!! Boy have times changed that a singer sounds better live than in their recordings!! Brava Maria!!!

[kgarmaker123]

You got that right.. You cannot trust recorded performances anymore at all, they have too many tricks to make them sound way better than they are!

[belcantismo]

Aquì queda el 'gran segreto' de Maria Callas! Despues de haber escuchado algo se suyo, no hay posibilidad para otras ni de entrar en la competicion...

[ubedajils]

Amén, ni una palabra más. Amén.

[breton2]

@belcantismo Totalmente de acuerdo !!

[tenorman123]

Brava Callas! She was a musical and dramatic genius. I don't know of anyone who comes close to matching her artistry. It was . . . complete. Brilliant.  I think we may never see anything like it again. At least not soon.

[feveroo7]

SHE IS UNIQUE...

[Jenia2304]

Sublime, la personne qui peut faire mieux qu'elle n'est pas encore née !!!

[velazquez2009]

surement juste!

[ThPaw]

wundervoll. Danke.

[bigoghego]

Ogni volta che ascolta la Divina si rafforza il mio giudizio che è la più grande d'ogni tempo in assoluto!

[belcantismo]

Come non darti ragione? :-)

[SiChiamaMina]

Non ci sono Sutherland, non ci sono Tebaldi, non ci sono altre cantanti a noi conosciute che abbiano mai solo avvicinato le incredibili performance vocali ed interpretative del Genio incomparabile della Musica chiamato Maria Callas!

[Heraopera]

Listen to her attractive timbro! She has been able to put the timbre into the phrase of the phonetical and musical gesture to show the show of the composition! For my ears many sopranos after her interpretation didnt match this point out.... They just sung the melody and many of them sung with the feeling: such beautiful music, they didnt understand the philosophy behind.....Music is more than pretty things are.... Music is the 3rd dimension behind ....

[garbo2210100]

This is magic of Callas.

She is a wizard.

This aria and ''Ah! non giunge'' is my favorite.

[jamballah]

Fantasmagorico, eccezionale, sublime, incredibile, geniale, unica, divina.

Signori, ecco a voi Maria Callas!

[VivaMariaCallas]

It's funny, I was actually thinking of making a video of this performance today... Absolutely astounding singing. Though her 1957 renditions are more refined musically and, in some cases, vocally, she's sings with absolute abandon here, probably thanks to Bernstein. The opening of the cut in the cabaletta also allows more freedom in terms of expression through ornamentation.

[belcantismo]

Last 16 of May I saw La Sonnambula in Salerno with Annick Massis. In the first part of the opera, I was very disappointed about her performance: I didn't recognize the Bellini's masterpiece peculiarities at all. The singing seemed "out of tune", strange, unrecognizable. With Maria Callas I simply want to remember to opera fans what is "belcanto", who is (and will be for ever) the Goddess for it...