THE TEN GREATEST SOPRANOS Heard Live 4 Maria Meneghini Callas

Maria Meneghini Callas was a regular visitor to Covent Garden in the 1950s and seemed to enjoy the London audiences, who are mercifully claque-free. Early in 1957 she sang Norma, which, infuriatingly, I missed by a mere couple of weeks. The opera bug bit me later the same month.

She returned in 1958 for five Traviatas, one of which I saw from my usual place in the Gods. From the moment the curtain went up there was no-one else to look at, for such was the power of her presence. Her first act Violetta was brittle and mercurial as she flitted from guest to guest. Her was tone rather small and the timbre far from conventionally beautiful. But she went for the big top note at the end of "Sempre libera" giving it all she had got. It wasn't pretty but it was very exciting.

In Act Two, with the technical hazards out of the way, she really came into her own. We held our breath as she drew out the pianissimo first note of renunciation, somehow suspending it in air "O.............. dite all giovane". It was heartbreaking, all the way to the end of the last act and her really harrowing death scene.

Perhaps learning from Garbo's Camille, she barely moved, managing just once to drag herself to the dressing table mirror. When she "died", the life seemed suddenly to leave her body and she dropped corpse like to the floor in Alfredo's arms.

In 1959 she returned as a completely different character, Medea, in the opera by Cherubini. She was by now becoming a world famous celebrity and I had to queue all night in Floral Street to get gallery tickets. The price had risen from 6 shillings to 10 shillings for Callas performances. It was worth every penny. I went three times. Her unbelievably intense characterisation of this fiendish sorceress was demonic and overwhelming, making it hard to think of anything else for several days. Vocally, on the first night, her voice was decidedly small and distant sounding and her dramatic gifts carried the day. But by the last night she had relaxed and her voice was free and ample, more as it must have been in the early days.

I saw her in a couple of concerts with orchestra and then in1964 as Tosca, with Tito Gobbi, in the famous Zeffirelli production. For the last five years her life had been transformed and she had become part of the "jet set" and very rarely performing. However, she was in much better voice and made a very fine impression both vocally and visually. She was by far the best Tosca I ever saw.

Maybe it was me, for I too was five years older, but even though she was absolutely marvellous, some of her unique "magic" had gone.

I have posted her singing the "Addio del passato" from La Traviata. The ending of "Sempre libera" comes first and then the letter reading and recitative, all taken from a performance in 1953 in Mexico.

The aria is from the actual 1958 Covent Garden series and the physical decline in the voice itself is very apparent. However, interpretation was absolutely paramount to Callas and she used this frailty to portray Violetta with "a sick voice". It was unconventional and possibly not what Verdi had envisaged. But that was Callas and that was her unique way of performing.

The video is illustrated by a series of water colour drawings done immediately after the performances.




© Drawings by Yvonne Fuller

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• Zeani

[Maripudelmonaco]

RENATA TEBALDI !!!Donde está ?, en el Cielo cantando con los Angeles...

[CharlotteinWeimar]

@Maripudelmonaco Very sadly I never heard Renata Tebaldi live.

[Maripudelmonaco]

@CharlotteinWeimar - Perdona no sabía que no la habias escuchado en directo, Te perdiste algo increible. SALUDOS.

[CharlotteinWeimar]

@Maripudelmonaco Gracias!

[Operanut9]

I had a chance to hear her once in Frankfurt on her farewell tours. I gave my tickets away. By this time I had lost interest in her. I was never part of the Callas cult, but I did appreciate her gifts. I preferred Nilsson, whom I heard several times live, and de los Angeles whom I never did get to hear to my everlasting regret.

[CharlotteinWeimar]

I also found, after she left Meneghini & became a jet-setter, that Callas was less special. But her Violetta, before then, was wonderful. Some of her sounds were painfully harsh & strident but she made an indelible impression as the tragic, suffering character.

The only soprano I heard to match Callas with her own passionately moving interpretation is Virginia Zeani & she had the advantage of an exceptionally beautiful, plangent voice & rock secure technique. I wouldn't wish to lose either.

[mdellavalle]

Unfortunately I had the chance to hear Maria singing only once in Paris, May 1965, Norma with Simionato and Del Monaco. This was the greatest musical experience of my life. Her carrier was almost at the end- they said, but I can garantee that she sang that night like only a God can sing. I can't tell if the voice was perfect or not because what I saw on stage it wasn't a soprano singing but she was Norma. A passionate woman, a suffering woman, a furious woman. Thank you Maria, God bless you!

[halavey]

Twizzle---Well I heard both, Joan S. (many times) and Callas I heard when she was past her great prime but she had more of a point on top, hard to compare, so different Callas was unique in sound and she could act also. Joan had a beautiful voice. Very different, Callas was exciting had a magnetic quality.

[Nacidodelmar]

@Maripudelmonac Por qué usted necesita mencionar a Renata al pie de un video de Callas? Ambas fueron magnificas sopranos y toda esa tonteria de la rivalidad en su

mayoria es propaganda, La voz de Tebaldi es increblemete bella, pero no conquistó lo que conquistó Callas. Ahora, si entramos en "chusmeria" Callas escuchó a Tebaldi y dijo:

que voz tan bella, pero A QUIEN LE IMPORTA?

[Raggedy9]

I heard Callas live only once, on her last tour. The voice was a wreck, she seemed very nervous, and it was an uncomfortable evening. But THEN, she sang "O mio babbino caro" as an encore--hardly her repertoire--and a miracle ensued. She leaned against the piano facing upstage, turned around, and "Maria Callas" disappeared. In her place was a girl of 15, desperately in love, pleading with her father, knowing she would persuade him. A glimpse of what she must have been in her prime.

[Maripudelmonaco]

@CharlotteinWeimar -De ninguna manera, y, a pesar de mi insistencia sobre RENATA,, quisiera que pensaras, que tu elección sobre estas 10 cantantes me parece mal, pues las considero GRANDES , GRANDES, GRANDES, y también estan entre mis favoritas, sigue colgando videos de ellas. SALUDOS.

[Maripudelmonaco]

@mdellavalle -En Paris 1965, no cantó MARIO DELMONACO, el reparto fué: CALLAS- SIMIONATO / COSSOTTO - CECHELE (tenor) - IVO VINCO. Dirección : PRÊTRE.-.- CALLAS cantó con DEL MONACO´-EBE STIGNANI- dirección TULLIO SERAFIN. año 1955 . prod,RAI de ROMA. .El m ismo año,en La Scala de Milan con CALLAS.DEL MONACO-SIMIONATO / NICOLAI- dirección ANTONINO VOTTO y por último en 1956- CALLAS-DEL MONACO-FEDORA BARBIERI-CESARE SIEPI .-dirección : fFAUSTO CLEVA,

[Ariadne7710]

@CharlotteinWeimar As you know, I too, heard this Violetta at ROH in 1958. Her singing was not just the voice which though not "pretty" in the normal sense was very compelling. It was the way she sang to give life to the words and melodies to express the emotions of the character. This was the main difference with all other singers. Most sing the notes on the score and follow the composers' notations as best they can. She somehow managed to give them a life of their own. An amazing artist

[khamikins]

OTHER THAN MS PRICE NO OTHER OPERA SINGER TO MATCH THOSE 2.