Maria Callas - Ocean! Thou mighty monster! (Studio Recording)

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From Carl Von Webber's "Oberon".
This role was written for the American assoluta, the soprano sfogato Mary Anne Paton, also known as Mrs. Woods.
This aria was the one that Maria sang at her audition with Elvira de Hidalgo, to study as a dramatic soprano, and it certainly shows her qualities.
The aria itself requires a portentous voice, powerful declamated low register down to low B-flat, agility in the upper register, a trill, alternations between middle-low register and upper register, as well as an upper register up to high C, and overall some dramatic shifts in tessitura.
In other words, all the vocalisms of an assoluta.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• mary
• ann
• paton
• mrs
• woods
• maria
• callas
• assoluta
• soprano
• sfogato
• carl
• von
• webber

[corellithebest]

Wow! I would almost say this aria fully equals Abigaille's aria Ben io t'invenni in its monstruous difficulty!

[primohomme]

It was written for the same voice type as Abigaille's. An "assoluta", or soprano sfogato.

[andreasscholl]

Im shocked!!!!!!!

Always when I hear this aria sung by Callas!

She has ALL the qualities for it.

Brava for La Divina.

She places her words, loke swords....and then..well, she lances THEM like bullets!!!!

Rezia in full force.

[BrentAudi]

This was the very first aria / recording of opera that I ever heard. I was about 5 years old. I was at my aunts home. I asked her to play some records. I sat in front of her huge console stereo. This was the first aria on the album.

I will never forget the feeling hearing this aria. To me I was in shock of the voice, story, music. It was like a Walt Disney movie to me!

I have been hooked ever since.

Brent

[idunnowhatimdoin]

isn't this after she lost weight and started losing her voice?

sounds good to ME, but i wonder what it must have sounded like if she sung it before, when she was at her prime

[Fairpavel]

The recording I have on CD is different and better.

[TheJedgeworth]

Maria Callas is the only TRUE goddess in the musical firmament that is Opera. Go ahead and disagree, if you dare, but she sounds like death itself couldn't keep her from coming down from Mount Olympus to kick some mortal ass if provoked! We love you, Maria, and know you had (have?) a gentle soul, but oh, that voice, didn't scare even you sometimes? Ferociously brilliant.

[Homoclassicus]

Is this version somewhat different from the text Sutherland sang in studio? I mean, I think some parts of the lyric are different in this recording in comparison to Sutherland's reading (for example, Sutherland in about 1:30 sings "Then, Ocean, art thou terrible, indeed", while Callas says something else)... Btw, Callas' voice sounds remarkably preserved for a recording made after '62 and her performance in overall is surprisingly impressive, with trills, powerful higher notes, great low notes.

[Shahrdad]

@Faust075 You may be correct, but in "The Callas Legacy", there is no mention of Callas recording this aria commercially in 1962. She did sing it in London at the Royal Festival Hall (in quite good voice), so I think this might be the 1964 commercial version. I do believe there are at least two takes of the aria from that session. She's more solid in 1962 all the way to a high C, but much more Wagnerian in scale in 64. The live Cenerentola aria from 62 is a wonder of joy and lightness!

[Faust075]

@Shahrdad That was recorded in 1962, at a time she had serious problems with her sinus ...Nevertheless, and despite all the imperfections we ca notice notice, this is much better than what any "so called" singer of today could do

[Matt75003]

@Shahrdad Decline? Maybe. What strikes me is how little evidence of it there is in this recording. Maybe she just found this music so interesting and challenging that she just threw caution to the winds and gave her magnificent all.

[MINAGELANCASTER]

ME ENCANTA LA TESITURA 

[Shahrdad]

I believe that this was recorded in 1964, when her voice was well into its decline. What I find fascinating is that absolutely Wagnerian scale of her singing here. She doesn't spare her voice, and she really tells a story.