Remastered and repackaged.
Original jacket.
I was surprised to learn that Pristine Classical now has thirteen (13) Callas titles:Pristine Classical - Callas 1955 AIDA
Pristine's latest issue is Maria Callas' Aida
View attachment 154900
CORRECTIONNew Mastering of three Callas recordings.
View attachment 156074
View attachment 156076
View attachment 156077
Ran across these on YouTube. The "New Mastering" shown on the thumbnail intrigued me, but it's impossible to tell how they sound on a YT video on my iPad. The mastering was apparently done by CMRR (Center for Memory and Recording Research) at UC San Diego, which is a magnetic tape research facility at that institution. No idea why. These are available at Spotify.
NB: The "cover" of the Lucia di Lammermoor references the wrong year for the recording. It is the 1955 Berlin performance.
The Maria Callas Magazine's July 2021 issue (no. 93) carries a review of the book Cast A Diva. It doesn't convince me to read it, but thanks to the publisher, Karl von Zoggel, for sparing us the task!New Callas Book
View attachment 157044
I hesitated to start a new thread for this book. It is called Cast a Diva (clever, no?), The Hidden Life Of Maria Callas. It purports to be a better biography of her. The cover in itself is vulgar in its paparazzi-like image. Can the content be more serious?
Here's the blurb on Amazon.co.uk on the author, who presumably specializes on "daring aristocratic women." You've been warned!
View attachment 157045
Great to have you back Callasfan and congratulations on finishing your engineering degree!Hey everyone,
Just letting you all know I have launched my CD of the 1951 Mexico Aida, with prompters and audience noise removed. My channel has a video comparing my work to the last major release, from 2017 (which claimed to be remastered, but wasn't).
I used the best analogue source, with a Rega Planar 3 table and Rega preamp, recording at 24/96 into Audacity. I then set to work over the last 5 months cleaning it up with some pro grade software. I'm pretty happy with the results and hope you will be too I know much more about audio processing and restoration now than when i launched my channel, having obtained a Bachelors degree in audio engineering.
View attachment 157278
Here's a link to the video:
And a link to the eBay sale site:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/265229690259
My next project is my vinyl copy of the 1955 Scala Sonnambula with Bernstein. I believe this to have better sound than other releases. After that, assuming the response is positive, I will do the Mexico Rigoletto.
The costumes are still the properties of La Scala. Perhaps you mean to say they are on loan to the museum for the exhibition.Eight sumptuous costumes donated by the Teatro alla Scala to the museum.
That's it. ...........................Many singers beguile me; Callas always tells me the truth.
Controversy reigns over statue of Maria Callas unveiled in Athens, Greece. Read all about it!A notice posted on Opera-L announces the unveiling of statue of Maria Callas in Athens, Greece.
View attachment 159956
Presumed to be the 3 March 1965 performanceI must confess that I am an obsessive collector of Callas recordings. In fact, I have almost everything that is known to exist!
The key word though is almost because those of us who do search out every scrap of recorded singing by Callas probably often speculate about the recorded Callas "super-rarities". These are the recordings that have never appeared on LP, CD, DVD, Blu-ray or the internet (such as YouTube) and have apparently only circulated surreptitiously on private recordings amongst a limited group of collectors.
So, I thought I would offer you this list of what I believe are the rarest Callas recordings as of now. I've chosen ones that appear to be reliably documented in the Callas literature as actually existing. I've identified seven:
Tosca, London, January 21, 1964 (Acts One and Three only - in-house private tape)
Tosca, London, January 27, 1964 (in-house private tape)
Tosca, Paris, February 22, 1965 (in-house private tape)
Tosca, Paris, March 13, 1965 (in-house private tape)
Second London Concert with Giuseppe di Stefano, December 2, 1973 (in-house private tape and also recorded in stereo by EMI/Warner but never published)
Milan Concert with Giuseppe di Stefano, January 20, 1974 (in-house private tape)
Toronto Concert with Giuseppe di Stefano, February 21, 1974 (in-house private tape)
It is interesting that the four rare Toscas identified above are the only recordings from Callas' main recorded career between 1949 and 1965 that have never been issued in some mainstream format like LP or CD. Divina Records apparently owns all these four but have not issued them as yet. It's a bit puzzling that they have not been released given that every other recorded scrap has from the 1949 to 1965 period. So, I wonder what the reasons would be for this? Perhaps they have just been overshadowed by the high fidelity BBC radio broadcast of Tosca from January 24, 1964 as well the telecast of Act Two of Tosca from February 9, 1964 (both released officially by EMI/Warner). Also, both the March 1 and March 3, 1965 Paris Toscas have circulated: March 3 on LP and CD and Act Two of March 1 is currently on YouTube (formerly all of March 1 was on YouTube for a brief period of time).
Admittedly, we already have a lot of Tosca recordings with Callas! The main advantage in releasing the four more obscure Tosca performances listed above might be simply scholarly - further enabling us to study Callas from one Tosca performance to another, particularly four performances in Paris within the space of a few weeks in February and March 1965 and three in London in January 1964 plus the Act Two Tosca TV broadcast a few weeks later.
Aside from the four Tosca obscurities listed above, there is probably a lot less reason to wish that the three rarer Callas/di Stefano concerts might circulate. As most of us know very well, this is mainly because of the terrible state of their voices during 1973 and 1974.
Please let me know if you have further rarities to add to this list! Also, maybe you have knowledge of the reasons why the seven rarities listed above have not really seen the light of day.
Paul Houle
It's quite shameful to think she had to wait so long. She made her official debut at La Scala in 1951, opening the season in a new production of I Vespri Siciliani and her Covent Garden debut in 1952, returning in 1953, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1964 and 1965.. Her American debut was in Chicago and, aside from those final Toscas, she only had two seasons at the Met. She never had a particularly good relationship with the house, complaining of dusty old productions, not enough rehearsal time (sometimes not even a proper stage rehearsal) and constant cast changes. It wasn't how she was used to working. I sometimes think that she was quite relieved that Bing sacked her in 1958, as she didn't really want to go back there.65 years ago (October 29, 1956), Maria Meneghini Callas made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Norma. Alas, no recording is known, or even rumored to exist.
View attachment 160689