Search - Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart :: Dallas - Rehearsal 1957

Essential listening for Callas fans

klavierspiel | TX, USA | 11/07/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Whatever the sound quality of this particular incarnation, this live recording of the rehearsal for a concert by Maria Callas that inaugurated the Dallas Opera Company, the brainchild of her friends Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, is fascinating listening, particularly since the concert itself was not recorded. One cannot listen to it as an actual performance, as there are spots (not very many) where Callas omits high notes or "marks" by singing down an octave. There is some starting and stopping, and quantities of white noise where someone obviously just left the tape machine running while nothing was happening. So it's not a record that casual fans of opera or singing would want. But for those interested in hearing a great musician at work, shaping a difficult program of operatic excerpts with a chorus and orchestra as yet largely untrained in the niceties of Italian operatic and bel canto style, this recording is invaluable. In addition there _are_ vocal pleasures to be had along the way, however out of context. Without the pressure of an audience Callas wings her way with astonishing ease through the coloratura of the Mozart aria (sung in Italian) and delivers a resounding high E-flat at the end of the Puritani excerpt. In sum, it's a unique behind-the-scenes peek at the artistry of Callas."

Fascinating

Akimon Azuki | 09/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have read an interview with Nikolaus Harnoncourt where he waxed poetic about Callas and Mozart, and how she does Mozart proud in one aria from this recording. I felt intrigued enough to get this bargain CD. What a surprise and what a find!

The sound is as bad as it gets; this is old, scratchy recording, and as a bonus, there are places when someone just left the tape recorder running when people were discussing someting out of the mike's range and all you get is white noise for several minutes. Ah, but it's real and for me, that's part of the attraction. You feel like you are a fly on the wall, eavesdropping on that rehearsal for a concert that never happened. No tricks, just straight up performance, with sound guys calls, discussions and corrections, the conductor humming the melodies and so on. And what a performance that is...

Callas skips some notes, marks some down and, in the last track, spins totally out of control on the top note, but at the same time she is so relaxed- it's just a rehearsal, right?- that she sails through the coloratura runs with astonishing ease and sounds unbelievably tender and beautiful in other places.

And then, the piece de resistance for me- Callas in Mozart's Martern Aller Arten, sung here in Italian as Tutte le Torture. It has a long break in the middle after she overshoots that high C- and it also has more drama, coloratura zing and power than countless other Konstanzes I heard; it's in a different league altogether...

This is not a CD for anyone expecting nice set of nicely rounded, tidy and conventional arias, and anyone not familiar with the hissy wonders of archival recordings, but it's a fascinating piece of history."

I THINK THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST CALLAS' PROFILE

Mario Gonzalez Dorado | 09/07/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Really, when I heard this CD, I did know why she sounds like she sounds- She is a great dramatic actress, so impressive yet so humble, such a worth loving person. This rehearsal is great. You'l know better Callas in this recording than in so many many absurd biographies written about her."