Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, Suor Angelica, Glanni Schicchi and Turandot Maria Callas / Philharmonia Orchestra / Serafin

 

In September 1954, when this famous recording was made, the legendary soprano Maria Callas was vocally at her peak. In this, her first recital record, she shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the atmosphere and drama that characterize some of the most famous arias in Puccini's romantic operas. Perhaps no singer has brought such passion and variety of mood to this composer's music as did Callas, and she is ably partnered by the Philharmonic Orchestra under a favorite conductor colleague, the vastly experienced Tullio Serafin. EMI's engineers captured both the quality of Callas' voice and Puccini's magical orchestration to great effect, and Testament's LP transfer recaptures the quality of the original production with the greatest fidelity.

Although Maria Callas considered herself a bel canto and Verdi soprano, through recordings and video documents her name is inextricably linked with that of Puccini. This extraordinary album of Puccini arias was aptly named Puccini Heroines, as it is indeed a collection of portraits of many of the composer’s powerful creations for soprano. By September 1954, Callas had reinvented herself as a slim, elegant diva; the weight loss brought a new slenderness to the voice as well, while the instrument retained flexibility and plushness. Listening to this disc 60 years on, one is struck immediately by the sheer beauty in much of the singing. Callas’s bel canto skills, combined with her musical genius, add a host of ravishing touches: perfectly weighted portamentos, exquisite melismas, stunning diminuendos – all essential ingredients for Puccini, often omitted by singers less gifted, all used here for expression.

Callas offers a gallery of characters, each with her own voice – an effect never accomplished in an applied manner, always organic-sounding. One senses Manon’s pampered melancholy in ‘In quelle trine morbide’, and her exhausted desperation in ‘Sola, perduta, abbandonata’. Brilliant storytelling and keen observation of Puccini’s markings make the familiar ‘Un bel dì vedremo’ anything but routine. Going from Butterfly’s death to Mimì’s narrative is akin to a splash of cold water on the listener’s face, so profound is the change. Callas balances perfectly the parlando and legato in both arias from La bohème, while ‘Senza mamma’ is as extraordinary for its sense of loss as ‘O mio babbino caro’ is for its directness. And what other soprano could so fully capture both Liù and Turandot? But then, this is what makes Callas… Callas