EMI Testament - SAX2320  - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl

AAA 100% Analogue - Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering

Limited Edition - Pressed at Pallas

Testament has revived these classic titles from the EMI catalog using only the original EMI master tapes,cut onto lacquer at EMI's Abbey Road Studios and mastered using full analog techniques throughout production.

Mad Scenes: Anna Bolena, Hamlet, Il Pirata Maria Callas Philharmonia Orchestra Nicola Rescigno Recorded in STEREO

 

Long out of print, this title has been repressed and is once again available! 

 

Callas did not make complete recordings of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Bellini’s Il pirata, though, as the queen of La Scala, she enjoyed triumphs in both roles in 1957–1958. The vocally and dramatically demanding final scenes of both operas feature in this recital with Ophélie’s mad scene from Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet, another coloratura extravaganza. When this recital first appeared in 1959, Gramophone wrote: "This is a most remarkable record, not only for its material... But for its astonishing vividness and dramatic poetry... It has been a thing of much wonder for me."

 

This is Callas' most famous single recital record. It contains three long scenes, each of which depicts an operatic heroine who has descended to a state of madness. No subject matter could have given the legendary soprano more scope to show the range of her dramatic and interpretative skill, and Callas sings with extraordinary intensity and sense of tragedy. The recordings were made in the space of just two days in September 1958. The Philharmonia Orchestra play with great flair and imagination under one of Callas' favorite conductors, and these great performances were perfectly captured by EMI in vintage stereo sound. Testament's new transfer conveys the atmosphere and range of the original recordings to perfection. 

 

Three different relatives with insane similarities: After their first performances Vincenzo Bellini delighted "ll Pirata" (1827), Gaetano Donizetti's "Anna Bolena" (1830) And Ambroise Thomas' "Hamlet" (1868) is very popular on all the major opera stages in the world. In the course of the century of their birth, however, they all fell into insignificance and were hardly played any more. Only in the late 50s of this century, they were breathed new life into - by no less than the diva of divas, the immortal soprano Maria Callas (1923-1977). 

Three operas, three women in impossible love entanglements that can not be because they Not to be allowed. Anna Bolena falls victim to the wasting of her husband, the English King Henry VIII, who used to dispose of his superfluous women by means of scaffolding. Ophelia, the lover of Hamlet, goes into the water after the prince of Denmark has exposed the murderous plot against his father, exposed Ophelias father as a conscience, and turned his back on her. And Imogene remains in madness when her former love, the pirate Gualtiero, is sentenced to death, after he had her husband killed in a duel. 

Three operas and three women who end tragically, all gone mad. Bloss, it's going to be insane: When the madness sounds so lovely ... One is almost tempted not only to succumb to the art of Callas.

 

Maria Callas

The Philharmonia Orchestra

Nicola Rescigno, conductor

 

Selections: 

Donizetti (Opera on the tragedy of Anne Boleyn)

1. Anna Bolena

Monica Sinclair, contralto

John Lanigan, tenor

Joseph Rouleau, bass

Duncan Robertson, tenor

Chorus

 

Thomas (Ophelia's mad scene in Shakespeare's Hamlet)

2. Hamlet

a. A vos jeux

b. Partagez-vous mes fleurs

c. Et maintenant ecoutez ma chanson (Act 4)

 

Bellini (His Second Opera)

3. Il Pirata

a. Oh! s'io potessi

b. Col sorriso d'innocenza (Act 2)