Maria Callas – Pure – Maria Callas (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Maria Callas – Pure – Maria Callas (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:53 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Opera singers come and go, but just a few – the legends – live on. And Maria Callas was the greatest legend of them all, though not just for the wonder of her voice. She changed the way people thought about opera, but she also became famous as the glamorous celebrity who fell in love with Aristotle Onassis, leaving her elderly husband to live with him on his yacht Christina and enjoy the high life with the international jet set.

Of course it ended badly. She lived her life like one of her own tragic heroines who (as women tend to do in opera) sing, suffer and die. And her own death came at just 53, after a dazzling but short career that took in heavy roles alongside decorative, nightingale-like ones – ignoring the established rules of vocal health and probably explaining why her voice finally gave out as it did.

But in that time she did extraordinary things, using the muscle of those heavy heroines to empower the nightingales with strength and depth of feeling nobody had thought to offer them before. She gave them credibility as drama. Her performances were absolute and self-exposing: she held nothing back. And she was even tougher on herself than she could be on others – which is why her voice was never quite the flawless instrument singers are meant to cultivate. Her personality was far too volatile and too self-sacrificing in its love affair with risk.

In the mythology of opera, though, that’s what the audience demands. We want the diva to be both a goddess and a slave: to give her life for art. We thrill to the dimension of that sacrifice. And Callas dutifully obliged.

Tracklist:
01. Maria Callas, Jean Laforge, Choeurs Rene Duclos, Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris & Georges Prêtre – Carmen, Act 1: “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (Carmen, Chorus) [Habanera] (04:29)
02. Maria Callas, Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano & Tullio Serafin – Norma, Act 1: “Casta diva” (Norma, Chorus) (05:40)
03. Maria Callas, Philharmonia Orchestra & Tullio Serafin – Gianni Schicchi, Act 1: “O mio babbino caro” (Lauretta) (02:38)
04. Maria Callas, Philharmonia Orchestra & Tullio Serafin – La Wally, Act 1: “Ebben?…Ne andrò lontana” (Wally) (04:54)
05. Maria Callas, Orchestra Sinfonica della Rai & Gabriele Santini – La Traviata, Act 1: “Ah fors’e lui” (Violetta) (03:07)
06. Maria Callas, Coro Cetra, Orchestra Sinfonica della Rai & Gabriele Santini – La Traviata, Act 1: “Sempre libera” (Violetta, Alfredo) (04:02)
07. Maria Callas, Orchestra Del Teatro Alla Scala, Milano & Victor de Sabata – Tosca, Act 2: “Vissi d’arte” (Tosca) (03:18)
08. Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano & Herbert von Karajan – Madama Butterfly, Act 2: “Un bel di vedremo” (Butterfly) (04:46)
09. Maria Callas, Philharmonia Orchestra & Tullio Serafin – Andrea Chénier, Act 3: “La mamma morta” (Maddalena) (04:55)
10. Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano & Antonino Votto – La Bohème, Act 3: “Donde lieta uscì al tuo grido d’amore” (Mimì) (03:25)
11. Maria Callas, Philharmonia Orchestra & Tullio Serafin – Adriana Lecouvreur, Act 1: “Ecco: respiro appena…Io son l’umile ancella” (Adriana Lecouvreur) (03:50)
12. Maria Callas, Renzo Casellato, Bernard Ladysz, Roberto Benaglio, Philharmonia Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra & Tullio Serafin – Lucia di Lammermoor, Act 3: “Il dolce suono … Ardon gli incensi” (Lucia, Raimondo, Normanno, Chorus) (03:02)
13. Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano & Herbert von Karajan – Il Trovatore, Act 4: “D’amor sull’ali rosee” (Leonora) (04:07)
14. Maria Callas, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire & Nicola Rescigno – Otello, Act 4: “Ave Maria” (Desdemona) (04:50)
15. Maria Callas, Philharmonia Orchestra & Alceo Galliera – Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Act 1: “Una voce poco fa” (Rosina) (06:24)
16. Maria Callas, Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française & Georges Prêtre – Orphée et Eurydice, Act 4: “J’ai perdu mon Eurydice” (Orfeo) (04:28)
17. Maria Callas, Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française & Georges Prêtre – Samson et Dalila, Act 2: “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” (Dalila) (05:23)
18. Maria Callas, Nadine Sautereau, Jane Berbié, Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris & Georges Prêtre – Carmen, Act 2: “Les tringles des sistres tintaient” (Camen, Frasquita, Mercédès) (04:27)

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