Customer Reviews

Bellini: Norma (complete opera) EMI's Great Recordings of the Century with Maria Callas, Tullio Serafin, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No opera collection should be without one of the Callas NORMAs. There is a surprising number from which to choose; each is deeply flawed. I agree with critic and Callas biographer Michael Scott when he suggests that her two best recorded NORMAs are the 1952 Gui and the 1955 Votto, both live. The former showcases her in top vocal form, albeit less sensitive and nuanced, while the supporting cast is adequate; the latter captures her tremendous characterization while it still enjoyed relative vocal health, and features a fine supporting cast (maybe even as good as her second Serafin?), but Votto's support is mostly dull and unsympathetic. Not to mention: sound quality!

This 1954 is admittedly less than ideal, but I couldn't live without it. EMI's new GROC reissue is much more reasonably priced than before, and it has been digitally remastered for even greater impact. Most importantly, Tullio Serafin remains Callas's greatest partner-in-crime, a brilliant conductor, particularly in the bel canto repertoire. He makes the most out of this "big guitar" music, which oddly enough can become too beautiful for its own good. Bellini was perhaps the best composer of vocal music (besides Handel), and there is a reason why NORMA was an inspiration for Wagner and his "gesamtkunstwerk." The collaboration of Callas and Serafin is a singular representation of Bellini's visionary music drama.

So, you may ask, what about the 1960 set? Good question. It's brilliant -- without a doubt!-- but no self-respecting discophile would recommend it as the premiere NORMA. Even with its supporting cast, one of the finest on record, and Serafin's mature conducting, it remains the essential complement to the 1954 (or, for that matter, the 1952 or '55). Why? Because Callas's Norma -- one of her greatest roles -- should be heard in its vocal prime. So, by default, we make due with her first studio session (as with Furtwangler's TRISTAN or Cellini's TROVATORE, both from 1952). What's wrong with it? Well, everything and nothing. The supporting players: Stignani, a grande dame of Italian opera and expert Adalgisa, is terribly old-sounding, especially in her characteristic middle register; additionally, Mario Filippeschi is gruff and unmusical, the undeniable weak link of the recording. Both possess merely adequate dramatic skill. Two good singers past their prime. Still, they're BY NO MEANS worth neglecting this set.

Callas sings Norma -- the soprano Hamlet -- with ardor and responsiveness, though at times lacking the spontaneity of a live performance. Still, the sound is vibrant and stunning. One must make compromises; record collecting ain't easy. Serafin's leadership of the La Scala forces -- as well as the fine chorus work -- makes this an indispensable recording of great Italian opera. Some listeners will want to own one of the Sutherlands (probably her 1964) and possibly a Caballe (with Vickers?), but this 1954 is Amazon's top pick for a good reason. A classic.

This is one of a number of recordings I have with Callas, including one where Joan Sutherland plays Clotilde (this is a live recording and the sound is not great, but the performance simply sizzles and again Stignani is the Adalgisa). However, to this recording. At first I was not impressed with it like I felt I would be. Of course, Callas didn't disappoint at all, but the rest of the cast sort of bothered me. Norma's father was sung in a way with virtually no legato at all and sort of shoved out note by note. There was no characterization to speak of, but the voice was full (perhaps recorded very closely miked and forward). Pollione really sort of bothered me, as he is the first really important lead we hear. Of course, this role was sung by Mario Filippschi. He sounded old, but his high C was wonderful. I had to consult the booklet that came with the recording to learn a thing about him (which was precious little) but it did give his birth and death dates. The man was OLD when he recorded the role. He may have been a wonder in his younger days, as he was considered for the longest time the only tenor who could successfully sing the role of Arnoldo in Rossini's William Tell. However, when he recorded this opera, he was, well, nearing the age most tenors gladly stop singing. That said, with repreated listenings, I started to really see what he was offering the role. He had heart, he had masculinity, he had passion. And he did sing the notes. I found his diction much better than Stignani's and he sang the correct sound for most of his vowels (Stignani has a terrible habit of singing all the "e" vowels, said in Italian as an "AY" sound to those who speak English, with all sorts of vowel sounds, and it didn't matter if the vowel occurred in the passagio or not, so covering or darkening the tone for the passagio was not the reason). I also found he did play off Callas' Norma well. He could act with his voice, but in all truth, it is one of those non-descript voices that serves the music well and drifts out of the hearer's memory. No, he is not a Corelli, but he sings with far more finesse than Corelli does, and he never had to SCOUP up to his higher notes, and he followed the timing of the music perfectly. I really learned to appreciate his contribution to the opera.

Then there was Stignani. I have many recordings of her, some made way back when (back with Gigli) and she was electrifying in them. She had better diction as well and didn't distort her vowels as she does in this recording. However, as with Filippischi, she is no spring chicken. She is a "great dame" by this point in her life. Her legato line was not as it should have been (or as it was in the live recording I have), but it was by no means bad. One could tell hers is a huge voice, and well, they never record well. There was a super strong "squillo" to the sound (incredible ring, which is what a singer wants, even Callas has it, though her production is far too forward) which in and of itself gives excitement to whatever she sings. Personally, I felt she was far too old for Adalgisa by this point in her career, even though she sings it well (though to those who don't know, the duets are sung in the lower keys used by Ponselle when she sang the opera, not in the published keys in the score). I really doubt her ability to sing higher notes was the reason for the lower keys, for at that time period, it was normal to use the lower keys.

However, Stignani does dodge the high C in the first act duet with Callas, and it is sad, but not a loss. I am not sure about the characterization of her role, for I really didn't feel for a moment I was listening to the fears and loves of a young vestle virgin wondering what to do with her first love. At times, I almost thought she should be giving Callas advice on love, she seemed old enough to be her mother.

Yet, that said, I came to really love the performance. It is said that Stignani sounds "old fashioned" and that is quite a good desciption. She sings the role as it was sung in the olden days of opera (some call the golden age) and many of her methods and approaches to singing the role were also sung by Telva when she sang the role against Ponselle's Norma. That was how the world saw the opera then. We see it differently, and partly because of Callas and her new approach to things.

Now we get to the NORMA of the opera, Callas. I have a number of recordings of Callas in this role, this and another studio recording, and two live performances, one at Covent Garden with the Clotilde of Sutherland, and the Paris opera performance near the end of her career (where she flubs a High C in the last act, stops the performance and resings the phrase getting the note, and by the way, I was at that performance in person, so I had the opportunity to witness a Callas Norma, even if it was at the end of her career).

Though I agree with everyone when they say they find more subtleties with the later recording (and you will find even more in the Paris performance), Callas' basic understanding of Norma never changes. She knows what Norma is all about right from the get go. Maybe that was her work with Serafin that did that (after all, she very openly attributes her way with a recitative directly to him, and that he taught her how to make coloratura make dramatic sense, and she certainly does make it make dramatic sense). Whatever it was, this was a role that will forever be associated with Callas, and like many say, she is the only real Norma out there. Sutherland, Sills, and Caballe may have sang the notes more beautifully, but they didn't grasp, or if they did they couldn't convey it in their voices, the depth of character, nor the emotional distress of the character. Everyone sings her "angry moments" well, but what most forget is this is a woman who has lived a life of a lie for years. She is not the virgin she pretends to be. And that personal disappointment, that knowledge of self, that inner knowing of one's own hypocrasy, is there, even when Callas opens her mouth to begin the recitative that will lead us into the Casta Diva. As when Callas sang Violetta, we knew she was sick right from the get go, we know that Norman is a tormented creature right from the first notes, which makes her caballetta after the Casta Diva meaningful, for after all, she is not wanting her lover to be destroyed.

This recording has much to offer, and much joy to give. I rated it only 4 stars because of my reservations with the cast (it seems more often than not, Callas is paired with far inferior casts in her recordings, which is such a shame; imagine if she had singers, both men and women, equal to her in presentation, coloratura, musicianship, and in dramatic interpretation). However, having seen Norma many times by various artists, I tend to agree with one reviewer who stated that we sadly see anyone get up there and sing this opera really ruining it because they have no business being up there singing it, even if they have all the notes.

Callas may have not had the most beautiful voice, but she had far more than all the notes, she had the entire soul of the character; Callas is Norma.

This is the best version of Bellini's Norma on record because of the power and beauty of Maria Callas' voice which was at its prime in this recording. Maria Callas in her legendary 1954 performance as Bellini's epic character Norma..what more can you ask for ? Fans of the great late diva will be pleased. She has the best voice on this recording than all the subsequent late 50's and 60's recordings. It benefits from having conductor Tulio Serafin, who knew how to work well with Callas, as the force behind the music. Serafin made Callas a star actually, because he knew how to effectively bring out the best in her.

Maria Callas in this Norma is fresh, powerful and complex. She is plaintive and spiritual in the serene "Casta Diva" aria, dazzling in the coloratura "A Bello A Mi Ritorna" and she changes from love-struck woman to a volcano of fury and revenge in the later scenes to finally noble and resigned in the finale. Only Callas could most dramatically portray Norma. It is true that Callas's singing technique emphasized the dramatic intensity more so than the beauty. She wanted for audiences to be treated to real drama. She strained her voice so hard that it can be a gritty ugly voice. Even like this, there are moments in which Maria Callas sounds absolutely beautiful. The weak cast supporting her are indeed inferior when compared to such singers as tenors Franco Corelli, Mario Del Monaco and mezzo soprano Christina Ludwig which Callas worked with in later recordings. But this doesnt matter seeing how Maria is the real star anyways.

Other Normas of great calibre include Shirley Verrett and Montserrat Caballe. Both these sopranos once visited Callas and sought advice for how to sing a sensational Norma. Callas told them not to overdo it or to oversing it. Shirley Verrett sang a fine Norma and is indeed closer to Callas than Caballe but Caballe did the role numerous times and seemed to master the role quite well. If you are looking for the best Norma look no further.

No other role is more associated with Maria Callas than the role of the Druid priestess Norma. Throughout her career, what survived out of the ninety Normas that she sang showed a growth in Maria as an artist and as a vivid painter of this extremely complex role. An excerpt of her 1949 Norma from Buenos Aires shows a warrior priestess who is in complete control of her vocal resources. In that recording (Divina Records 12), Callas is in splendid vocal form, giving one of her most vocally delectable interpretations of Casta Diva. Already in 1949, we see an artist who understood the part, but still didn't offer us a feminine side to it. During that same year, a Cetra recording with the Casta Diva...Ah Bello a me ritorna excerpt was released, also finding her in splendid vocal form (akin to Ponselle's Casta Diva, only better in coloratura facilities). It was an amazing document of the young Callas' career, and I'd recommend it to anyone who would like to discover Callas' voice. A year later, we have her Norma in Mexico, and we find a more warrior-like approach to the music, but nonetheless it gave an amazing effect to the fury duets in the second act. Two years later, in London, we find Callas giving us more of the woman along with a Stignani who was in splendid vocal form. Then the Trieste excerpts (also by Divina) shows another side of Callas in which we see her development as an artist. This is very much like the Sunflowers of Vincent Van Gogh, where each successing Sunflower painting shows a more intimate and personal side of poor Vincent. The next Norma document we have of Callas is this studio recording. Once again, Serafin and Callas collaborate in this recording, and oh what a recording it was! Callas, of course, is the biggest star in this Norma, but other singers like Stignani and Rossi-Lemeni make an impact on it as well. Although Stignani well into her years (as was her voice), her great dramatic mezzo soprano timbre was amazingly so, an instrument of that served the role well. After all, she had sung the role with Gina Cigna. Stignani may have sounded matrimonly enough to be Norma, but her Adalgisa was in every respect grande and complete. It may not have Ludwig's amazing and youthful insight into the role, but what a force of nature her voice was! Rossi-Lemeni is also another dramatic force to reckon with, and he is an Oroveso I would treasure the more I listen to him. Mario Filipesschi though, is lousy. He was vocally able, but his interpretation was lacking and he sounded boring. Callas though, is beautiful sounding in this recording. She was a complete Norma vocally and dramatically, and every excerpt that showcases her abilities as a singer is simply exquisite. She was also slimmer when this recording was made, so there was a certain sensitivity to her voice when she sang this Norma. And then there is Serafin. No other conductor has approached the genius of this man. His perfect use of the bel canto tempo gives it a dimension that no other maestro would touch, and this is the reason why I would recommend this recording. Other great Normas would follow, but this was the recording that would put Callas' stamp on the role forever.

This 2003 remastering of the 1954 recording removes all sense of acoustic space, and is harsh and grating. The 1997 remastering, still available on Amazon as the Callas Edition, with the black-and-white cover photo, adds a lovely touch of lyrical softness, and is currently the best option for this magnificent recording. Shame on EMI - their constant fiddling, and remastering from previous remasters, and not the original source, is an insult to Callas and all the talent involved in her recordings. Even the new Complete Studio Recordings includes this awful edition.

I just wanted to advise people faced with the bewildering number of Callas Normas who can't afford to buy them all. They are all worthwhile, but this is definitely the best. Don't be fooled into thinking that the stereo sound warrants buying the 1960 one--her voice is so much better here that the mono sound is definitely not an issue in deciding between these two. Also, Bellini's orchestration is so thin (? that is not the word I really want to use because it sounds pejorative and I love Bellini) and simple that a lack of depth in the orchestral part is not very important in appreciating the music, and the voices are extremely well recorded, stereo could not capture these voices any better...and the vocal part is what is most important in Bellini. And this is good studio mono sound. And her voice here!!! Her 1960 performance has some grating high notes, but on this recording you actually just look forward to the high notes because it is so thrilling to hear that rich, full voice soar up to such rock solid highs (no wobbles ever) and keep such an evenness of sound. Her singing is just so much more secure and confident here. I actually got the 1960 one as well, but this is the one I always listen to...
I find the other singers range from satisfactory to very good.
This is very beautiful and is the first choice Callas Norma, in my opinion. But if you can afford it, buy them all, of course :)

I don't have to elaborate the good things about this recording most what I have to say has been said by previous reviewers. Please read the reviews especially in the original cover edition. What I would like to say that this reissue is a cheaper version than the original black cover without compromising quality and cover. So for those who have not purchased this great recording (best Norma Studio recording ever) This is you chance to get this. In its label it says "The Great Recordings of the Century" I could never disagree with that.

I am a great admirer of Callas - what sane lover of voice and opera isn't? - which is precisely why I cannot understand giving this "Norma" five stars when there is competition of far greater quality - provided by Callas herself in her other recordings. No other artist, including Sutherland or Caballe, can touch her interpretation but if you want to hear her worthily partnered, go to either of the live 1955 mono recordings with Del Monaco as Pollione (conducted by Serafin or Votto, in listenable, but limited, sound) or the 1960 stereo version with Corelli, Ludwig and - for the third time - Zaccaria. Callas' voice had not so much deteriorated by that time, apart from a few flapping top notes, and there are huge compensations in the delicacy of her characterisation, the quality of her partners and the good studio sound. (The decline in Callas' voice was not a linear process as her later recordings of "Gioconda" and the 1960 "Norma" testify.) Regarding this 1954 performance, in truth, that great artist Ebe Stignani was too mature for Adalgisa by this stage of her career, Filippeschi is very ordinary and blaring as Pollione and Rossi-Lemeni is his usual gruff, gritty self, unsteady of line compared with the smooth production of Zaccaria. No; go for any of the other three recordings I suggest before this one - though I readily admit that if no others were available, I'd probably be happy with it!

I heard this recording, again, on [...] a Seattle-based classical music radio station. They recommended this version and I think it is one of the best opera recordings I have in my collection.
This recording with Maria Callas is outstanding, and thoroughly enjoyable.

The recording is exactly what you would expect from an all-star cast.

Owners of the Schirmer piano score, watch out for cuts from page 44 to 48, 76 to 80, and 106 to 107. The endings of bth acts are also different.