Customer Reviews

Callas à Paris: Arias, Vol. 1

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French was one of the languages Callas spoke fluently and beautifully. Her few recordings of French music are rare, exquisite jewels indeed. Beginning with Orphée's lament we hear not a beautiful serenade but a despaired soul yearning for its beloved, seeking what it couldn't reach, begging for a response from the one who couldn't hear its pleading. The tormented outcries "Euridice! EURIDICE!" will have you misty eyed. Singing the French version of Gluck's Alceste, a role she had sung brilliantly in Italian, having La Scala at her feet, she dazzles with a dignified elegance and brilliant style for Gluck as well as crystall clear diction and perfect phrasing. Her Carmen breathes fire and is maybe the most dangerously sexy gypsy you'll ever hear. Massenet's evil seductress Dalilah is sung with a totally different voice. Silken, husky and erotic, it is almost unbearable not to fall prey to this siren. Juliette's waltz, while magnificently phrased and coloured was recorded too late. Her Mignon is deliciously beautiful. But the highlight is her "Pleurez mes yeux". Callas finds colours and incredibly haunting pathos here. Presenting the contralto like depth of her rich low notes and magnificent middle she defines sadness, resignation, yearning for death and remembering crushed hopes. Maybe one of the most sublime examples of stylistic, tasteful singing of "verismo". Absolutely stunning, one of Callas' best recitals ever.

When this recording was issued in the early 1960's, there was surprise that Maria Callas should have chosen to record arias from French opera, and on top of that, six of them associated with mezzo soprano and even contralto voices. Actually, it was a wise decision, and it shows the direction her career could have taken had she chosen to follow the course she led many to believe she was taking by doing this recording. Callas had, of course, a fully developed and unusually full lower register in her voice, and she could use chest tones to great effect. Thus the arias from Gluck's "Orphee", Bizet's "Carmen", and Saint-Saens "Samson et Dalila" come off as close to flawlessly as one could get. The three arias from "Samson et Dalila" are especially fine, representing Callas at her greatest. She, of course, did record "Carmen" complete a couple of years later for EMI, but the two arias in the complete set do not have the verve and flash that they have on this recording. But there is another side to the story here. Callas's upper register, that which she utilized for her entire career, was deteriorating rapidly and mercilessly. This is obvious enough in the soprano arias she sings on this recording as well. It is not much of a problem in the "Le Cid" and "Alceste" arias, since the top B's and B flats are relatively short, and her singing of these pieces is otherwise so outstanding that a couple of bad top notes cannot spoil them. It is in the arias from "Romeo et Juliet", "Mignon", and especially "Louise" where the top notes become a real issue.Yes, there is great vocal phrasing here, and the feeling is right on target, but the climatic top notes are a real trial. The beautiful "Depuis le Jour" from "Louise" starts beautifully enough, but as soon as the music climbs above the staff, it becomes a test of the listener's endurance. Nevertheless, there is enough great work from Callas here to warrant a purchase of this recording. It also shows that Callas, given her great gifts, could have forged a new career in a new repertoire. That nothing of the sort came about is a loss for us all.

This is one of the best Callas recital!!! It's very wonderful!!! I think that the disappointed person of the first review has a problem with the ears. I don't understand french, and I don't know if Callas pronunciation is good, but the sound of the arias is very beatiful. Just listen the tracks 2, 8, 9 or 11 and prove. She sounds with strong force in all the arias... From the drammatic soprano in "Divinites du Styx" to the coloratura soprano in "Titania's" aria. If you are a Callas fan, this CD is for you. If you are not, this recording is very good for become...

Callas's Indian summer, vocally speaking, was at its most congenial in her Paris recordings, which include, for me at least, an incomparable "Carmen." It was recorded in 1964, three years after the first eleven tracks of this French recital. Callas sang the complete role in a darker voice - and a darker mood - than the two arias heard here. She was also on shaky ground in other ways and depended on her friend Georges Pretre to give her emotional support before she found the resources to record the opera. He's here, too, and I must say that his conducting is considerably more elegant and restrained than his blunt interpretation of Carmen. I can't read Callas's mood, of course, but she is in fresh, youthful voice in almost every number. There's very little wobble and very few insecure notes - mostly on the top - while on the other hand so much is beautifully vocalized.

Earlier reviewers have itemized their favorite numbers, and since no two of them exactly agree, one can conclude that the whole album is beautiful. The style is not typically French, as others have noted, and that's to the good. Callas is a greater singer than any of her native French rivals at the time, excepting Regine Crespin and the Belgian Suzanne Danco, perhaps, and what she had to contribute in intensity, power, and psychological depth opens one's eyes . If only the entire Paris Opera had sat up and taken notice. A bigger "if only" centers on the potentially great recordings we might have had of Manon, Werther, Samson et Delila, and perhaps an entire disc of Gluck arias, where she is supreme. The rapid vocal decline that was well underway by the mid-Sixties, along with personal considerations, dashed those prospects, but at least we have this CD, one of the single most beautiful recitals she ever recorded.

P.S. - This album goes for pennies on the used market, and the original digital transfer is so good that buyers don't have to worry about getting the latest version.

This is my absolute favorite recital disc. It is amazing what this woman has down to opera and continues to do. Aside from Carmen- nothing Callas has sung falls in the spectrum of my favorite operas- I really don't care for Puccini (safe Butterfly), Verdi (save Don Carlos), Donizetti (save Lucia), Bellini, Rossini, and any number of the composers whose work Callas has sung. My favorites lie first and foremost with Mozart, then Wagner, and the great Russian operas...

This disc is incredible...there is nothing like hearing this woman sing.

There is a reason why Callas is the greatest opera singer/actor to ever live- this disc brings it in full light.

Callas spoke French fluently. She sang it perfectly well. This CD deserves 1000000000000000 stars!

I just happened to download the first incarnation of the Callas A Paris CD that EMI reissued (prior to the one pictured) on my Ipod that included not only the contents of this album, but the majority of the arias on Vol. 2. I am also aware that the first generation of EMI Callas CD reissues to be warmer sounding than the newer ones. Newer isn't always better.

Nonetheless, I was never fully "convinced" upon first hearing this on LP years ago. A second hearing reveals a better appreciation for what could have (and ultimately didn't) happen in La Divina's career, namely that of taking on French repertoire in the dramatic/falcon/dramatic soprano and mezzo-soprano range that might have found the 1960s and later Callas voice in frendlier territory than the Bel Canto roles of the La Scala 50s. Callas knew that as well, hence her programing these arias in her few orchestral concerts she sang during that time. Mixing the mezzo rep with soprano arias was an amazing feat even though the higher end (Philline, Juliette, Louise, Manon) reveal wobble and stridency. Her way with text and phrasing remain Callas' own, and as they say, often imitated and never duplicated. Missed opportunities - Callas never performed complete French roles in the theatre, or with the exception of Carmen, in the studio.

What has never seen light is her recording of Thais "Mirror aria" that many sources cite was made during these sessions. That, and the remnants of her never-completed duet recital disc with DiStephano remain the Callas Holy Grail of recordings.