Customer Reviews

Callas Legacy, The: The Complete Guide to Her Recordings on Compact Di

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If you are a Callas fan or are planning to become one, this book is indispensable. One is faced with so many Callas recordings, both studio and live, that it is very hard to choose which ones to get without a good guide. And this book is the best you can find around. Ardoin leads you through every recording that Callas made, and he offers an objective and detailed analysis of her accomplishments. So if you are trying to decide which one out of her dozen or so Normas should be joined to your collection, you can read all about the pros and contras of every single recording. For the ones who already own an older edition of this book that dealt with Callas on records, this volume won't offer much new, there are new reviews on recently-surfaced Aida and Traviata, as well as a few concert arias, but the bulk of the book is the same as in older editions.

John Ardoin's recent death is a real loss for opera buffs everywhere, as it means that there will be no more updated editions, at least by him, of this exhaustively researched guide to the recordings of arguably the greatest, certainly the most famous opera singer of the twentieth century.

At the time of its publication this incarnation had the most complete data about the diva's recordings on compact disc then available, including newly discovered complete performances of Aida and La Traviata. Even when the information goes out of date, as it inevitably will (new incarnations of live performances will appear, and perhaps rumored unpublished material will surface), Ardoin's gracefully written, knowledgeable and balanced commentaries on Callas' work will remain an endless source of pleasure. May _The Callas Legacy_ come back into print, and soon!

This is not just an invaluable introduction to the greatest opera singer of the century. It is also a guide through those works, so that the more you know about Callas, the better this book gets.

You couldn't ask for a better analysis of Callas' recorded work. Only the photo selections are below (way below) expectations.