Cherubini: Medea (Dallas, 6 November 1958)

Nicola Rescigno (Artist), Maria Callas (Artist), Teresa Berganza (Artist), Judith Raskin (Artist), Jon Vickers (Artist), Nicola Zaccaria (Artist), Peter Bender (Artist), Mary MacKenzie (Artist), Luigi Cherubini (Composer), Vittorio Gui (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Conductor: Vittorio Gui
• Composer: Luigi Cherubini
• Audio CD (June 6, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Gala
• ASIN: B000001XNI
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,228 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #57 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Callas, Maria

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Sinfonia: Atto Prima/Act One

2. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Che? Quando già corona Amor

3. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: O Amore, vieni a me!

4. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: No, non temer

5. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: O bella Glauce

6. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Colco! Pensier fatal!

7. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Or che più non vedrò

8. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Ah, già troppo turbò

9. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Pronube dive

10. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Signor! Ferma unna donna

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Creonte a me solo un giorno dà?

2. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Figli miei, miei tesor

3. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Hai dato pronto ascolto

4. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Ah! Tristi canto!...Dio dell' Amor!

5. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Atto Terzo/Act Three: Introduzione

6. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Numi, venite a me

7. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Del fiero duol che il cor mi frange

8. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Neris, che hai fatto

9. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: E che? Io son Medea!/Medea/Sposa di Giasone/wedded to Jason/Giasone/Condottiero degli Argonauti/lea

10. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Introduzione

See all 14 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

cds are free of scratches. Hardly used. May be some handling wear to the cd case.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserved Reputation, June 4, 2005

By 

Opera-rater "Christopher" (Fayetteville, AR) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cherubini: Medea (Dallas, 6 November 1958) (Audio CD)

This recording deserves its reputation. The recording quality is

good (for the time and place) and Callas is terrifying. The searing

quality of her chest voice is ( and needs to remain) unique. Young

singers, beware: don't attempt this at home, or any place else. When

you hear this and other recordings of Medea, you understand her

later vocal collapse, but hey: better 10 years of glory than 20 of

treading operatic water. While other singers might challenge her

in other rep, NO ONE can touch her in this role. There is a reason it

stays out of the repertiore: the tessitura is deadly.

Musically, it has some very interesting moments, and Cherubini's harmonic language takes some daring turns. Great performance ,

great music, great theater.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A First Choice for Callas's Medea, May 17, 2000

By 

Vincent Lau - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cherubini: Medea (Dallas, 6 November 1958) (Audio CD)

Medea is one of Maria Callas's most famous part and this recording, made "live" in Dallas on 6th November, 1958, offers an excellent memento of the diva's searingly intense portrayal. Although by that time, Callas's vocal decline was just around the corner, she is here captured in excellent voice. Besides, her dramatic sense is as strong as ever and one can't help but completely bowled over by vocal acting of such brilliance. Although Medea is very much a "tigress" whose frequent outbursts provide lots of vocal opportunities for the singer, Callas also uses her voice intelligently in order to convey Medea's agony, despair and internal struggles through subtle vocal accentuations which, once heard, cannot be forgotten. It is in every respect a magisterial performance. Jon Vickers, another great singing-actor of the 20th Century, is in clarion voice and he is able to make the most out of the limited possibilities offered by the role of Giasone. The young Teresa Berganza is a lovely and lyrical Neris and she is exceptionally good in her Act II aria. Eliszabeth Carron has a secure and bright top for the role of Glauce while Nicola Zaccaria is a sonorous and authoritative Creon, even though there is not too much individuality in characterisation. The chorus, a bit raw at times, sings with zest. The Orchestra of the Civic Opera Company of Dallas performs well under the baton of Nicola Rescigno, who provides lots of momentum to the music if not an equivalent amount of insight and subtlety. Compared with other available versions of Callas's Medea, this Dallas recording is in cleaner sound and is overall better cast than the La Scala performances of 1953 under Bernstein. Callas's portrayal here is more vivid than in the comparatively stolid commercial recording and she is in a better vocal shape than when we meet her again in the role at La Scala in 1961. While no libretto is included in this set (which, unfortunately, is almost the norm in this kind of releases), given the overall excellence of the performance, and that there are some bonus tracks of Callas's Medea in 1953, Firenze, those who wish to experience Callas in this opera may well consider this set to be their first choice.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When ancient greek spirit meets opera, in one word, Callas.., November 15, 2004

By 

George P. "George P." (Athens, Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cherubini: Medea (Dallas, 6 November 1958) (Audio CD)

In 1958 Maria Callas was on a tour, right after recording the Mad scenes and Verdi arias I for the EMI in september, she arrived in octomber in New York and lunched with Mr Bing for the following season at the Met. They discussed for Traviata, Tosca and Lady Macbeth.

She began her tour with a concert in Birmingham, then in Atlanta, in Montreal, in Toronto and then she gave two performances of Traviata and two performances of Medea in Dallas. In her first performance of Medea she received a telegram from Mr Bing with which he was dissapointed from the Diva and confirmed that their agreement had ended, because she didnt agree to the repertoire he was offering her. She was quite furious and this can be understood by the way she sung in this Medea, with anger and dissapointment, which was fortunatelly preserved in good sound. She gave about five more concerts ending her tour in Los Angeles in a concert which is also preserved.

In this Medea we can see her acting like Callas, the furious Diva that the press had created, but this made her act as well her best as Medea. She was not a singing machine. This is why she used to cancel her performances when she was sick ....not in the mood to sing and to give her best performance (sviatoslav rochter could cancel a perfoamnce 3 minutes before its beginning if the lights were not good enough!!!).

She gives her voice in full sound and does not stop singing passionatelly from the first note to the last one. I consider it to be her best live Medea, because her voice is totally sublime. Even if she had given so many concerts and recorded in studio a month earlier, she sung her best . This was Callas, the phenomenon. No other artist gave so much to this opera. No other artist could sing Medea like Callas did , she was unique in this role. Some people that worked in La Scala in Milan had said that in her Medeas there, the blood of the public froze in the first words of hers...'e fors'e qui...io Medea!!!'.

For those who wish to listen to a more clear sound, but a Callas Medea as she only knew how to sing it, buy the recorded Medea in 1957. Her voice is a bit exhausted there, because of an exhausting tour of La Sonnambula in Cologne, a Lucia in Rome, then studio recordings of Manon Lescaut and Turandot, (Manon recording sessions ending on 15 of july and turandot's starting on 18 of July (!!!)), which were also recorded at La Scala in Milan with terrible conditions, then a tour in Edinburgh with La Sonnambula again...(and i still cant think of the reason why she didnt agreed to sing the fifth performance of La Sonnambula which was scheduled on 3rd of September, for which she was not contracted, by the way...she was not that tired..what do you think???...just kidding..)...and after all in september, her studio Medea, for which everyone can easily jump to conclusions, that she seemed to be tired.

Of course Tereza Berganza was a great artist and a great Neris, Nicola Zaccaria a wonderfull Creonte and of course Jon Vickers, her companion in her last Medeas in Milan, a strong and wonderfull Jason with a magnificent voice. (This recording also contains the third act of her first Medea, in 1953 when her voice was like a thunder, and what a thrill it is to be able to listen to her first steps in this role...)

Enjoy Medea, in flesh and blood, and be amazed by her unique artistic nature......