Customer Reviews

Cherubini: Medea (Dallas, 6 November 1958)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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......

Very powerful and dramatic performance which will leave you in awe. Callas obviously performs much better during live performances and this set proves that statement. The sound is acceptable for live Callas standards but it is her strong, characterful voice which redeems the sound and makes this a must own set! and at bargain price its one of my best buys ever. The bonus tracks are excellent too.

Finally with this set, I have listened to all the recordings of Callas' Medea;1953 Firenze e Milano/ 1957 Studio rec./1958 this Dallas version/1959 London & 1961 Milano. Each has each own merit and defect. This set is relatively clearly recorded and expresses a good atmosphere of a live performance. And Callas & Vickers are powreful and Rescigno's conducting is very dinamic. In a whole, all the interpreters are faithful to the drama. But from the first time I have got suspected of Berganza' voice for it sounds like that of Cossotto at the Covent Garden. And on the finals of the two duets of Medea & Giasone(Jason) we cannot listen to Callas' voice well maybe because of the position of microphone at that time, while Vickers' one is exaggerated. But this recording is superior to another performances although there are some abbreviations. Beside you can have a bonus, the third act of the Firenze performance with much better improved sound quality than the "Hunt" set. I'm extremely sure that you will be satisfacted.

Reading one reviewer's idea of Callas admitting to not being interested in her voice and technique and her being a sloppy vocalist I had a good laugh because it's totally untrue. Young Callas spent 14 of 24 hours a day at the conservatory. Then, a sloppy vocalist is hardly capable of singing Rossini's Armida to perfection, learning this most difficult role (Sutherland never sang it) in five days only, a time in which other famous songbirds struggle with just one cadenza. A sloppy vocalist isn't capable of doing "I Puritani" and "Die Walküre" in the same week. Before you act like an expert, do your homework or you'll expose yourself to ridicule.

This Medea IS a milestone. The only Medea who had it all!

What a thrill to hear such an historic CD of a live performance
in Dallas!!! Of course any live performance sacrifices the
technical excellence of a studio recording, but provides the
unique atmosphere of being there.

This is especially enjoyable for me, since I was on stage with
Callas singing in the chorus. We had just heard of her conflict
with the Met a few hours before, but being the consumate singer,
performer and musician that she was, this performance was even
more inspiring

For me, the enjoyment of Callas's various Live versions of Medea stand or fall on the the final 3rd Act "E Che? Ion Son Medea!" which lasts for about 12-13 minutes. Altho the whole opera is great and there are other wonderful moments elsewhere, this is the section I listen to over and over.

This 1958 Dallas recording delivers! In SPADES!

Some reviewers have mentioned the wandering sound - it does wander out at one point for three or four lines but not at a hightlight moment or important note. Compared to the 1953 performance under Bernstein which has recently been released by EMI, I think the inevitable extranous noises of a live recording occur at less annoying times on this 'Dallas' set than on that one. (Worth mentioning for bargin lovers/hunters that this set is also a considerably better buy than the EMI set at almost half the price)

My highlight - In the finale mentioned above, at one point Callas has almost pared the vocal down to a spoken recitative, savagely spitting out venemous words before launching terrifyingly into summoning the Furies down upon her enemies. Absolutely thrilling! Supposedly the fury of this performance was additionally fuelled by the fact that it took place only hours after she had been unceremoniously sacked by the Met.

On this set there is also a bonus 3rd Act from 1953 conducted by Vittorio Gui (not the 1953 conducted by Bernstein mentioned above) - Hardly needed but a nice extra.

Highly recommended - 5 stars from me.

(I also give Callas 1957 Studio Medea 5 stars and, altho I have compared it a little unfavorably above, I still give the 1953 under Bernstein 4 stars. Both sets I have reviewed elsewhere)

if it were embodiment of Drama it would be Callas in this Medea.
outstanding performance.don't miss you chance to listen real Opera .

A friend who attended this performance told me he was totally flabbergasted by the riveting performances of everyone on stage that night. But don't take his word for this, listen to the performance and hear for yourself!

Callas' fury that night certainly made me believe the story that says she was addressing her curses both to Jason and Mr. Bing for sacking her. Her frightening vocal attacks that night are not for the faint-hearted. This is a lesson of what not to do when singing but I guess knowing no limits is what made Callas so popular and unfortunately voiceless in the end. She was in unusually firm voice that evening and delivers all the drama there is in this classic heroine.

For once she's parted by excellent artists! The young Vickers makes a heroic, mythical Jason and the even younger Berganza soars as Neris. Zaccaria offers his usual sumptuous bass and noble stage personality. For some reason I've never taken Rescigno seriously but he succeeds in creating an exciting atmosphere. The Gala sound is an improvement and the beautiful set offers excerpts from Callas' earlier Florence Medea.

One of Callas' all-around best recordings!