Cherubini: Medea

Luigi Cherubini (Composer), Thomas Schippers (Conductor), Alfredo Giacomotti (Performer), Edith Martelli (Performer), Giulietta Simionato (Performer), Ivana Tosini (Performer), Jon Vickers (Performer), Limbania Leoni (Performer), Maria Callas (Performer), Nicolai Ghiaurov (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Alfredo Giacomotti, Edith Martelli, Giulietta Simionato, Ivana Tosini, Jon Vickers, et al.
• Conductor: Thomas Schippers
• Composer: Luigi Cherubini
• Audio CD (June 20, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Opera D'oro
• ASIN: B00004TCHM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,971 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 1a, 'Overture'

2. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 1b, 'Che? Quando gia corona'

3. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 1c, 'Lo cedo alla buona preghiera'

4. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 1d, 'O Amore, vieni a me'

5. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 1e, 'No, non temer'

6. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 2a, 'O bella Glauce'

7. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 2b, 'Colco! Pensier'

8. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 3a, 'Or che piu non vedro'

9. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 3b, 'Ah, gia troppo turbo'

10. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 4a, 'Pronube dive'

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 6a, 'Dei tuoi figli la madre'

2. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 6b, 'Son vane qui minacce'

3. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act I, No. 7, 'Nemici senza cor'

4. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act II, No. 8a, 'Introduction'

5. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act II, No. 8b, 'Soffrir non posso'

6. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act II, No. 9a, 'Data almen, per pieta'

7. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act II, No. 9b, 'Medea! o Medea!'

8. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act II, No. 10a, 'Solo un pianto'

9. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act II, No. 10b, 'Creonte a me solo'

10. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Act II, No. 11a, 'Figli miei'

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EVEN AT THE END -- CALLAS' MEDEA STILL A FIRE EATING DRAGON!, July 29, 2001

By 

L. Mitnick (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cherubini: Medea (Audio CD)

This 1961 performance is a great surprise to me. By 1961 Maria Callas' vocal problems (as well as her relationship with Aristotle Onasis) were fodder for gossip columns all over the world. Her operatic appearances were becoming rarer and rarer and every Callas performance by then had an almost circus-like atmosphere about it. This "Medea" finds Callas in her last La Scala season, and though the later performances of this Medea series in May of 1962 found her in very serious vocal difficulty, the premiere performance recorded here finds her very much at the top of her form. Well, admittedly, the climatic top notes do tend to waver, but never alarmingly so. But the voice as a whole is rock solid, powerful ----- and the fabled chest tones are as menacing as ever. Whether venemous, tormented or triumphant, Callas rises to every dramatic challenge masterfully. After listening to any Callas Medea performance, one does not have to wonder why the opera is not performed today ---- who could even hope to attempt such an Amazonian role? The supporting cast heard here at La Scala may constitute the greatest ever encountered in any Callas Medea performance.As Neris, the faithful maid, the great Italian mezzo soprano Gulietta Simionato makes the most of her role, most notably her beautiful aria in Act II (though it must be said that as good as she is, she is no better than Teresa Berganza and Fedora Barbieri ---- who partnered Callas in previous Medea performances). Jon Vickers IS the greatest Jason of any Callas Medea. Vickers was probably the only tenor capable of meeting Callas on her own musical and dramatic plane --- and he is heard here at the very beginning of his international career. The same might also be said about Nicolai Ghiaurov, who was also at the dawn of what was to be one of the most important careers in opera. Thomas Schippers may not pace this opera with the sheer animal intensity of Leonard Bernstein (at La Scala in 1953) or Nicola Rescigno (in Dallas in 1958), but he generates an excitement that is substantial enough. The sound of this recording is, to my ears, superior to both the 1953 La Scala and 1958 Dallas live recordings. The price is incredibly cheap ----- and Callas proves that, even in 1961, she still had the capacity to wrench more out of this opera than anyone else. A real bargain!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Callas' Last Medea, August 13, 2000

By 

Calvin M Goodwin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cherubini: Medea (Audio CD)

Although some Opera D'Oro releases suffer from over-filtering/noise-reduction techniques, this is not one of them. The sound is clear and undoctored. Moreover the speed seems to be accurate. One had always read that in this, her final series of Medeas (and her last appearances at La Scala), Callas was in sadly diminished vocal form. Not so. True, the highest notes flap about alarmingly, but the middle register is rock-solid and the chest tones are full and without the dessicated quality of her later years. And the remaining cast members are superb!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1961 live performance by Callas in one of her greatest roles, February 21, 2006

By 

L. E. Cantrell (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cherubini: Medea (Audio CD)

Source: Live performance recorded on December 14, 1961 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

Sound: Not bad by the standards of live recordings from the 1960s. The voices are generally well-caught, although there is noticeable variation as they move from place to place on the stage. At one point in Act I, while Callas is singing, some backstage bonehead chooses to indulge in a longish monologue. The chorus and orchestra sound all right, but in a more limited and boxy way then customary in digital-era recordings.

The La Scala audience was more disciplined than has sometimes been the case. For the most part, they applauded only at the appropriate places. Quite obviously, they were bowled over by the glorious presence of La Divina. Medea first appears midway through Act I. The recording nicely captures what it is to be in the presence of a true star. When some members of the audience caught sight of Callas, they broke into spontaneous applause while others hissed out sharp shushing sounds, demanding silence.

Cast: Medea (soprano) - Maria Callas; Jason (tenor) - Jon Vickers; Creon (bass) - Nicolai Ghiaurov; Neris (mezzo-soprano) - Giulietta Simionato; Glauce (soprano) - Ivan [sic] Tosini; Captain of the Guards - Alfredo Giacomotti; Maidservants - Edith Martelli and Limbania Leoni. Conductor: Thomas Schippers with the Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Milan.

Text: This is an effective performing text that omits passages that are of interest to the purists and completests who hold every written note sacrosanct and are indifferent both to the second thoughts of composers and to the practical insights of people who actually work each day in the theater.

Documentation: The usual anemic Od'O package. No libretto. A couple of hundred words on the composer and opera. The same in summary of the plot by Act. Track list that fails to identify who is singing or to provide timings.

"Medea" premiered as "Medee" (curses on the Amazon system for not leting me use the proper forms of the letters) in Paris in 1797. It is based on Greek tragedy as interpreted in a 1635 play by Pierre Corneille. The composer, Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842), lived long enough to see his time come and then go. Cherubini arrived in Paris during the heady days of the French Revolution. He became the musical darling of the revolutionaries by grinding out operas in what might be called the French Republican Realist style, providing much the same sort of thing that Shostakovich and Prokofiev provided to Stalin's revolution. By 1797, revolutionary fervor had subsided and a taste for neo-Classicism had emerged, hence this re-entry of Greek legend into French opera.

"Medee" was written in typical French fashion with spoken dialogue connecting the musical passages. It was not until 1855, long after Cherubini's death, that lesser hands converted the dialogue into sung recitatives. The 1855 version of "Médée" was translated into Italian as "Medea," finally to achieve the success that had eluded it among the French.

Beethoven was an admirer of the opera. The extent of that admiration may be measured by comparing the first half hour of "Medea" with his "Fidelio." It can hardly be doubted that Beethoven, who was not instinctively a man of the theater, used the form and musical idiom of "Medee" as a template for his only opera.

All too often, Callas' live recordings fail to achieve the heights by reason of leaden performances from second- and third-rate supporting singers. That is not the case here. La Scala clearly pulled out all the stops to provide a festival-quality cast.

This recording presents Maria Callas in the latter days of her stage career. She takes the stage at La Scala in one of her greatest roles. It is obvious to anyone who hears this performance that her top notes are not what they had been only a few years earlier. It is equally obvious that throughout most of her range, she continued to be one of the greatest singers and dramatic interpreters of all time. Despite bobbles here and there, La Divina's final recorded assumption of the role of Medea is a magnificent and searing portrait.

Each of the three other principal singers, Vickers, Simionato and Ghiaurov, is brilliant in his or her own way.

Thomas Schippers conducts in a workmanlike and, I suppose, sometimes insightful way. His work strikes me as solid rather than brilliant.

Every serious fan of opera should have a recording of Maria Callas singing Medea. This one, though late, is inexpensive and probably the best all-around version.

Five stars.