26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the essential Lucia recordings, March 27, 2001
This review is from: Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor (Audio CD)
Maria Callas made the great bulk of her recordings for EMI/Angel. She also recorded La Gioconda and La traviata for Cetra and Medea for Ricordi, both Italian firms. (EMI has since acquired the rights to Medea, and the Cetra recordings are still in the catalog as well.) This Lucia, made during a series of performances of the opera with Callas at the Florence May Festival 1953, was the first complete opera Callas recorded for EMI. Despite its not being complete, it really is one of the important Lucia recordings and belongs on any serious collector's shelf.
Maria Callas of course was and remains an acquired taste, and one could do much worse than to begin his acquaintance with her with this Lucia. In this recording and in her Puritani, her voice had a certain fullness that began to disappear within a couple of years, possibly coinciding with her well-publicized weight loss. Going along with this fullness of sound was a darker quality that is entirely appropriate to Donizetti's brooding heroine. At this point in her career, Callas still had almost full control over her high notes, and even though John Steane, who wrote the notes for the recording, doesn't care for her high D at the end of "Quando rapito in estasi," I find her to be in good voice throughout. While Callas' later recordings of Lucia, both commercial and live, would certainly reach even closer to the heart of the character, this recording strikes the perfect balance between good vocalism and dramatic truth, and I would probably choose it even over the 1955 live Berlin performance, which although a little more complete, is rather more Teutonic-sounding because of Karajan's conducting and whose sound quality does not quite approach that of this recording.
Looking back almost a half-century later, and after having had such other heavier-voiced singers as Sutherland, Moffo, Sills and Caballe tackle this part, it's difficult to imagine the impact that Callas' Lucia must have had on audiences who were used to hearing much lighter-voiced singers in the role. And indeed, such singers would not immediately lose their hold on Lucia. Roberta Peters would record Donizetti's heroine a couple of years later for RCA Victor, an interpretation which gives a good idea of how the role used to be conceived. When I first heard the Peters recording, on a Christmas morning a couple of years ago, I was immediately struck by how different the development of my interest in opera would have been if her recording had been my introduction to the opera.
Considering that Lucia di Lammermoor has always been considered one of the touchstones of the bel canto and coloratura soprano repertoires, it's interesting that it is one of the few operas from the period that gives the final word to the tenor. Nellie Melba, another famous Lucia, used to have the final scene omitted, and Joan Sutherland, when she did her half-hour television abridgement, had the story told in flashback so that the selections actually began with the final scene and ended with the Mad Scene. If Callas is an acquired taste, I must say that I've never talked to anybody who didn't like di Stefano, at least during his early years. And to further the contrast with Callas' assumption of Lucia, Edgardo is the kind of role that was already identified with the kind of sound that di Stefano produced, thanks to Gigli and others. He has all the youthful ardency needed for the part, whether he is expressing love in the first act, anger in the second, or grief and remorse in the third.
Tito Gobbi, the Enrico, is not generally identified with the bel canto repertoire, being much better known for such roles as Rigoletto and Scarpia; in the latter, he was of course famous for his partnership with Callas as Tosca. But he is surprisingly good as Enrico and even manages to inject a little more beauty into his tone than usual.
Raffaele Arie was a highly-respected basso who unfortunately did not leave many recordings. And Raimondo's big aria is among the casualties of this and other Lucia recordings that came before the big bel canto renaissance that Sutherland would both help to usher in and ride the crest of a few years later. Because of the cuts, Raimondo is not much more than a comprimario here, but Arie does do well with the part of the opera that remains to him. Similarly, the supporting singers are all good, especially Valiano Natali as Arturo.
The recorded sound is quite good for the period and is certainly an improvement over that of the Seraphim LP pressings that served as many people's introduction to this recording and the opera. The CD set also contains the opening ominous timpani sounds that begin the opera but were missing from the Seraphim pressing.
This recording is certainly more than adequate for anybody whose primary interest in the opera is Callas' participation. Those more interested in a complete rendition of the opera would do well to investigate just about any of the recordings made in the past 40 years (Sutherland's two are my favorites), but even there this recording would be a welcome supplement.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A magnificent Lucia, April 25, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor (Audio CD)
This was only Callas' second recording for EMI the first being I Puritani and it was to be the begining of the Callas frenzy. No suprise. Here was a voice still big enough to sing Wagner able to articulate the most sensational coloratura, even at the extremities of the voice the tone is full blooded and beautiful, you get the feeling that she could perform any feat she wished with barely taking a breath. And again (after seeing this opera recently at the Met.) I am amazed by the way Callas could fill a coloratura passage with such delicate phrasing and such color that the listener can feel the very joy and pain that Donizetti (and others) clearly wanted to communicate. This is what made Callas' work great art. At this point of her career and in the following few years she wasn't just the great singing actress. She was vocally super human capable of astounding things. Although her interprative skills may be sharper in the slightly later Karajan recording and indeed Callas live is always more thrilling than a studio recording, this set for me is the one to recommend. The remastered sound is exceptionally good and makes the recording one that can happily compete with more modern recordings. Magnificent.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Revolutionary Revelation, July 19, 2002
This review is from: Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor (Audio CD)
With the overwhelming list of recorded Lucia's, it's not readily apparent why this would be a desirable set to purchase. It's not in stereo and the opera isn't given totally complete. There's debate over the prima donna's vocal prowess, as can be seen from previous reviews. Why would anyone choose to buy such an obviously inferior recording? For those who've set their minds that above all else singing must be "pretty", I wouldn't recommend this recording. But for those who seek to understand the power that music wedded to words can have, this set is a perfect demonstration.
In the eras of modernism and post-modernism, no one bothered to look for profundity in a work that was thought to possess none. Attitudes that had been passed down from the previous century which implied that emotional singing was harmful to the purity and health of the voice were taken too much to heart, and through the hammy, superficial acting and singing these attitudes produced, anything associated with the term "coloratura" came to be regarded as instantly ridiculous. Therefore, this Lucia is special and essential because of how, mainly through its prima donna's participation, public perception of Donizetti's tragic masterpiece, to say nothing of his other works of vocal art or the works of his contemporaries, was changed. All anyone really needs to understand why Callas' art was so revolutionary is to compare her version of "The Mad Scene" in this recording with those recorded by Lily Pons or Amelita Galli-Curci while following along with the text and a translation. The difference couldn't be more clear.
Partnering Miss Callas in her achievement was the singer-actor Tito Gobbi, a baritone of penetrating dramatic insight. His Enrico here gives Callas' Lucia someone to be afraid of, making her misfortune that much more believable. Brilliant as La Divina was at creating dynamic, believable theatre singing solo, she reached her greatest heights when playing against another performer whose intelligence matched her own, something she always found with Gobbi.
Giuseppe di Stefano sings an impressive Edgardo, though his acting gains depth only in the final scene. However, this is a trivial point, considering the fact that tenor singing of this calibre is rare in any age. His voice is free and thrilling throughout the recording, evincing none of the constriction that marred his later work. Minor roles are well cast, and the entire performance benefits from the masterful conducting of Maestro Tullio Serafin.
Turning to the sound, it's in acceptable mono, though this particular remastering has robbed the voices of some warmth, hence my 4 star recommendation. To hear an approximation of how the recording sounded in its original LP incarnation, boost the middle frequencies, adding just a touch of bass as well. While not a perfect re-creation, it helps restore vibrancy to the voices, necessary when trying to hear what Callas sounded like before her voice was processed through microphones and mixing boards.
Though she was better known for her Norma, Violetta, and Medea, it was with this Lucia that Callas made her first lasting mark on the world. Listen to this recording and find out why.
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