Customer Reviews

Mad Scenes

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I got this used... She made me weep like a baby... What a fascinating singer! I'm definitely buying more Callas-stuff!

As a life-long Callas fan, this rates as my personal "desert island" disc. The final scene from "Anna Bolena" is full of nuance, limpid high notes, and as close as you can get to a perfect recitative. The supporting voices can only be described as comical, at best; excreble at worst. The cavatina is a music lesson to any musician in the lilting way she shapes her gruppeti, and her breath control in her cadenzas are awe-inspiring. The final cabaletta is hair-raising in her fury. The "Pirata" scene is a little more careful, but nonetheless ravishing. One forgets one is listening to early 19th-century music, so full of modern expression is it. One should compare it to the live "pirated" (no pun intended) recording from 1959 at Carnegie Hall. The mad scene from "Hamlet" finds the Callas voice once again a new instrument: the voice totally French in approach. The coloratura passges are incredibly clean and natural, and for the most part, the high notes are all in place. Her use of colors and dynamics are, as far as I know, the only that are completely faithful to the score. As for the Callas trill, it has never been equaled, and that includes a certain retired Australian soprano who once sang Clotilde to Callas' Norma. A MUST for all Callas fans, and a great introduction for novices.

I am tried of people comparing Callas and Sutherland or Tebaldi. Why can't we appreciate all of them? All singers have their strength and weakness. Callas is at her best here in this album. She is very moving and her technique is superb. The Mad scence from Anna Bolena is just stunningly beautiful. The final cabaletta shows Callas at home in one of the most challenging arias in bel canto operas. Her trills and scales are beyond criticism. This is one of my favorite albums together with Sutherland's "The Art of Prima Donna" and Price's blue album.

This is the best of Callas bel canto. I don't agree with one of the reviewer here that Sutherland is better. There is Scotto and others first before Sutherland but Callas is the best of the best. Everytime I listen to this CD, I am so moved beyond belief. This is definitively a must for Callas fans and Opera fans. Buy this CD and Buy the DVD concert version of Puritani on Amazon, then you know....

When I have gone temporarily mad, I refer to this recording as consolation, that there are other suffering too like myself. This recording is, i agree with other, should be rated 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 stars.

This is mature Callas' GREATEST recital and the only Madscenes album worth buying! 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000 stars!

It has been said that Maria Callas' "Mad Scenes" is the recording that best defines her art. As Donizetti's Anna Bolena, Thomas' Ophelie, and Bellini's Imogene, Callas conveys intense feeling while maintaining a true legato and never "imposing" on the music. Anna's mad scene is the first Callas recording I ever heard, and it remains a favorite of mine. Nicola Resignio provides excellent support in each scene, and EMI's digitally remastered stereo sound is another asset. This is an essential collection for Callas and/or bel canto fans.

1958 was a terrible year for Callas.It started with the "Rome-scandal" and it ended with the headlines "Bing fires Callas". But in this year she also made her best recitals:the famous Verdi-recording and this fantastic mad scenes-recital.
Anna Bolena and Il pirata were long-forgotten operas,but Callas revived them with great success at la Scala.The heroines of this opera are very difficult to sing.You need a dark dramatic voice which has the agility to sing coloraturas and trills.And this singer also needs a lot of dramatic imagination to portray the changing moods of annas'and imogenes'troubled minds.I think Callas is absolutely perfect.
The mad scene of Ophelie is also great.Some high notes are a bit sharp,but Callas is very convincing and deeply touching.And her french pronounciation is much better than Sutherlands`.
This recording is a must have for everyone who loves Belcanto.I am glad,that Maria Callas discovered this wonderful music for us.

Although this collection of Mad Scenes was originally released on LP record in 1958, and subsequently released on CD, and many thoughts have been expressed about the artistry of Maria Callas in these bel canto scenes, it is worth revisiting the Anna Bolena scena particularly in light of the recent triumph of Anna Netrebko as Anna in the Met's new production. I heard/saw the HD transmission from the Met yesterday (which i enjoyed tremendiously) and that prompted me to relisten to my numerous recordings of the final scena. Maria is generally credited for the renewed interest in this opera during the 20th century with her extraordinary performances of it at La Scala in the Visconti production, hearing her once again on this disc, after a long hiatus, only reaffirms in my mind and ear, the absolute authority and understanding she brought to the role. Her singing here is first rate, the voice is secure, the ornamentation proper in size and proportion, the trills beyond comparison and the colors of the voice so abundant and integrated with the text and one feels that she is truly Anna. Rescigno, one of Maria's favorite conductors at that time, never allows the music to drag but propels it forward, almost driving Anna to the block, drawing from Maria every nuance of textual meaning. The recitative is masterful, as is so often the case with Callas, the cavatina "Al dolce guidami" is heart wrenching abundant in pathos and the final cabaletta "Coppia iniquia" is terrifying in Anna's lucid revengeful state of mind. The perfomance is truly unique; although the compelte opera is preserved from the Scala performance, this excerpt encapsulates the entire character and the sound, of course, is far better given it is a commercial release. This scena is worth the entire collection.

If this recording of Mad Scenes is one's introduction to Callas' there should be no excuse not to love her. Callas' genius is more than apparent within the recorded works here, and it's tragic that this is it as far as studio recordings of these works are concerned. Of course, there are full-length, live recordings of "Anna Bolena" and "Il Pirata," and I believe that the Hamlet Mad Scene shows up on a live recital disc somewhere along the line, but there are no studio recordings from Callas of these beautiful operas.

La Divina scored a triumph at La Scala in 1957 as Anna Bolena and in 1958 as Imogene in "Pirata;" sadly the diva's working relationship with La Scala came under pressure in the coming years and Callas' instrument began to fail rapidly- thus we are deprived of studio recordings of these two operas. However, we do have this disc, and it's a monumental work.

Callas' Anna is alternately introspective and fiery. She laments her coming death, yet curses Henry VIII and Jane Seymour at the end. The Diva is perhaps a bit more cautious than a year prior, but the benefits of the studio recording do wonders for the interpretation. Conversely, the Mad Scene of Pirata was probably stronger in the 1959 live recording, but the "Col sorrizo d'innocenza" in this studio recording is heart breakingly sad.

The recording of "A Vos Jeux Mes Amis" from Thomas' "Hamlet" is probably the most interesting piece on the disc. Callas is not particularly famous for her Ophelia, but the recorded Mad Scene is hugely charismatic and tragic. Gruberova's "Hamlet" Mad Scene is beautiful but uninvolved; Dessay is interesting but occasionally a little melodramatic; Sutherland is downright mushy and overbearing; Callas' intense musicality brings this Ophelia to life and one lives the pain along with the poor girl.

The range of emotions presented on this recording are amazing and breathtaking. It's a shame that this recording seems to be out of print, but if one can get a copy readily, go for it. It's well worth the money!