"Along with John Ardoin's The Callas Legacy, this is the essential work about the most remarkable and disturbing singer to emerge after World War II." -- Opera News
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In a biography for serious Callas (1923-1977) students, Scott ( The Great Caruso ) traces the career of the controversial diva from her teenage appearances as a budding prima donna through the triumphs of the early 1950s to later years when Callas's voice was increasingly frail. Pointing out the "contradiction between the depth of Callas's extraordinary musicianship and the narrowness of her intellect," Scott plays down the sensational aspects of his subject's personal life and concentrates on her artistic genius. He analyzes her major performances and recordings, defining the prodigious talent and technique that, at the height of her vocal powers, she put to brilliant use in reviving the nearly forgotten early-19th-century bel canto opera repertoire. Scott's description of the rapid deterioration of her voice from the mid-'50s to her death adds a contrasting poignancy to the chronicle. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
One can scarcely imagine a more detailed scrutiny of the great soprano's career than that in the present volume, written by the founder of the London Opera Society. Virtually every performance is chronicled, along with the attendant backstage gossip and intrigue. Although she died in 1977, Callas's greatest years as an opera singer are shown to coincide with her marriage to Giovanni Battista Meneghini, which lasted from 1948 until she left him for Aristotle Onassis in 1959. At that point, almost in Dorian Gray fashion, she became a jet-set celebrity whose glamor grew as her voice faded. The author, artistic director of the London Opera Society and author of several books on opera (e.g., The Great Caruso , LJ 9/15/88), includes authoritative discussions of Callas's recordings and firsthand accounts of many performances. Although general readers are likely to be put off by the shop talk, this is indispensable reading for opera buffs. For serious music collections.
- E. Gaub, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- E. Gaub, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Carefully researched study of Callas the musician,
By
This review is from: Maria Meneghini Callas (Hardcover)
Michael Scott's book on the life and career of Maria Callas holds a strong appeal for the musician. Although he orders his study chronologically and includes quite a bit of biographical detail, this is not a book for gossip lovers. Instead, Scott dispassionately evaluates Callas' singing in general and major performances and roles in particular. Scott's basic thesis is that Callas reached her vocal peak early, in the first part of the 1950s, and her great weight loss was in large part responsible for a general vocal decline thereafter, at first slow, then precipitous after her divorce from Meneghini. On the other hand, Scott is too quick to dismiss much of Callas' work from the later 1950s. By then, the early, prodigious vocal endowment had somewhat diminished, true; but for most opera lovers these years were the time when her still responsive voice was matched with her most exquisite musicianship. Most readers will disagree, perhaps vehemently, with some of Scott's judgements and opinions; yet, by virtue of his firsthand witnessing of many of Callas' performances and determined avoidance of scandalmongering, his book joins a select company of work by Fitzgerald, Ardoin, Jellinek and a few others as one that sheds true light on the art of this much-discussed singer.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
didactic but illuminating,
This review is from: Maria Meneghini Callas (Hardcover)
Scott's book is certainly important, even indispensable, for anyone interested in Callas as a musician and a singer. Any book on Callas that doesn't focus on her music is, let's face it, ultimately doing her a disservice. Scott's book covers late and early performances, gives a performance chronology, lists notable recordings, includes contemporary reviews and relevant (and fairly reliable) apt quotes from various personages: fellow singers (di Stefano, often), her directors (Visconti, Zeffirelli), and her conductors. He also weaves in an appropriate balance of biographical detail, noting her weight loss and relationships and their affect on her voice and work, but not capitalizing on sensationalism. Most importantly, he provides a commentary on all her important recorded works.
The weakness of this book, however, is that Scott has his own dogma about Callas that he's determined to get across, and his dogma isn't correct. Scott's premises are that Callas, as a singer, peaked in the early 50s and rapidly declined; that Callas, the artist, was best when she acted on instinct and did not intellectualize a role; and that her development as an artist was far from commensurate to her regression as a singer. I take issue to varying degrees with all of these. The first is least disputable, though Scott's assertions lack subtlety. Certain parts of the passagio and vowel sounds ('a' as in the Italian 'va') became easier and clearer immediately after the weight loss. Scott's handling of his second premise is discouraging. He is certainly entitled to his opinions, but as he is masquerading this book as a critical work, he needs to be more objective. A prime example of this is his dismissal of Callas's 1955 Lucia. "In the Mad Scene, her singing is certainly prodigiously accurate, but it lacks spontaneity." What, then, should we make of Desmond Taylor-Shawe's review, written in 1955: "[Callas] has sudden flights, dramatic outbursts of rocketing virtuosity, of which even those more richly endowed singers were hardly capable?" Or of the opinion of opera critics in general, that this performance is a landmark both for Callas and for this opera? That Scott does not even pay lip service to heads and ears better than his is troubling; it makes suspect his judgment of Callas's other performances, especially her Puccini, about which he is particularly derogatory. For all his insight elsewhere, Scott does not realize that verismo opera is perhaps the *least* realistic of opera forms because it makes claims to realism that bel canto does not do; Callas understood this dichotomy and responded to it. Certainly a big voice belting out Puccini makes an effect, but is that art? Callas herself said that she would like to be judged as a singer - and then corrected herself - as an artist, but sadly, her request has often fallen on deaf ears. One devastating example of Scott's distorting subjectivity is his comment on Callas's 1949 Turandot recording, which is actually a forgery, conglomerated from recordings made in 1954 and 1957. Scott writes: "it sounds of ample proportions ... we should not confuse her liberal use of vibrato with her characteristic wobble which developed later." Had he known that it was actually the 1957 recording, I'm sure the "vibrato" would have turned into the "wobble," and the "ample proportions" would have dried to a shriek. The legacies of all artists are vulnerable after they're dead, but Callas's is especially, it seems, given the art form in which she was involved, the aspects of her life, and the media's involvement. It is particularly unfortunate that Scott is guilty of the same box-fitting as others trying to cram Callas's into their conceived or preconceived notions: Callas the tragedy, Callas the stupid woman, etc. In his case, it is his vision of Callas the dumb but instinctive singer who rapidly lost her voice. However, it must be said that Scott does bring many good things to the table about Callas, and that this book does deserve merit. My recommendation would be to read this book for a general feeling of the course of Callas's voice and career, and then to judge Callas on her and your own terms.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forget the gossip - this is a serious book!,
By
This review is from: Maria Meneghini Callas (Hardcover)
This book can seem rather controversial for some people, since it is highly critical (in the positively objective sense of the word) of Maria Callas, who has been deified by a number of her other biographers.
Maria Callas was a human being, which means that she had a private life as well as a career. For some people her private life seems very interesting and these readers will probably be somewhat disappointed with this book, since the biography of Callas the private person is only of second importance in Michael Scott's book. But if you are interested in Callas the musician there is no other book that is more accurate, more peercing in its analysis - or simply, more interesting! When I first read the book I worshipped Callas uncritically. I was very offended several times because of Scott's judgement, for instance of her "Madama Butterfly": "Callas' reading of "Un bel dì" may be remarkable for the finish of her phrasing but not for the beauty of her singing...". But yet, this is so much more revealing and again, objective, than when John Ardoin writes in "The Callas Legacy" of the same role: "...Callas' voice seems a vessel which can be filled or drained to various levels of intensity at will". So to me, this is the best book about Callas available - after all, what gives her importance is her abilities as a musician, NOT a tragedy queen!
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