1.0 out of 5 stars
FOR CALLAS FANATICS ONLY!, March 13, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Norma-Highlights (Audio CD)
It is a pity that this amateurly recorded 1965 live performance is available at all. To begin with, the sound is poorish. But the crux of the problem is the great Callas. heard here in her last desperate performances of her greatest role.By this time, the voice was in shreds (sustained notes anywhere are wobbly, top notes, where attempted, are nothing more than pitched screams.The magical moments of Callas' great musical insights are virtually mitigated by the diva's deplorable vocal condition. Callas retired from the operatic stage only a matter of six weeks after these performances. She was only 41, and one can only be saddened once again by the now familiar story of how this greatest of artists burned herself out at such an early age. If one wants a Callas Norma that represents the real Callas, they should turn to either of the two newly reissued EMI studio recordings, the first of which captures her in her vocal prime, the second of which preserves her greatest insights (though with noticeable decine in vocal resources). The Callas heard in these 1965 Paris live recordings doesn't compare to either of them.
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