Customer Reviews

Recitals 1954-1969

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3 star:		(1)
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This 11-CD set is titled "Recitals 1954-1969." The title can be misleading although maybe not intentional. These CD's are not "live" recordings of actual recitals Callas gave in 1954-1969; instead, these are official studio recordings of opera arias she made for EMI during this period.

This set includes 11 of the aria albums of the new EMI Callas Edition (not including "Live in Concert" and "The EMI Rarities"):

CD 1: Maria Callas at La Scala; CD 2: Lyric & Coloratura Arias; CD 3: Mad Scenes; CD 4: Verdi Arias Vol. I; CD 5: Verdi Arias Vol. II; CD 6: Verdi Arias, Vol. III; CD 7: Puccini Arias; CD 8: Rossini & Donizetti Arias; CD 9: Mozart, Beethoven & Weber; CD 10: Callas in Paris, Vol. I; CD 11: Callas in Paris, Vol. II

The CD's in this set are all individually packaged (each CD has its own case and booklet) just as what you'll get when you buy them separately.

This collection is the best because it does not only allow you to have to whole set in a cheaper price but it lets you feel Callas in her intimate moment without other singers. That way we get to feel her voice alone. What is great about the la Divina is that her voice does not only sound good but it acts by itself. You don't have to see her to feel the character is singing. Some recordings are not in her "prime" but who cares. No soprano in living memory can surpass her acting and emotional voice. Other sopranos may sound like an angel but you would have to look at the libretto to understand and create the emotion. For someone like me whose native tough is not Italian, or French emotion to the song is more important. I can boldly say that some arias here are better performed that her complete opera series just like In Questa Reggia in Turandot and the Madam Butterfly arias. So if you have the buck don't hesitate buy this complete collection. This is a Maria Callas collection that is indispensable.

This is a must have for the serious Callas fan, and perhaps will only
be completely understood by one who knows the long journey of
this artist. From the "fat" Callas with voice to spare to the soignee
diva with only a shred of sound left, her musical and interpretive
intent is always clear, always penetrating, always atonishing.

Compare these studio recordings to the re-issued live concert recordings on EMI to get a more complete picture of Callas. For the new listener, some of the later recordings on the recital set will be
troubling, for many times you have to listen "past" the voice itself.

For those of us who already owned these recordings in some form, it
is nice to have them new and clean.

I am driven to give such a low rating to this collection of the work of one of the greatest artists ever to be recorded because it is a massive distortion of her legacy.

The greatness of Maria Callas did not arise from her skills as a mere songbird or as a concert singer. Callas was a singing actress with a phenomenal ability to create living, breathing characters on the opera stage. She succeeded in this to a degree largely unmatched by her contemporaries, not at all by her successors, and seldom (if ever) by her predecessors. Many, perhaps most of her truly telling moments did not occur in arias that could be lifted out of context and placed on the disks of this set.

Consider her famous studio recording of "Tosca" with diStefano and Gobbi. I assert that there is as much art and genius in her entrance lines, "Mario. Mario! Mario!!" as there is in her brilliantly sung "Vissi d'arte." (Speaking of that, just where are her Tosca and her Norma among these eleven disks and 78 tracks? Such omissions are major distortions in themselves.)

There is no shortage of fine Callas recital material on the market for those casually interested in Maria Callas as a singer. For those who would experience Maria Callas as an artist, her complete operatic performances must be savored.

One earlier Amazon reviewer asked "Can a Callas fan actually live without this?" With all respect to that person's opinion, which I take to be honest and heartfelt, my answer to that question is "Yes, easily." In the same way, to the reviewer who described the set as "Indispensable," I am forced to respond, "Not hardly!"