Product Details

• Actors: Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Renata Scotto, Franco Zeffirelli, Rudolf Bing
• Format: Black & White, Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Mono)
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Bel Canto Society
• DVD Release Date: December 7, 2004
• Run Time: 117 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000641D42
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,051 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Movies & TV > Musicals & Performing Arts > Classical > By Performer > Callas, Maria
  #27 in	Movies & TV > Musicals & Performing Arts > Classical > By Composer > Verdi, Giuseppe
  #72 in	Movies & TV > Documentary > Music & Performing Arts

Editorial Reviews

John Steane, reviewing in Gramophone:
The film moves its audience with the mixture of public achievement and personal unfulfilment....A film not to be missed.

Product Description
Extensive performance footage including some real rarities.

Newsreel footage: her funeral cortege; the Rome Walkout ("I would spit in the faces of my enemies...and make them go on their knees in front of me! I can! I will! And I must!"); her break with Ghiringhelli, Callas reading Bing's telegram firing her ("I cannot do routine"); Meneghini, Onassis and Churchill; Callas hounded by the press on her private life; Callas dancing with Onassis; her return to New York (1965); press conference about the Medea film (plus clips from the film); Callas as co-stage director with Di Stefano, directing Vespri in Turin; in a bathing suit with Onassis; Onassis's death.

Interviews: Bing ("She became intolerable!"..."She was more difficult than others because she was more intelligent"); Nicola Rescigno ("Her body was like that of a pachyderm"); Menotti; Scotto (on Sonnambula and Medea--"Cut Glauce's aria"); Caballé; Gobbi on her lost confidence and unhappiness; De Hidalgo on Callas as a student; manager Gorlinsky on the Callas-Di Stefano concert tour; Tebaldi on their rivalry; Visconti in discussion with Callas, including the "radish" incident.

Other topics: Sound vs. the use of sound; her debut at 15; "No agent would give me a job because immediately after my debut I wasn't loved that much. I was something new to listen to and they disliked anything that took them away from tradition"; her history at La Scala; her weight loss; Jackie Onassis; Zeffirelli and Gobbi on the London Toscas, her loneliness, her death.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative DVD, June 8, 2005

By	Justin T. Anderson (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The previous reviewer may not realize that this documentary was originally produced in the late 70s for television, after Callas' death. The footage quality is what one would expect from something of that time and no amount of DVD remastering could fix it. The DVD has a wealth of information about Callas. The interviews are particularly fascinating and insightful.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Lady Soprano, May 22, 2006

By	BornToSleep "Fifteen under one roof!" (switzerland) - See all my reviews

This documentary is to remember a great soprano.When you talk about Maria Callas,it's like talking about a costliest gemstone,a jewel.Maria Callas is widely known throughout the World. The best singing actress ever remembered!!!powerful voice,full of vibrations and passions at the same time.Unique and beyond comparisons.Far from the voice,we must look at her also as a person,an artist,the music and a human being like all of us.This entertainment (dvd) contains interviews with some celebrities such as Monserrat Caballe and Renata Tebaldi.
Maria left behind one of the most valuable inheritances to mankind in the world story of music.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remastered DVD, April 2, 2008

By	Stefan Zucker - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This DVD was remastered in March 2006, using some new devices. The quality is significantly improved.