Love, without music
I need to state right off the bat that I have never been one to worship at the altar of Maria Callas. While I can acknowledge her greatness, there are many other singers whom I prefer in the Bel Canto repertoire.
So I was skeptical when I began watching Callas Assoluta
I was hoping to hear wonderful music, but no single scene or aria is allowed to play in its entirety. Even the famous Tosca scene in which she kills Scarpia is only played in brief excerpt.
All of her well-known roles are represented, but the included book doesn’t list what the excerpts are or from what year. That information is listed in the final credits but scroll by at a such a fast clip, I had to keep rewinding to read them all. What I did find fascinating was all of the photos of Callas as a child and young adult.
Technically, the DVD is a mess. Several scenes either stalled the first time and then played, or stalled permanently and then jumped to the next scene. The English narration is atrocious. Two examples jumped out at me. In one, the word “epitome” is pronounced with a long o and no final e, and in the other, recounting the incident when Covent Garden management came to plead with her to show up for a fourth Tosca after she canceled the first three, the narrator says she “relinquished,” when it should be “relented.” Furthermore, despite the fact that the film was made in 2007, there is no Dolby sound.
There is one musical moment that tantalizes, however. In 1952, she sang Konstanze (in Italian) and there is a brief excerpt of “Marten aller Arten.”
If you know nothing about Callas, this might be a good introduction, but there are so many better documentaries about her that I’d skip this one.
La Cieca welcomes Our Own Sanford to our stable of reviewers.
I still can’t help chuckling over the posts that “wonder” about whether they would like to have been friends with La Divina or not.
…might have been a long wait 
No matter how she came across in old interviews, we know she was highly intelligent and didn’t suffer fools gladly. One can only wonder if she had lived next door to our posters, how many of them would have actually had her drop by for a cup of sugar?
Alto, fair enough.
I don’t understand your comment/complaint about repertoire since it has a long-accepted use in English.
“Repertoire” derived Fr/Latin has been an accepted English word longer than any of us have been alive.
“I don’t understand your comment/complaint about repertoire since it has a long-accepted use in English.”
By whom? Many say “serviette” for napkin as well.
I don’t understand your not understanding. The only possible reason to introduce a foreign form into cultivated English discourse is because the English word does not suffice. How is REPERTORY less adequate than the pretentious REPERTOIRE?
Ruxton, I don’t understand your point at all. How does the fact that a word comes from French and Latin — especially when it does so no more than the normal English word — give it predominance for English usage?
I raised this only as a small point in the midst of other small points being raised. But the defense of the nonsensical exotic usage seems to be quite emphatic. Odd.
I guess I’m emphatic because it seemed that you were taking Sanford to task for a word that I’ve heard used much more frequently in the US than “repertory,” and I think that’s unfair.
But you’re right that it’s a small point, and it’s not my fight to fight, so I’ll let it go.
Cocky: are you saying DiDonato’s singing would be better if she behaved in a “high and mighty” way with her public? Or became a “diva”? Or was arrogant and unreasonable? I don’t quite see the connection. How is an arrogant singer’s singing different from that of a non-arrogant singer?
It’s funny how words can evoke different images. When I hear “repertoire” I think of music when I hear “repertory” I think of theater.
Which could simply mean that theater people are, on average, less pretentious?
As for Di Donato, I was in her presence half an hour ago, and I will hear nothing against her. Her closing number at the NYCO gala was, as usual, magisterial.
Javier said: “… okay, but all of the really interesting live recordings are disappointing because a) the sound is terrible …
Absolute rubbish!! Since you don’t particuarly like Callas, I can understand how you wouldn’t keep up on things, but some of the “really interesting” Callas performances are starting to come out in good sound. First, the Berlin Lucia has been around in very good sound for at least twenty years. Myto’s issues in the last year of 2 of her Norma’s from 1955 are in very good sound, considering the vintage. Her Violetta from Covent Garden with Valletti and Zanasi (my personal favorite among her Traviata performances) was issued in two very good sounding remasters in the last year, one on Myto and one on IDIS (I prefer the latter). Her 2nd Mexico Aida has been issued by Myto in fairly good sound (w. Del Monaco, Taddei and Dominguez). The Lisbon Traviata was also issued within the last year in excellent sound (from Radio Lisbon’s master tapes) on Myto. I have just been listening to the new Myto issue of her Mexico Rigoletto and, to my ear, Myto has used an excellent sounding master (radio announcements before and after each act lead me to believe they have used the broadcast archive materials) for most of the performance. From my listening, I would guess the master they used was incomplete, so they plugged in the existing lesser-sounding material to fill the gaps – but the majority of it is in beautiful, clear sound (altthough the prompter was in excellent voice, and Di Stefano decidely was not).
So you comment, though it may have been mostly true a few years ago, has been overtaken by events.