Of dodos and dildos
After seeing a video excerpt from the Met’s Patrice Chéreau production of From the House of the Dead, I was struck by the cleanness of it all, the sets, the costumes, the tastefully muted colors, and the direction. No doubt it is moving, in its way, but is it relevant? It looks like generic suffering in a nameless prison far, far away — in time, especially.
In contrast, Calixto Bieito’s production of this opera at Oper Basel is more Gitmo than Gulag, more Sing Sing than Solovki, more Riker’s Island than Russian camp.
Over the opening bars, a prison soccer game is in progress. The prisoners are dirty, but each has his own sense of fashion individuality — the necessary antidote to a collective destiny. The eagle is an airplane, a real one, which slowly descends into the prison yard, making an emergency landing. It is the symbol of escape and yet it doesn’t function. As metaphor it will haunt and taunt the prisoners for the rest of their days.
Where Cheréau’s version is bleakly austere, Bieito’s is bleakly rich at all times, and sometimes even bleakly funny, as it is when the prisoner’s perform for each other wearing cardboard boxes or homemade scrap metal dildos; or bleakly poetic, such as the biplane as a magnificent dodo bird going nowhere.
There are no women in this production. One senses that this group of men, broken people surrounded by broken things, is an explosive mix, their dreams and memories the Semtex waiting to go off. Bieito’s prisoners live in a limited anarchy: they are free to dream and remember, to perform and applaud, to fight and to lose, but no more. Bieito knows how to move his cast to the music, and move his audience at the same time.
There are terrifying moments: when a group of men is rounded up and shot against the back wall of the prison yard, the other prisoners simply ignore the event. It was to be expected. This time, it wasn’t them.
Possible Callas hoax: here is something recently posted that calim to be previously unpublished. Anyone want to compare with the extant recordings and report?
Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della Rai, Arturo Basile, 1949
Took me a few minutes to find the year – it’s on like every Callas compilation, but remastered from the original tapes (or whatever they had back then) without the scratchy record sound.
I agree, without actually comparing them, this certainly sounds similar to the 1949 Cetra recording
under Basile that was from Callas’ first recording session.
I first heard the tristan and Puritani arias many, many years ago when I was brand new to opera.
Rumors of a Callas Tristan recording have been circulating for years and years. The most plausible versions have the recording in the possession of Max Lorenz and his later heirs.
I suppose it’s possible, there were some broadcasts.
You would think that if it existed , it would have come to light by now, but who knows. Just a few years ago a recording surfaced of Callas singing Fiorilla’s aria from Turco in a 1950 broadcast.
Other “rumored” Callas recordings are the notorious Fedora from La Scala with Corelli and the LOC Trovatore with Bjorling.
Of course I know that old recording, but this YOUTUBE states:
Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde: Liebestod
“Test Recording for Tulio Serafin for the role of Isolde recorded December 30 1947 at Teatro La Fenice Venice.
Enregistré: XII-30-1947 §
M. Kalageropoulou-Soprano (Maria Callas)
Conductor: Tulio Serafin
Orchestra Sinfonica: Teatro La Fenice
INEDIT* Private Recording§
That does not = Basile
This is Basile from an old record.
http://www.lala.com/#search/Callas%20Torino%20Mild
But QPF, what’s credited in youtube is not necessarily factual.
There have been Callas hoax recordings, the most notorious being a recording of Act Two of Turandot from Buenos Aires which was pretty
convincingly shown to be a gunked up combination
of Callas’ EMI recording of Turandot with sections lifted from the Del Monaco Decca recording of turandot.
Re the possible live Turandot hoax, Ardoin in his 1991 edition of The Callas Legacy argues against the hoax theory. Did he later change his mind, or was there a later refutation? (I haven’t heard it, and therefore [or nevertheless?] have no opinion.)
Also, I think her father had already shortened the family name, so I’m not sure she ever went by that long name, especially professionally.
Regarding the turandot “hoax”, I was never really convinced one way or another. The timings
were shown to be suspiciously similar to the EMI
complete recording but the sound is so gunked up
that I can’t tell myself.
Ardoin was quoted in the notes for the release on Eclipse EKK 44 which is dated 1994 so he must have been convinced it was legit.
But I recall reading some pretty strong arguments against it, including some citing of mistakes made by the Teatro Colon Orchestra in 1949 that match mistakes made by the Scala Orchestra in 1957 . I was pretty amazed at these “smoking gun” pieces of evidence but I’ve never been great at hearing tiny details in the orchestra on opera recordings even in good sound much less the murky sound of the Turandot “recording”
The Tristan is not a hoax. She sang it on 12/30/47. Further down the thread, I posted the link to La Fenice’s archives that show the cast list.
Sanford, there’s no question that Callas sang
Isolde in Venice Dec ‘47. The iffy part is that a recording or broadcast was made during that period. Callas’ first documented recording sessions weren’t until several years later, when
she recorded the Liebestod. and that recording condcuted by Arturo Basile sounds a bit like
the one under discussion here. that’s the part that that could be a hoax.
There is an almost absurd clamor for “new” Callas material. EMI has released all kinds of material that Callas wouldn’t pass during her lifetime and there are all kinds of rumors about certain performances existing in sound in someone’s private collection. And there are stories of videos too, although those would be much harder to fake than the audio only recordings .
I have to check the credits from the Arthaus documentary I reviewed. Having that may come in handy after all. It had some excerpts from things I’d never heard before.
Is this a video of Callas singing in From the House of the Dead?
The same poster claims this in an unplublished Donna Evira:
Have you not heard this before, QPF? I bought that recording a few months ago. It was on a set called “Maria Callas: 100 Best Classics”. It has 100 tracks of 100 of her “rare” studio recordings I guess. I didn’t find it remarkable at all.
I don’t think this is new. It has the same surprisingly four square treatment of the recit as the widely available version, with the same touches on the chest voice etc. It seems perfectly reasonable that there may be other takes from studio sessions around, but I don’t think this is one of them.
The poster isn’t claiming this was unpublished – they just have “INEDIT”, in capital letters, whatever that’s supposed to mean…
Isn’t “unpublished” one of the meanings of “inedit” (sorry I don’t know how to type the accent over the e)?
Certainement, rapt.
Well the rest of the information refers to same recording mentioned above, which is well in circulation -
Orchestre de la Societé des Concerts du Conservatoire, Nicola Rescigno, §1964* INEDIT
(now it makes sense that word was French. I looked at the poster’s page for a linguistic clue – they’re in the USA and their English suggested nothing otherwise.)
How great to have a review of a production that was a regie-quiz only days ago. Great continuity for the regular particpants on this site.
http://www.archiviostoricolafenice.org:49542/ArcFenice/ShowFile.ashx?fileType=Show&id=48451
It is funny to read about Callas under the headline OF DODOS AND DILDOS.
Callas has hijacked this thread from beyond the grave.
Callas, Callas, Callas!
From the House of the Dead…leaves me speechless. I have nothing to say about it.
Maybe if there were some women in the opera I’d care about it.
As MEDEA in Pasolini’s movie she was fantastic. As a singer she was the first product of a brilliant promotion at the right time, without any question very good but I have my doubts if she would be so successful, if her carriere started in the eighties.
Blame QPF.
I’m not sure that Liebestod posted by QPF is the one we are all familiar with. The sound doesn’t seem right to me for a 1947 radio broadcast, yet the performance seems different to me from the widely available one. I should stress that I have not compared them directly – I’m just musing over my breakfast here – but the one posted here on this thread claiming to be from 1947 seems more involved and involving than the later one which I have always found tepid and unappealing. They could, of course, be one and the same, which just goes to show that one can feel very differently about the same thing when encountered at a different time.
It’s always such an exciting thought though that her Isolde, Fedora and Elisabetta from Don Carlo may one day turn out to be available.
Just to note – there are two recordings of Callas’ Liebestod in circulation, the above one and a later one from an Athens concert with Votto.
Antonino Votto, Athens Festival Orchestra, 1957.
Yes, I’m familiar with and have copies of both.
Hijacking this site from beyond the grave is something Renaay will never do!
Hijacking the thread from the vocal grave is Our Own (albeit Irish-born) Ann Murray, the shrill shreds of whose once-quite decent voice spoiled several ensembles last night as a Met Marcellina that happened ONLY because of the kind of sentimental UK-crony casting many on this site claim does not exist. I guess it gives her something to do while hubby is guying the dramatic soprano role of the Hexe (to tolerable effect, though a dramatic mezzo would be preferable).
But la Murray in this parlous estate has no legitimate claim on Met’s audiences’ indulgence, and more than do Plowright as Gertrud and Oke as the HOFFMANN servants, soon at an opera house near many of us.
When will Mr. Gelb stop deferring to Fiend and Billingsgate in such matters? I guess we’re to count ourselves lucky to have Peter Mattei rather than Phillip Joll or Jonathan Summerssinging Shishkov.
Alan Oke can actually sing. I see nothing wrong with his casting. Ann Murray I’ll give you.
“Alan Oke can actually sing.”
Sure? He was a respectable if anonymous baritone for some while. Emerging from this chrysalis as an “interesting” tenor was an attempt to become employable. Other baritones do this by removing their shirts.
Er, and he certainly has done that. Both as a baritone and a tenor…
On the other hand, Brit Diana Montague sang a spectacular Marcellina with the Cleveland Orchestra in March. She was given the aria and did great things with it, even though the terrible Sven-Eric Bechthoff production did everything it could to detract from her performance.
Still wondering about these so-called INEDIT youtoubes:
Sounds exactly like a bent YouTube poster, possibly a Corelli-wannabe.