Much obliged and my fond regards to you.

Still, De Sabata’s son told me that he (papa) respected her work ethic and seriousness but didn’t love her, while he adored Tebaldi. Of course Countess Wally Castelbarco (nee Toscanini) chose Callas as diva of her cabal and drove first de Sabata out, and then Tebaldi, so de Sabata fils may have had an ax to grind. However, when I asked Gavazzeni about female singers he said, “the greatest dramatic soprano was Cobelli; Caniglia had talent but no pitch; Tebaldi had the most beautiful voice and was simpatica, perhaps too much so; and the greatest talent is La Scotto, though Freni (around the corner in her dressing room) has ability.” And Callas, I asked. “She worked very hard and some loved her,” he said.

I asked Mo. Muti whose patron had been Antonino Votto about various singers. According to him among the females Votto (who had been Toscanini’s first assistant) had loved Arangi-Lombardi, Scacciati (“she smelled,” he said) Cobelli, Pacetti, Cigna (though ‘pazza’), Pampanini, loved Caniglia’s voice and temperament but couldn’t bear a lot of her singing, Tebaldi and Freni and Scotto, though the later was deemed difficult and there were divisions of opinion about her among the La Scala staff and public at the time. And Callas, I asked? “She was as you say in America, well connected but he said she was a great professional.”

I don’t think the best records/pirates are frauds really but I do think it was a very short prime, and that perhaps after 55 she needed ‘special handling’ to do her best. That she was the greatest musician EVER among singers is something I’ve seen here and elsewhere and there I am struck dumb, since even with her voice waning she could have done so much had she possessed the genius of say, De Gaetani, a stunning and amazing musician. She could have skipped the Carter and Crumb scores (though Jan’s handling of them was amazing, and her singing qua singing was very much part of the magic) but found other new work (she had the clout and backing to commission works for her limits), and of course have explored the more or less standard song rep (Berlioz, Gounod, Chabrier, Chausson, Massenet, Faure, Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Poulenc — she had good French.)

Some deceased singers though, are made ‘determined hard working Saints of the Operatic Craft’ : for when they were around and ‘active’. Yet in fact, they were anyting but. Destroying opportunities and possibilities they may have had, with silly diversions; frittering away the talents and gifts they had. To think that Callas: rumoured to be in her Paris apartment, lonely and sitting up watching old Gary Cooper westerns on the TV , is a mind boggling thought.
Having personally been, a performer’s agent I am mindful of having experienced watching many artists ‘being emotionally ripped off’ by all sorts of clowns, that wanted nothing but ‘the ego -glitz of close association’ with those said artists. Callas is a classic and fascinating case of this.

No longer in the artist representative ‘game’ I sit back and watch the same patterns form -around some many others in all forms of the entertainment business. With this above-mentioned type of behaviour : being briefed on the people exactly involved / the particular situation…. Sadly most predictions one makes, most comes true.

It was all a matter of publicity and fidgetng with dials. She had no talent at all.

Everyone I knew hated her. The man sitting next to me at the Norma got up and yelled “and I thought Milanov was bad!” before stomping out. My mother who loathed her recordings (I loved them) sneered, “I told you so!!”. My grandfather and great uncle whose first Norma was Giannina Russ and who had seen Pacetti (hated her), Cigna (hated her though loved her Aida and saw her do Gioconda, La Wally and Tosca, loved her in both) and Maria Pedrini (who they loved) thought Maria was ghastly.

I agitated to see Miss Callas in Traviata but didn’t get my way. My grandfather went to the Tosca with me. But he wouldn’t go near Lucia (hated the opera until Joanie). Even in the Academy of Music (half the size of the Old Met) she sounded small and had trouble tuning the Norma (despite singing with the huge voiced but often out of tune Barbieri and the penetrating but ghastly and rarely in tune Baum). I seem to recall her doing the last act pretty well, though I was young (I had seen Milanov and yes Helluva Nerva (“quella fica disgraziat’” as my grandfather opined), and been one of Norma’s sons several times, usually the one the audience was rooting for her to kill in various productions around Philly). But she was booed and I was disillusioned.

The Lucia (with my aunt from Brooklyn beside me upstairs standing) was just awful, TONS worse than the first recording — tiny, thin voice, no security at the top and I think Spargi ‘d’amaro’ was down, though I recall a major crack anyway, she also left out some tricky phrases. Some people in standing booed over small general applause (my aunt booed). Some cheered but one had to wonder what for.

However, I thought the Tosca (58) was pretty exciting and suddenly her voice seemed large. However having seen the great Toni Starr, the greatest Big Renata, Zinka, Delia Rigal!!!!! (my first and second and according to grandpop ‘una porca infamia), the much loved Albanese (loads of fun and zinger high notes), Helluva Nerva (‘la grassa ingolatta’ according to my grandfather), Kirsten (never bad) and having sung the shepherd boy five times (with inhuman volume according to those forced to listen) I didn’t think Maria was that special in relation to the others, though certainly on a higher tier than some. I thought the return as Tosca was very high camp.

I saw three of the later concerts, there were some arresting moments but she couldn’t really sustain anything. I also was at the Julliard master classes and she did some exciting or impressive demonstrating but never sang for long.

I saw Cerquetti do Norma a little later — she had everything a Norma needs but a waist. Utterly thrilling and an audience riot in response. Joanie’s Lucia, debut season was so astounding people literally stood during the Mad Scene unable to believe what they were seeing and hearing, and the riots for her were spontaneous; people were just overwhelmed.

There are some wonderful Callas records and pirates (though whether her barking and shrieking through Armida is edifying beyond titillating queens is a question), which show her in much better and more secure voice than I heard her. So perhaps that was a really bad patch — but I just question the pseudo-definitive assertions of so many idiots on this thread about singers they didn’t experience live. If we are opining about who was able to record well, and got the most flattering engineering and producers (and whose records were then over-hyped, and then bought by infants who were imprinted by them)that’s one thing. All of us who love records adore recordings by people we couldn’t have heard and we must make assumptions about whether they were as good, almost as good, sometimes as good or even better live.

If however the discussion is what people could actually do and opinions bear some relation to what experiencing amazing voices and appealing or charismatic personalities live in a real acoustic in a big opera house then so many of the windy opinions above are otiose, uninformed, uninformative, peculiar and unfair.

Callas’ greatest performances were on the media’s world stage, producing idealised newspaper copy ‘as a diva enjoying the trappings of being a Diva’.Instead of knunckling down and steadfastly working at preserving her voice and ACTUALLY appearing regularly like other singers of the Time : INSIDE AN OPERA HOUSE! Some of Callas’ ‘famous roles she recorded’ she only appeared in, on stage – perhaps giving a couple of live performances, ever.

Her most notable endevours were : unrelibility, her associations with rich tykes, in- bred Europeon royalty and othe hangers-on, , fashions, or just ariving and departing countries etc etc. The only thing the media did not do not report on, was when she went to the Ladies and how she wiped her arse. In the long run, she fucked up her life, her career , pure and simple. Finally and spectcularly coming a ‘gutser’ over Onassis’.

Anyone remember the most classic example of the Callas super powered ‘hype’? Come the release of her EMI Carmen’……full page ads exblazoned with the words ‘Callas IS Carmen’. The opera set came in one of two editions – including a much more dearer priced red velvet covered box. Critics in the Gramophone later had the termerity to even remark “that Callas makes Leontyne Price’s Carmen sound ‘baby faced’………….Shit! That is just a hint of the ‘Callas -mania’ at that time, in every gossip and womens’ magazines. It is probably hard for newer opera lovers to appreciate this fact. Callas & Onnasis were the ‘Brangelina couple’ of their time….till Jackie K. queered Callas’ wicket.

Those English Gramophone critics, they were up EMIs’ and Callas’ arse too, it appears. Heard today in comparision, Callas’ version is not remarkable…… more just ‘run of the mill’.
Is it clearer now, what I was saying?

Obviously your last few decades have been warmed by your sense that you, Wladek the Magnificent, and only you knew and knows the Truth about Callas.

I am not buying it. Very sad obsession, though.

DISMAL-IN-DISTRESS then asked “Who says” that those are the criteria? DISMAL-IN-DISTRESS was taken out and shot.

It is extremely important that we decide this question now because support for “RT” is quite daunting. Our Great Lyric/Spinto team will face a real challenge in November when we play the winner of the St Matthew Passion/Nemorino vs. Winterreise/Baron Scarpia playoffs.

But as the Vicar would say, she’s no Astra Desmond!

Humbly admit to not having heard Solti’s first Giovanni after the Ottavio Anna duet… It seemed so cold and totally not in style… I’ll try to get Sass’ Elvira though. In Mozart the conductor is so much more important IMHO than the individual singers. A good / excellent Mozart conductor is able to coerce an OK cast into a stellar ensemble (ref Busch’s Giovanni). An excellent cast will not work on its own without a very strong personality on the podium. Especially not in Giovanni!

Oh yes, Eileen knocks the socks off it as well, but Cerquetti’s is more lyrical and graceful.

For my small part, I am so deeply grateful to you for defending the honor of these two very great singers, both so dear to me.

P.S. What do you think of Sylvia Sass’ Donn’Elvira on Solti’s Don Giovaani, if you please.

Pps — so srry but I am travelling and do not have access to computer (Blackberry) so I may not hear your examples.
XXX OOO!!!
Camille

But at least Tebaldi appeared regularly in the my operas she tended to record. Ok! Like or lump Callas…but remember many of her ‘greatest roles’ attributed to her,via recordings – are in every -day accepted practice form – a complete myth!!! Check and examine side by side each one of Callas’ recordings and then see how: in many cases she did less than a mere tiny handful of single digit performances.

She performed well and often enough as a opera singer : busy at the business….. ‘OF giving the impression of…. INTENDING TO perform’.

If anybody here can decipher this language, could she tell me what it means?

And around 30 tears later Susan Dunn very nearly managed to achieve the same kind of greatness. Luckily for us, it was televised and is commercially available. The phrasing is not as classy and patrician as La grande Cerquetti but the legato is ravishing, the tone luminous and the control legendary. And there’s plenty of warmth and feel for the idiom and Verdi’s line.