One of the greatest Opera performances of all time

[marty]

I'm a fan of the Great Performances Series on PBS. One of the best shows in this series that I have seen is the legendary performance of Maria Callas in a documentary detailing her 1964 comeback at London’s Royal Covent Garden Opera House in “Tosca”. Act two is widely considered to be the best performance of Puccini's famous Opera ever performed or recorded as well as one of the greatest acts in all of Puccini's operas. Callas and the baritone Tito Gobbi are simply unbelievable. The wonderful Franco Zefferilli production of the entire act is interrupted by commentary and narrative by some of the most exceptional names in opera and classical music. I've seen Tosca a few times, the most recent being in Milan's La Scala a few years ago (conducted by Dudamel) but I've never seen Tosca like this. The performance was broadcast on Jan 15th, 2021 but is probably readily available on PBS' web site. Get ready to be floored. This is artistic greatness that comes around very rarely.

 

[howiebrou]

In my opinion, no live performance can beat a good operatic performance. No amplification, just the pure human voice bearing down upon you when the angle is right. It’s almost impossible to reproduce on an audio system, well it is on mine at least. Probably my favourite two recitals were one by Bryan Terfel and Teresa Berganza. I never got a chance to see Maria Callas.

 

[RBFC]

Thanks. I will seek this one out!

Lee

 

[marty]

I never got a chance to see Maria Callas.

Howie, you'd have to be older than dirt to have seen Callas, who stopped performing in 1965. I am but never saw her either. Beatlemania was in full bloom back then, and it was also the age I first heard John Coltrane, which changed my life. I was exposed to Opera from my dad and still have over a dozen sealed complete opera LPs he bought featuring Dame Joan Sutherland, who was his idol. It was that exposure that eventually made me an opera fan, but like most of us, I have only heard Callas in recordings, most of which were not the highest in quality. Of course, it was her acting that was equally as famous as her voice, which is why this performance is so noteworthy.

 

[howiebrou]

Howie, you'd have to be older than dirt to have seen Callas, who stopped performing in 1965. I am but never saw her either. Beatlemania was in full bloom back then, and it was also the age I first heard John Coltrane, which changed my life. I was exposed to Opera from my dad and still have over a dozen sealed complete opera LPs he bought featuring Dame Joan Sutherland, who was his idol. It was that exposure that eventually made me an opera fan, but like most of us, I have only heard Callas in recordings, most of which were not the highest in quality. Of course, it was her acting that was equally as famous as her voice, which is why this performance is so noteworthy.

It's partly why opera, to me, is the most captivating of the music genres, the fact that they need to act whilst they perform. As a child of the 70's i missed the opportunity to see many of the greats but there have been enough left to keep the flame kindled as well.

 

[rando]

Of course, it was her acting that was equally as famous as her voice, which is why this performance is so noteworthy.

For that I have to ask if you were exposed to the Base Hologram "Maria Callas in Concert" show in NYC or aware of it's existence?

 

[R Johnson]

I declined to attend the hologram tour when it was here in Chicago recently.

I also declined to attend her farewell tour with Di Stefano in 1973. I thought it would be better to have never heard her live rather than hear her in decline.

I did however record the PBS program. Time to watch it. Again.

 

[marty]

For that I have to ask if you were exposed to the Base Hologram "Maria Callas in Concert" show in NYC or aware of it's existence?

Did not know about this. Thanks.

 

[howiebrou]

I declined to attend the hologram tour when it was here in Chicago recently.

I also declined to attend her farewell tour with Di Stefano in 1973. I thought it would be better to have never heard her live rather than hear her in decline.

I did however record the PBS program. Time to watch it. Again.

The last time I heard Pavarotti he sat the whole way through his recital. Quite disappointing to say the least.

 

[astrotoy]

I never heard Callas live. My parents liked Tebaldi more than Callas and we had a collection of Tebaldi's operas on London (mostly mono). Callas was the great singing actress or acting singer. Near the beginning of the stereo era, she lost a lot of weight and much of the beauty of her voice. A good comparison is listening to her two EMI (Angel) Toscas. The first one in mono (IIRC from 1953) has her in prime voice, while the latter in stereo shows her decline. What is most difficult for me to listen to in her later recordings is her ever increasing vibrato, which turned into a wide wobble. She did rerecord several of her major roles in stereo, so finding the earlier mono usually has her in better voice.

EMI transferred all of their Callas recordings to digital (IIRC 24 bit/96Hz hirez) and they at least at one time were bargain priced. I bought the set of downloads a few years ago. The great dramatic Italian operas are where her acting/singing skills shine, usually paired with some of the top tenors of the day.

I may have told this story before. When I started grad school at Berkeley in the summer of 1967, one of the other grad students was a big opera fan. She found that I was also interested in opera. So in September, when she had a conflict, she gave me her ticket to see La Boheme at the SF . Opera. I had grown up listening to Boheme and other Italian operas at home (Sundays we listened to opera instead of church). So I went. I had heard of the Mimi, Mirella Freni, but not the Rudolfo. When the opera ended I remember thinking that this tenor was very, very good. This was Pavarotti's American debut.

When I wrote my Decca book, two of the engineers told me many stories about Pavarotti, who was a lifelong Decca artist. Of course, over his career, he did the opposite of Callas, gaining weight, until he could barely move across the stage. See his performances at the Met (www.metopera.org) and notice the difference between Pavarotti in 1978 (the earliest Live at the Met videos they have) and the late 80's and earlyu 90's. He probably is 100 pounds heavier in the later performances.

Larry

 

[howiebrou]

I never heard Callas live. My parents liked Tebaldi more than Callas and we had a collection of Tebaldi's operas on London (mostly mono). Callas was the great singing actress or acting singer. Near the beginning of the stereo era, she lost a lot of weight and much of the beauty of her voice. A good comparison is listening to her two EMI (Angel) Toscas. The first one in mono (IIRC from 1953) has her in prime voice, while the latter in stereo shows her decline. What is most difficult for me to listen to in her later recordings is her ever increasing vibrato, which turned into a wide wobble. She did rerecord several of her major roles in stereo, so finding the earlier mono usually has her in better voice.

EMI transferred all of their Callas recordings to digital (IIRC 24 bit/96Hz hirez) and they at least at one time were bargain priced. I bought the set of downloads a few years ago. The great dramatic Italian operas are where her acting/singing skills shine, usually paired with some of the top tenors of the day.

I may have told this story before. When I started grad school at Berkeley in the summer of 1967, one of the other grad students was a big opera fan. She found that I was also interested in opera. So in September, when she had a conflict, she gave me her ticket to see La Boheme at the SF . Opera. I had grown up listening to Boheme and other Italian operas at home (Sundays we listened to opera instead of church). So I went. I had heard of the Mimi, Mirella Freni, but not the Rudolfo. When the opera ended I remember thinking that this tenor was very, very good. This was Pavarotti's American debut.

When I wrote my Decca book, two of the engineers told me many stories about Pavarotti, who was a lifelong Decca artist. Of course, over his career, he did the opposite of Callas, gaining weight, until he could barely move across the stage. See his performances at the Met (www.metopera.org) and notice the difference between Pavarotti in 1978 (the earliest Live at the Met videos they have) and the late 80's and earlyu 90's. He probably is 100 pounds heavier in the later performances.

Larry

Great story and how lucky you were to see him at that age. The one soprano I wish I had the chance of seeing was Monserrat Caballe. Truly extraordinary.

 

[astrotoy]

Great story and how lucky you were to see him at that age. The one soprano I wish I had the chance of seeing was Monserrat Caballe. Truly extraordinary.

I wish I had seen Caballe also. One superstar I did hear, after she reached superstardom, but still fairly early in her career was Joan Sutherland. Boston had a not so famous (not like the Met or Chicago's Lyric or SF Opera) Opera company run by Sarah Caldwell. She would have mostly local singers, but would bring in a big name for some of the productions. In 1965 or 66, when I was a junior or senior in college, I saw Sutherland singing Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. We were waiting in the lobby to get into the theater. The start of the performance had been delayed - no other explanation. Then, suddenly, this very tall and big (not fat - more like an NFL linebacker in those days) woman whizzed by me - not more than a few feet away from where I was standing. She was wearing furs and moving very fast. It took me a minute to realize that it was Joan Sutherland! She was late, and since her character appears very near the beginning of the opera, they were holding the performance up until she arrived!

Larry

 

[sharik]

what upsets me is that opera world had placed so much emphasis on vocals, meanwhile the operatic masterpieces, which have gone down in history, are there due to their outstanding music quality, for however brilliant vocal parts were, it is the music that makes an opera sound great.

it therefore is of importance to pay more attention the orchestral performance and how does the conductor take on the vocalists, in terms of whether he makes it easier for them and goes with 'tone down' the orchestra, in many a sense, or will he just ignore their needs and focus instead on the score, in order to make it really shine.

 

[howiebrou]

what upsets me is that opera world had placed so much emphasis on vocals, meanwhile the operatic masterpieces, which have gone down in history, are there due to their outstanding music quality, for however brilliant vocal parts were, it is the music that makes an opera sound great.

it therefore is of importance to pay more attention the orchestral performance and how does the conductor take on the vocalists, in terms of whether he makes it easier for them and goes with 'tone down' the orchestra, in many a sense, or will he just ignore their needs and focus instead on the score, in order to make it really shine.

I think you the voice, the charisma and a great score but I get your point. Interestingly in musicals it's normally the other way around with the composer and the score getting all the acclaim and rarely do you even know who is singing.

 

[R Johnson]

I watched the show again today. While Callas was excellent, I confess to connecting with Tito Gobbi's performance even more. I heard Gobbi several times at Lyric Opera in Chicago in the 1970s.