Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (1956 - Votto) - Callas Remastered Maria Callas

• 1Prelude04:17
• 2Posa in pace, a'bei sogni restora (Chorus, Samuel, Tom)01:35
• 3S'avanza il Conte (Oscar, Riccardo)01:38
• 4La rivedrà nell'estasi (Riccardo, Oscar, Chorus, Samuel, Tom)01:56
• 5Il cenno mio di là con essi attendi (Riccardo, Oscar, Renato)02:33
• 6Alla vita che t'arride (Renato)02:50
• 7Il primo giudice (Oscar, Riccardo, Judge)01:31
• 8Volta la terrea (Oscar, Riccardo, Judge, Renato, Samuel, Tom, Chorus)02:37
• 9Ogni cura si doni al diletto (Riccardo, Renato, Oscar, Samuel, Tom, Chorus)02:14
• Act One, Scene Two
• 10Zitti...l'incanto non dessi turbare...Re dell'abisso, affrettati (Chorus, Ulrica)04:01
• 11Arrivo il primo! (Riccardo, Chorus)... È lui, è lui ne'palpitti (Ulrica, Chorus)02:29
• 12Su, fatemi largo, saper vo' il mio fato (Silvano, Ulrica, Riccardo)01:03
• 13Rallegrati omai (Ulrica, Silvano, Riccardo, Chorus, Attendant)02:22
• 14Che v'agita così! (Ulrica, Amelia, Riccardo)01:26
• 15Della città all'occaso (Ulrica, Amelia, Riccardo)01:30
• 16Consentimi, O Signore (Ulrica, Amelia, Riccardo)02:00
• 17Figlia d'averno, schiudi la chiostra (Ulrica, Amelia, Riccardo, Chorus)00:26
• 18Su, profetessa, monta il treppiè (Chorus, Oscar, Riccardo)00:57
• 19Di' tu se fedele (Riccardo, Chorus)03:13
• 20Chi voi siate, l'audace parola (Ulrica, Riccardo, Samuel, Oscar, Chorus)02:32
• 21È scherzo od è follia (Riccardo, Ulrica, Samuel, Tom, Oscar, Chorus)03:20
• 22Finisci il vaticinio (Riccardo, Ulrica, Samuel, Tom, Renato, Chorus, Silvano)04:26
• Act Two, beginning
• 23Prelude02:25
• 24Ecco l'orrido campo ove s'accoppia (Amelia)01:30
• 25Ma dall'arido stelo divulsa (Amelia)05:12
• 26Teco io sto (Riccardo, Amelia)01:32
• 27Non sai tu che se l'anima mia (Riccardo, Amelia)04:13
• 28Oh, qual soave brivido (Riccardo, Amelia)03:47
• Act Two, conclusion
• 29Ahimè! S'appressa (Amelia, Riccardo, Renato)02:12
• 30Amico, gelosa t'affido una cura (Riccardo, Renato)00:55
• 31Odi tu come fremono cupi (Amelia, Renato, Riccardo)01:57
• 32Seguitemi (Renato, Amelia, Chorus, Samuel, Tom)02:39
• 33Ve', se di notte qui colla sposa (Renato, Amelia, Chorus, Samuel, Tom)05:07
• Act Three, Scene One
• 34A tal colpa è nulla il pianto (Renato, Amelia)02:19
• 35Morrò, ma prima in grazia (Amelia)04:32
• 36Azati! là tuo figlio (Renato)01:53
• 37Eri tu che macchiavi quell'anima...O dolcezze perdute! O memorie (Renato)04:18
• 38Siam soli. Udite... (Renato, Tom, Samuel)02:37
• 39Dunque l'onta di tutti sol una (Renato, Tom, Samuel)00:55
• 40D'una grazia vi supplico (Renato, Samuel, Tom, Amelia)03:58
• 41Qual è dunque l'eletto?...Ah! del Conte la morte si vuole! (Renato, Samuel, Tom, Amelia)01:21
• 42Il messaggio entri (Renato, Oscar, Amelia, Samuel, Tom)01:06
• 43Ah! Di che fulgor, che musiche (Renato, Oscar, Amelia, Samuel, Tom)02:44
• Act Three, Scene Two
• 44Forse la soglia attinse (Riccardo)02:38
• 45Ma se m'è forza perderti (Riccardo)02:45
• 46Ah! dessa è là (Riccardo, Oscar)01:38
• Act Three, Scene Three
• 47Fervono amori e danze (Renato, Oscar, Chorus)02:09
• 48Saper vorreste di che si veste (Oscar)02:02
• 49Fervono amori e danze... (Chorus, Renato, Oscar)01:29
• 50Ah! perchè qui! fuggite... (Amelia, Riccardo)04:39
• 51E tu ricevi il mio! (Renato, Riccardo, Amelia, Oscar, Chorus)01:15
• 52Ella è pura: in braccio a morte (Renato, Riccardo, Amelia, Oscar, Chorus)04:40
• Total Runtime02:11:23

Info for Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (1956 - Votto) - Callas Remastered

Callas’s first stage appearances in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera came at La Scala in 1957, a year in which Milan also saw her in La sonnambula and Anna Bolena. As in this recording, made the year before, she shared Verdi’s most spectacular soprano-tenor duet (inAct II) with Giuseppe di Stefano. This was the last time Callas and Di Stefano appeared together in opera, though they reunited in the 1970s to direct I vespri siciliani in Turin and to give a series of joint concerts in Europe, the USA, Canada,South Korea and Japan. Gramophone judged this recording of Ballo to be ‘one of Callas’s most compelling assumptions’.

Maria Callas, soprano (Amelia)
Giuseppe di Stefano, tenor (Riccardo)
Tito Gobbi, baritone (Renato)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan
Antonino Votto, conductor

Digitally remastered

Maria Callas
was born to a Greek family in New York in 1923. Her vocal training took place in Athens, where her teacher was the coloratura soprano Elvira de Hidalgo, who had sung with Enrico Caruso and Feodor Chaliapin. After early performances in Greece, Callas’s international career was launched in 1947 when she performed the title role in Ponchielli’s La Gioconda at the Arena di Verona in Italy.

Her voice defied simple classification and her artistic range was extraordinary. In her early twenties she sang such heavy dramatic roles as Gioconda, Turandot, Brünnhilde and Isolde, but over the course of her career her most famous roles came to be: Bellini’s Norma and Amina (La sonnambula); Verdi’s Violetta (La traviata); Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Anna Bolena, Cherubini’s Medea and Puccini’s Tosca. Though her timbre was not always conventionally beautiful, Callas’s musicianship and phrasing were in a class of their own. She brought characters to vivid life with her skill in colouring her tone and making insightful use of the text.

She is credited with changing the history of opera: by placing a perhaps unprecedented emphasis on musical integrity and dramatic truth, and by transforming perceptions – and reviving the fortunes – of the bel canto repertoire, particularly Bellini and Donizetti.

The 1950s marked the height of Callas’s career. Its base lay in the opera houses of Italy, and she became the prima donna assoluta of Milan’s legendary La Scala – notably in the productions of Luchino Visconti – but her operatic appearances also encompassed London’s Royal Opera House, the New York Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opéra, the Vienna State Opera, and the opera houses of Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Lisbon, and, in the early 1950s, Mexico City, São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.

From 1959, when she started a life-changing love affair with the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, her performing career slowed down and her voice became more fragile. Her final stage performances came in 1965, when she was only 42.

There were many plans for a return to the stage – and for further complete recordings – but they never reached fruition, though in 1974 she gave a series of concerts in Europe, North America and Japan with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano; he had partnered her frequently in the opera house and in the studio, not least in the 1953 La Scala Tosca under Victor de Sabata, considered a landmark in recording history. Callas died alone in her Paris apartment in September 1977.

Booklet for Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (1956 - Votto) - Callas Remastered