Callas Assoluta

[Pamela Moberg]

I recently saw a documentary about Maria Callas called "Callas Assoluta", made by Swan Productions and Arte France in 2007.

It covered her entire life, including her childhood in New York. In spite of all her triumphs, it was a desperately sad film. Very well worth seeing for those interested in opera.

[dirac]

Thanks for posting about this, Pamela. I've seen the Tony Palmer documentary but not this one. I'll have to check it out. Yes, in the end it's a sad story. On the other hand, there are many people whose lives end badly. Callas changed the face of her art and left a great legacy behind her. Many can't say nearly as much. I hope she thought it was worth it.

[dirac]

Has anyone else seen this, BTW?

[richard53dog]

Thanks for posting about this, Pamela. I've seen the Tony Palmer documentary but not this one. I'll have to check it out. Yes, in the end it's a sad story. On the other hand, there are many people whose lives end badly. Callas changed the face of her art and left a great legacy behind her. Many can't say nearly as much. I hope she thought it was worth it.

I don't know what she thought. But all her accomplishments seemed to turn to ashes. I saw an interview by Barbara Walters of Callas during that sad last tour and it is SO downbeat and hesitant. The interview was never shown on tv for reasons that were pretty clear to me. She discusses the tour itself, her current singing, and her partnership (the late version) with di Stefano. She seemed like a sad figure who had more or less given up.

And when Onassis died a year or two later I think it was more nails in her coffin.

She continued to try to work on her voice in those last few years from 1974-1977. A little surprisingly, some privately recorded takes on her singing Ah Perfido and bits of LA Forza del Destino shortly before she died were far more convincing that the sorry, tentative singing she did on that 1973-74 tour, giving evidence that at least part of the problem was that her self-confidence had been devastated. Without an audience, and the albatross that Di Stefano, she sang much more boldly.

[dirac]

Without an audience, and the albatross that Di Stefano, she sang much more boldly.

I haven't heard those recordings. That's interesting to know. Yes, I think the death of Onassis was the last nail, so to speak, and after that she seems to have turned her face to the wall.

[richard53dog]

Without an audience, and the albatross that Di Stefano, she sang much more boldly.

I haven't heard those recordings.

Here's a sample. First an encore (presumably she had warmed up!) from one the 1973-74 tour dates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvrHxQ3qjAE

I find this immensely sad although tickets were sold at very high prices for these concerts so it's possible to be angry also. Callas is in very, very poor shape, parts of the voice were unavailable, pitch was awful, the top was squally and she sang very tentatively as she tried to find something to grab onto to stabilize her sense of line, all to very little success.

I was a very young operagoer and I idolized Callas as only the young can be fanatic about their idols but I left the concert dazed and felt almost betrayed. MAny years later I have a different perspective she wasn't doing the concerts for her fans but for her own emotional survival, which sadly didn't work.

I have a recording of one of the concerts on the tour where Di Stefano cancelled and Callas went on by herself. She sounded quite a bit better, not really great, but not the the shambles of the video I posted above. This suggests that carrying Di Stefano with all his insecurities and clownish antics took a big toll and without them she could concentrate better.

She continued, up until her death, to work on her voice. Occasionally she would go into a theater in Paris where she lived and sing for small groups of friends looking for encouragement and some signs that she might be able to make one more return to the stage.

Here's a 1976 (the year before she died) recording of the first part of Beethoven's Ah Perfido, self accompanied.

It's certainly not prime Callas but at least it is recognizable as the bold, gutsy singer that she was. While there are a few rough spots here and there she sings with a lot of drive and propulsion.

It just seems a world better than all the many clips floating around from those 1973-74 tour dates.

[leonid17]

Maria Callas sang at the Royal Opera House many times during the 1950's and regrettably I did not hear hear until 1964

as Tosca. I later heard heard her in concert.

Whilst I never heard her in her prime, I did know Alan Sievewright for many years who had many rare recordings and films of Callas which we watched on a numerous occasions.

Like many of the singers of the past to be found at Cantabile Subito, Maria Callas once heard cannot be forgotten.

I heard Di Stefano in concert and despite having grown up with his recordings over a number of years, there was no criticism in my mind that the voice was less than when younger, because there were many moments which entirely recalled my joy of his earlier days on records.

Films of de Los Angeles who I heard as Mimi in 1962 and Schwarzkopf in concert also later in life are memorable, but they also do not capture the moment of the live voice.

http://www.cantabile-subito.de/

[dirac]

Thanks to both of you for these links, which I'll click on when I can. So many good links, so little time...