Her first full recording was Gioconda in 1952, which adopted additional performances on the Enviornment. In all, she carried out the position 13 occasions, together with six occasions at La Scala between December 1952 and February 1953. On the time of these performances, she weighed about 220 lbs. It was after that that she went by way of her well-known transformation. Even at the moment her voice was famous as being of an uncommon colour with a harsh timbre and unevenness between the registers, albeit with ample quantity and extension of vary. Proper from the start her voice invited controversy, however to her followers, she was La Divina.
I’ve to confess: I’m not a fan. Nonetheless, I do respect the truth that she was essentially the most important singer of the twentieth century. However then once more, I’m not the largest fan of Milanov both. And the 2 couldn’t be at extra reverse ends of the spectrum. One is the final word “Stimmdiva” whereas the opposite is epitomizes the “Kunstdiva.” Should you haven’t learn your Ethan Mordden, stimm = voice, kunst = artwork. Really, I feel a singer like Rysanek or Olivero actually comes nearer to what I consider as a kunst diva. Tebaldi began as a Stimmdiva and ended as a Kunstdiva, however this most likely had extra to do with the lack of her stimm. Li’l Renata, i.e., Scotto, equally modified, the distinction being that Large R modified as she aged, Scotto due to conviction. Tebaldi thrived due to character, Scotto regardless of (I’ll clarify that later). After all, it depends upon what one values most in opera, however I’m a agency believer that Opera is initially about singing. Stunning singing. Bel Canto. What one does with, how one makes use of the voice comes subsequent.
Leontyne Worth was definitely a Stimmdiva and undoubtedly would have been an ideal Gioconda, however she couldn’t survive Fanciulla and properly wouldn’t have risked The Voice, due to this fact no Gioconda – “Suicidio” isn’t even on any of her Prima Donna albums and he or she just about sings the gamut of the soprano territory (aside from “Casta diva,” no bel canto both). She knew her voice and that’s why when she sang her ultimate Aïda on the Met 24 years after her first one, she sounded as if she might go on for one more 24. All these singers talked about right here had one key factor in widespread: all of them sang with depth. With one exception, I really feel that no singer right this moment sings like that. The exception is Ermonela Jaho. Granted, she doesn’t have the scale of voice the others had – and please don’t let her ever do a Gioconda! – however each be aware she sings has conviction, depth, and character together with magnificence. That’s what I search for.
“It’s all there for anybody who cares to perceive or needs to know what I was about.”
Mordden posits:
“What’s extra helpful, the sensuality of sound or the clever, dynamic, versatile impersonation? … The Stimmdiva’s thought of making ready Gounod’s Marguerite entails studying the music and ordering her outfits. The Kunstdiva reads Goethe.”
Mordden goes on:
“Tebaldi was a extremely expressive artist, not an vital actress however a finely musical interpreter … Callas was weak in voice and needed to make up for it with extraordinary musicianship and dedication.”
And for a ultimate Mordden quote:
“Demented is opera at its best, an evening when the singers are in voice, in position, in glory.”
I ought to add that Mordden’s Demented is just about a paean to Callas. Probably the most demented evening I ever spent on the opera was a Sunday evening, Guild profit Tosca – and by it’s very nature, Tosca is demented – with a scheduled Tebaldi, an unscheduled Corelli, and a returning Gobbi. Sadly, I missed the ultimate Callas Tosca as I used to be off in faculty, however I’ve little question these had been completely demented performances, too. I don’t learn about Milanov; I can’t think about it. A diva who’s strictly ‘Stimm’ could be Caballé; nevertheless, one of the crucial demented performances I’ve ever heard was a Trovatore along with her, Viorica Cortez, Domingo, and Merrill … interpolated excessive notes all over! As is Tosca and the occasional Trovatore, and hopefully Forza, so too is La Gioconda and our three divas, Milanov, Tebaldi, and Callas, shared these roles, not less than to a larger or lesser diploma. Now, none of this isn’t to say that Milanov couldn’t be dramatic (not less than in her personal means) and Callas has definitely been promoting recordings of simply her voice for over seven many years.
Oh sure, it appears I’ve gotten off monitor…
My feeling in regards to the Callas voice, vis-à-vis the artwork, is that I don’t look after the sound of the voice, however admire what she does with it. So, earlier than I give a couple of individuals apoplexy and dig my grave deeper, let me add that if I had been to selected the one most second for instance the Callas phenomenon, I discover that the hovering phrases following Gioconda giving Laura the poison that conclude the primary scene of Act III starting ‘O mia madre’ and ending ‘per lui … per lui,’ as the most effective instance of her artwork. Stuffed with anguish. Stunning singing? Not essentially. However the complete impact is riveting. Once more, it’s all up and down the size however each be aware is invested with the sacrifice she is making and the depth of sorrow that it prices her, “O madre mia … il sacrifizio mio.”
The primary to say that Gioconda was her best recorded position was the diva herself. She thought-about this her best recording, declaring, “It’s all there for anybody who cares to know or needs to know what I used to be about.” She recorded the position twice, first in 1952 following performances at La Scala and once more in stereo in 1959. The primary distinction I discover between the 2 recordings is that in 1952 she was a digital unknown making her first recording. In 1959, she was the world’s most well-known prima donna … and it exhibits within the performances. It’s typically accepted that the later recording is superior definitely by way of sound and principally within the forged, however she was in much better voice within the earlier. I gravitate extra in the direction of the sooner recording. By no means was the Callas voice in higher form and extra superbly used. Within the second, I can get previous the flapping excessive notes. Nevertheless it’s the underside notes that sound like a buzzer to my ears. Most critics agree that her second recording exhibits larger depth (and lack of voice). On the earlier level, Callas nearly had all of it (together with fats), however she wouldn’t have been The Legend if she had stayed that means.
Callas at La Scala in 1952
Sadly, as is commonly the case in these early recordings, the remainder of the forged was not of her caliber and, due to this fact, the second recording turns into preferable as an announcement of the opera. Within the first, to place it merely, Gianni Poggi is deplorable. Within the second, Piero Cappucilli is the Barnaba on the verge of a giant profession – one which I by no means understood. Nice voice, completely zero character. No surprise Callas hates this Barnaba a lot! Most discover Fiorenza Cossotto preferable to Fedora Barbieri within the ’52. In that I additionally significantly admire the Alvise, Giulio Neri. Neri in Italian means black and that may be a good description of his bass voice, good for the position. Once more, I exploit the phrase “blowsy” (“blousy”?) — I ought to try to outline that. I do know I’ve heard others use it however after all can’t discover the place nor can I discover any definition within the vocal musical sense. I consider it as one thing like an aural equal of a puffy shirt or a shirt, a overvalued sound, overly operatic. In Milanov’s sense, it’s a damaging; for Neri and Alvise, it’s a constructive. Antonino Votto, the conductor in each recordings, is great and his account particularly in 1952 of the ballet and the following concertato — I discover is essentially the most thrilling on document regardless of mono sound. To the most effective of my data, there is no such thing as a documentation of any of Callas’s early small handful of dwell performances; it was by no means a part of her pure repertoire any greater than Turandot or Brünnhilde had been and that she was singing at the moment, late ‘40s early ‘50s.
The spotlight of any Gioconda efficiency must be the fourth act that comes after an already very lengthy night. That final act must be a 30-minute tour-de-force; the primary quarter-hour Gioconda is nearly alone on stage. It opens along with her solely aria, the tough “Suicidio” adopted by a monologue that calls for all of the emotion a diva can muster up. After all, that is the excessive level of Callas’s efficiency. Properly, each of them. It doesn’t matter what one thinks of her voice, she is wonderful. She claimed that she sang it as if it had been bel canto – how she integrates the position’s frenzies of affection and hatred, rooting Gioconda within the time it was written, between the Bel Canto period and late Verdi, not in that of Tosca and Santuzza. Sorry, I don’t purchase that. It’s pure verismo from begin to end. And that’s high-quality.
- 1952 – RAI & EMI: Torino – VOTTO; CALLAS, BARBIERI, Amadini, Poggi, Silveri, Neri
- 1959 – EMI & Pristine: La Scala – VOTTO; CALLAS, COSSOTTO, Companeez, Ferraro, Cappuccilli, Vinco
Critics are divided. A surprising overview in The Metropolitan Opera Information to Recorded Opera by Roland Graeme:
“On this stereo remake of her Gioconda, Callas provides a efficiency that’s directly tremendously thrilling and fairly painful to hearken to. The voice, to place it bluntly, is coming aside on the seams: harsh, nearly baritonal chest tones alternate with oddly skinny, colorless head tones, loud excessive notes are strident; and the wobble is omnipresent.”
However he finishes by saying, “even when the voice is in its worst form, the singing appears as pure a mode of expression as speech.”
There are many critics to counter that and declare not solely is it Callas’s finest recording, however the opera’s finest recording. As a ultimate phrase on the topic, Francis Robinson, an creator and an assistant supervisor on the Met, gave us an anecdote wherein Tebaldi requested him to suggest a recording of La Gioconda to be able to assist her study the position. Being totally conscious of the rivalry, he diplomatically really helpful certainly one of Milanov’s recordings. A number of days later, he went to go to Tebaldi solely to search out her sitting by the audio system, listening intently to Callas’s recording. She then regarded up at him and requested, “Why didn’t you inform me Maria’s was the most effective?”
Subsequent time, we’ll see what all that preparation went in the direction of by Tebaldi’s legacy with Gioconda.
