# A Question about Callas Live Armida 1952



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

This is my favorite Callas recording BUT most of it is of such dreadful quality. My question is: my favorite aria is 



 , her big theme and variations aria. Why is the sound so relatively good here and so dreadful everywhere else? I wonder if more effort was made to clean up the recording here. The D natural is my favorite note ever by Callas.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

—-post deleted—-


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> This is my favorite Callas recording BUT most of it is of such dreadful quality. My question is: my favorite aria is
> 
> 
> 
> , her big theme and variations aria. Why is the sound so relatively good here and so dreadful everywhere else? I wonder if more effort was made to clean up the recording here. The D natural is my favorite note ever by Callas.


The vagaries of radio broadcasts from Italy in the 1950s are the bane of Callas live recordings. Some are quite good, others like Armida, execrable. Had she sung Nabucco, Armida, Vestale, and Alceste in Germany in those days we would probably have had better recordings!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> The vagaries of radio broadcasts from Italy in the 1050s are the bane of Callas live recordings. Some are quite good, others like Armida, execrable. Had she sung Nabucco, Armida, Vestale, and Alceste in Germany in those days we would probably have had better recordings!


Well, thank the gods that it came through relatively clear on the most important aria in Armida for her.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I wonder if you've heard the 1954 "D'amor al dolce impero" from the San Remo concert? Ardoin says that some "of the garni" have been trimmed away, but the sound is much clearer, though alas the voice is not the same.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> I wonder if you've heard the 1954 "D'amor al dolce impero" from the San Remo concert? Ardoin says that some "of the garni" have been trimmed away, but the sound is much clearer, though alas the voice is not the same.






. This copy of the 52 opera performance of D'amore al dolce impero is really quite wonderful. I don't at all like the 54 performance. The D is half what it was before. No, my complaint was that the REST of the Armida recording was so bad in quality compared to that one aria. It is like the gods knew we had HAD HAD to have that aria preserved well for posterity;-) Praise the gods!


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