# SOPRANO TOURNAMENT: (Quarterfinal 1): Callas vs Sutherland



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Maria Callas, Greece/USA, 1923-1977 (defeated Raisa 21-6)






Joan Sutherland, Australia, 1926-2010 (defeated Radvanovsky 23-3)






Who's singing did you prefer and why?


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Sutherland is pretty good; she does that annoying-Sutherland-thing where she slurs her words, but it is otherwise pretty good.

However, one does not out drink Bachus, out sacrifice Jesus, out eat Bakasura, out holy war Mohamud, out wisdom Budha, out elephant Ganesha (okay, okay, maybe an actual elephant could pull this one off), or, and most especially, out Casta Diva Callas. I mean, it's Maria Callas, singing Casta Diva. Ergo, I voted for Maria Callas singing Casta Diva.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Although I'm not a fan of the Callas voice, her emotional content in the aria is perfect. By comparison, Sutherland sounds generic.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I know both these recordings pretty well. The Callas recording was one of the first she ever made for Cetra and was unfortunately recorded without the recitative, a section that she always illuminated. The performance of _Casta diva_ is one of her best recorded versions, expansive, melifluously phrased, the fioriture exquisitely turned and finishing with one of her trademark perfect string of pearls descending scales. In later recordings, she was a little more inward in the cabaletta, but this one has a magnificent sweep, and she still finds areas for expression, which elude Sutherland. The difficulties are tossed off with ease and she finishes with one of her best top Cs. Brava.

Sutherland's version is taken from _The Art of the Prima Donna_ and dates from before she had sung the role on stage. Her diction is a lot better than it became and the voice much more forwardly produced. In the aria the sound is a lot more silvery and girlish than Callas's burnished bronze and I don't really find that appropriate to the character of Norma, however good the execution. There are also one or two hints of those droopy portamenti that she would start to indulge in just a couple of years later. The cabaletta is also brilliantly executed and it is undoubtedly one of the best versions I've ever heard. That said, she doesn't stamp her authority on the performance that Callas does, nor does she find as much light and shade in it.

Predictably I suppose, I choose Callas. It's her voice I hear in my mind's ear whenever I think of this aria.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

BachIsBest said:


> Sutherland is pretty good; she does that annoying-Sutherland-thing where she slurs her words, but it is otherwise pretty good.
> 
> However, one does not out drink Bachus, out sacrifice Jesus, out eat Bakasura, out holy war Mohamud, out wisdom Budha, out elephant Ganesha (okay, okay, maybe an actual elephant could pull this one off), or, and most especially, out Casta Diva Callas. I mean, it's Maria Callas, singing Casta Diva. Ergo, I voted for Maria Callas singing Casta Diva.


Congratulations, you've just won the internet for the next decade. Had the choice been Lakme's bell song or Bel raggio, then Sutherland may have won, but mostly where they recorded the same rep Callas wins hands down for me.

(And yes, it's true that you can enjoy both of them.)

N.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

With closed eyes MARIA! Not needed to listen something to make an evaluation. I love VERY much Joan, but she has no luck with Maria.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Oh my dears!! Two giants and both in top form. What to do, what to do??
But one squeaked by the other for me come Cabaletta time.
From that point on I found my winner because the way she executed those runs was simply beyond belief.
Maria wins the day!!


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

Callas. More poetic reading of the text, at this point the voice is still very solid. Sutherland is beginning her vocal switch. Some of the performance is clear and lovely, but you can hear the oddness creeping in at certain moments, such as "spargi in terra" at 6:38 and following. Yikes.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Being late to this one, I can do little but repeat what everyone else has said. I will say that I enjoyed Sutherland more than I expected to, and from her very first vowel, which actually sounded like an "a" (hey ho nonny!). I didn't feel as if the nice Aussie girl I was listening to was high priestess of the Druids, but she sang prettily enough.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Nothing to add, Maria wins the day. Technically, Sutherland excels in some aspects, but Callas sings directly to my heart. Thrilling!


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

It's unfortunate that Sutherland started with the recitatives, not one of her strengths. Her soft grained vocal production is inadequate for forceful declamation. Once the aria starts, she's onto firmer ground and everything seems smooth, even, and beautiful. Her diction seems to be working, I understood most of the words (or I know them by heart). A decent job, the decorations quite worthy.

Callas sings _Casta diva_, and *Norma* lives! I love the way she relaxes into the music, like no other singer I've ever heard, her breath seeming to go on forever. It's like the priestess is thinking, "I'm home, this is my domain, this is my goddess, for this was I created."


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

Lord Harewood, Queen Elizabeth II's cousin and one of Callas' most faithful and ardent supporters in the UK, recalled the time when she rehearsed the role of Norma for her third London performance of the opera in Feb 1957 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden:



> Preparing for Norma in London once, she sang 'Casta Diva' at the dress rehearsal in front of an invited audience very beautifully and in what was not much more than a half voice. When I suggested I had never heard her sing it better and would she sing it like that on the first night, she laughed and said in effect, 'Would that I could! It's possible to do it like that in rehearsal but never in performance. An Italian audience demands something quite different, in fact full voice. Maybe it might be done like that in England or in Germany, but never in Italy.' Of course in studio recordings she might have been persuaded to take certain things in less full a voice than in front of the public in big theatres (and she always sang in big theatres), but this habit in no sense precluded nuance and subtlety, words you would associate with everything she did whether in public or in studio. (_BBC Music Magazine_, April 1993)


Though, as Lord hardwood insists, even when singing in full voice, Callas is capable of nuance and subtlety, it would have been a great treat had she been captured on a recording singing 'Casta Diva' in a half voice, which is probably more appropriate to the mood of the piece. As demonstrated by the recording of the rehearsal for the opening concert of the Dallas Civic Opera in Nov 1957, when Callas was relaxed (by many accounts she was a nervous performer) and took pressure off her voice, her singing took on a mesmerising kind of beauty, which would be to the benefit of the piece.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Bonetan picked great examples here. Boy howdy this is a tough call. Only Ponselle sang this on the level of these ladies. Callas is in peak form here vocally. She owns the role. But Joan sang it in it's original key with a somewhat more beautiful voice. We know Callas makes more of the role dramatically than anyone else, but based purely on these two studio recordings I give it to Sutherland for singing Casta Diva in the punishing original key which hardly anyone else ever tackled. ( Who else sang it in the original key?)Callas would have likely moved to the top if the recitative had been included as she is so powerful there. I would never want to be without Joan, Maria, and Rosa in this material. I think Rosa has my favorite version of this ultimately. With Ponselle there are so many moments where the vocalism almost overwhelms me listen after listen. Sorry to be so late to the game. After I wrote I read and you people gave some great comments.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Bonetan picked great examples here. Boy howdy this is a tough call. Only Ponselle sang this on the level of these ladies. Callas is in peak form here vocally. She owns the role. But Joan sang it in it's original key with a somewhat more beautiful voice. We know Callas makes more of the role dramatically than anyone else, but based purely on these two studio recordings I give it to Sutherland for singing Casta Diva in the punishing original key which hardly anyone else ever tackled. ( Who else sang it in the original key?)Callas would have likely moved to the top if the recitative had been included as she is so powerful there. I would never want to be without Joan, Maria, and Rosa in this material. I think Rosa has my favorite version of this ultimately. With Ponselle there are so many moments where the vocalism almost overwhelms me listen after listen. Sorry to be so late to the game. After I wrote I read and you people gave some great comments.


Callas sang _Casta Diva_ in the original key (G) only very few times, and lowered the key in deference to her Adalgisas who were more comfortable in the lower key of F. No recorded evidence exists, alas. Ardoin claims Maria was more comfortable, as well, in the lower key ("a key becoming to her timbre and approach" - _the Callas Legacy, p.6)_).


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> Callas sang _Casta Diva_ in the original key (G) only very few times, and lowered the key in deference to her Adalgisas who were more comfortable in the lower key of F. No recorded evidence exists, alas. Ardoin claims Maria was more comfortable, as well, in the lower key ("a key becoming to her timbre and approach" - _the Callas Legacy, p.6)_).


I feel like I am on a quiz show with college nerds from Ivy league schools LOL. So much trivia knowledge!


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> Callas sang _Casta Diva_ in the original key (G) only very few times, and lowered the key in deference to her Adalgisas who were more comfortable in the lower key of F. No recorded evidence exists, alas. Ardoin claims Maria was more comfortable, as well, in the lower key ("a key becoming to her timbre and approach" - _the Callas Legacy, p.6)_).


I believe she sang it and the duets in the original keys on her second season in London in 1953, when Simionato was her Adalgisa rather than Stignani. I read somewhere that she was quite cross, on Simionato's behalf, that none of the critics even noticed.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I believe she sang it and the duets in the original keys on her second season in London in 1953, when Simionato was her Adalgisa rather than Stignani. I read somewhere that she was quite cross, on Simionato's behalf, that none of the critics even noticed.


It's quite a pity that, of the roles Callas sang in the 1953 season, it was *Aida* that was broadcast, not *Norma*. But I can see the logic, in that *Norma* was given the year before and we, thankfully, have a record of it.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> It's quite a pity that, of the roles Callas sang in the 1953 season, it was *Aida* that was broadcast, not *Norma*. But I can see the logic, in that *Norma* was given the year before and we, thankfully, have a record of it.


She also sang Leonora in *Il Trovatore* that season and, if anything, the reviews were even better than they were for *Norma* and *Aida*. That might have been worth hearing, though we do at least have the La Scala performance of the same year.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> She also sang Leonora in *Il Trovatore* that season and, if anything, the reviews were even better than they were for *Norma* and *Aida*. That might have been worth hearing, though we do at least have the La Scala performance of the same year.


Yes, I remember a wonderful, evocative review in _Opera_, I think, where the reviewer waxes poetic on Callas "sinking into death', or some such, and her voice with its "wonderful mix of tension and relaxation" (on some scene). I love how the critics actually wrote about the singing, the voices, then. Nowadays, it's all about the production, and a word or two on a singer, never taking into account how the singers sang, a description of the voice and how they used it.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> Yes, I remember a wonderful, evocative review in _Opera_, I think, where the reviewer waxes poetic on Callas "sinking into death', or some such, and her voice with its "wonderful mix of tension and relaxation" (on some scene). I love how the critics actually wrote about the singing, the voices, then. Nowadays, it's all about the production, and a word or two on a singer, never taking into account how the singers sang, a description of the voice and how they used it.


I've said that myself quite a few times. It seems that these days critics don't really need to know anything about singing or the voice.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I believe she sang it and the duets in the original keys on her second season in London in 1953, when Simionato was her Adalgisa rather than Stignani. I read somewhere that she was quite cross, on Simionato's behalf, that none of the critics even noticed.


I had never heard that the duets also were originally higher. Bellini must have been a sadist. I am assuming they can adjust the key for Casta Diva without it affecting other parts of the opera . Would the cabaletta have to be adjusted higher as well. I have always wondered why no one interpolated a high note at the end of the cabaletta. It would sound wonderful.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I had never heard that the duets also were originally higher. Bellini must have been a sadist. I am assuming they can adjust the key for Casta Diva without it affecting other parts of the opera . Would the cabaletta have to be adjusted higher as well. I have always wondered why no one interpolated a high note at the end of the cabaletta. It would sound wonderful.


As regards higher original keys, I believe Bellini designates Adalgisa a soprano role. Does anyone know when it became the property of mezzos?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> As regards higher original keys, I believe Bellini designates Adalgisa a soprano role. Does anyone know when it became the property of mezzos?


Indeed it was. Adalgisa was first sung by Giulia Grisi, who, according to contemporary commentators, had a much lighter voice than Pasta. She went on to create the role of Elvira in *I Puritani*. She also went on to sing Norma, though not with great success. I don't know when the role was appropriated by mezzos.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The studio Norma with Eaglen and Muti had a lyric soprano as Adalgisa. I'm surprised you could hear her over Eaglen. I never got it because Muti didn't let Jane sing a D in the big trio. I can't think of another recorded Adalgisa who was a soprano.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> The studio Norma with Eaglen and Muti had a lyric soprano as Adalgisa. I'm surprised you could hear her over Eaglen. I never got it because Muti didn't let Jane sing a D in the big trio. I can't think of another recorded Adalgisa who was a soprano.


Caballé on the second Sutherland. Sumi Jo on the Bartoli set.


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Woodduck said:


> As regards higher original keys, I believe Bellini designates Adalgisa a soprano role. Does anyone know when it became the property of mezzos?


Sopranos and mezzos shared the part in the 1800s but I can't find many revivals with a soprano Adalgisa...

A famous singer of the 1860s - Désirée Artôt- sang Adalgisa among her soprano roles: "Artôt sang in London in 1859-60 and again in 1863 (at Her Majesty's Theatre), in La fille du régiment, La traviata, and Norma (as Adalgisa, with Thérèse Tietjens in the title role)."
Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Désirée_Artôt

I'd have like to have heard coloratura soprano Olimpia Boronat - who sang Adalgisa in Odessa and Catania in 1889/1890. 
Source: https://forgottenoperasingers.blogspot.com/2016/02/olimpia-boronat-soprano-genova-italy.html

Records of her exist singing another Bellini heroine -Elvira from _I Puritani_: 1904 in lovely voice, pretty horrific piano sound(!)





Another interesting singer would be Irene Abendroth who sang both Norma and Adalgisa in her career. 
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Abendroth
She was definitely both a soprano and a coloratura soprano to boot: sample her voice and technique as Semiramide.





You're probably familiar with Lilli Lehmann's recordings with Hedwig Helbig (her niece) - I think Helbig has one of the lighter voices as Adalgisa but I've not read anything else about her having a big career.





Rosa Raisa (born 1893) was taught Norma by her teacher Barbara Marchisio (born 1833), who is usually described as a contralto. 
Raisa explained:"[Carlotta Marchisio] the dramatic soprano, she was the greatest Norma then living and Barbara Marchisio, my teacher, would sing Adalgisa."
Source:https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/progra...o?t=1731.44,1733.98&a=GabrBesaWas,BesaWasAdal

What is intriguing is that I've read Barbara Marchisio (i.e. the contralto) made "her stage debut as Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma in Vicenza in 1856" while her sister, the dramatic soprano, made _her_ debut "as Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma at the Teatro Real in Madrid in March 1857".
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlotta_Marchisio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Marchisio

So, it was not set in stone at that point.

I can't find many soprano Adalgisas after WWI.

In Raisa's own time as Norma (e.g. 1917-1918 in Buenos Aires) her Adalgisa was the strong-voiced mezzo Gabriella Besanzoni. She was decidedly a mezzo/perhaps a contralto going by her records as Carmen.





Giannina Arangi-Lombardi sang Adalgisa but only before retraining as a soprano... Would like to have heard that.

Ponselle sang it with mezzo soprano Marion Telva at the Met in the '20s. Milanov's Adalgisa was similarly a mezzo soprano - Jennie Tourel.

When Muzio sang it at the Teatro Colon in 1927 I believe Stignani was her Adalgisa (+Lauri-Volpi, +Pasero + Marinuzzi conducting - must have been heaven!). As we know, Stignani dominated in the role for the next thirty years including with Cigna and Callas...


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Caballé on the second Sutherland. Sumi Jo on the Bartoli set.


I thought Caballe was a terrific Adalgisa.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Revitalized Classics said:


> I thought Caballe was a terrific Adalgisa.


I agree. I can't believe I forgot about her. Her voice was so very different than La Stupenda they could sound complimentary in duets.


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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

Hmmmm. I'm struggling with this one. Why, I hear you ask? Well, because Joan performs the preceding recitative and Callas doesn't. Why should this be a problem? Well, according to an article written by playwright Terence McNally Callas _really_ wasn't very good at that recitative. Here's what he had to say:

"Even at her debut as Bellini's Norma, an event for which I, a 17-year-old student, had queued for three days for standing room in the highest reaches of the Met, she was booed at the earliest possible moment: a sustained note in the recitative before Norma's first great aria, the celebrated 'Casta Diva.' It's not a particularly important note as these things go, and most audiences don't notice it because most Normas have no difficulty with it, but Callas did. She always did. She did the night of her Metropolitan debut and she was booed for it. She did at each of the subsequent six performances of Norma she sang, and she was booed at every one of them. What did Callas do that so outraged New York audiences? She wobbled.

But Callas always wobbled on that particular note. She wobbles on both her EMI recordings of Norma that were made before her Met debut, so the audience that evening of October 26, 1956, had a pretty good idea of what they were in for. No, Callas always wobbled and in my experience she was always punished for it."

Now, speaking as someone who was barely school age when Callas died, I didn't hear her live. But I do hear exactly what McNally describes on recordings of Norma, and indeed of other Operas. The problem I have is that I like the aria itself sung by Callas very much. I also love Joan's version. I hope I can make my mind up before voting closes.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Aerobat said:


> Hmmmm. I'm struggling with this one. Why, I hear you ask? Well, because Joan performs the preceding recitative and Callas doesn't. Why should this be a problem? Well, according to an article written by playwright Terence McNally Callas _really_ wasn't very good at that recitative. Here's what he had to say:
> 
> "Even at her debut as Bellini's Norma, an event for which I, a 17-year-old student, had queued for three days for standing room in the highest reaches of the Met, she was booed at the earliest possible moment: a sustained note in the recitative before Norma's first great aria, the celebrated 'Casta Diva.' It's not a particularly important note as these things go, and most audiences don't notice it because most Normas have no difficulty with it, but Callas did. She always did. She did the night of her Metropolitan debut and she was booed for it. She did at each of the subsequent six performances of Norma she sang, and she was booed at every one of them. What did Callas do that so outraged New York audiences? She wobbled.
> 
> ...


Well I think McNally overstates the case. She was not in good voice for her Met debut, nor really for any of her Met performances. But the Met is not the world. Anyway this is a long recitative and Callas has always been known for her masterly performance of recitatives in general, and this one is particular.

Here she is singing it at Covent Garden, stamping her authority on the role from the word go.






As always, she fills the recitative with a significance far beyond anything Sutherland achieves. In any case, I thought we were voting on the above performances, not on what isn't there, or has been reported by someone else. Incidentally, Callas probably didn't record the recitative in this early Cetra recoring so as to be able to fit the aria onto a single 78 side.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I do wonder about McNally. He wrote two plays in which she features, _The Lisbon Traviata_, which is really about a gay man's obsession with opera and the constant quest for the unattainable, and _Masterclass_, a totally fictionalised account of Callas's masterclasses at the Juilliard, which don't paint a very flattering picture of the diva. For someone who professed to love her, he certainly didn't do her any favours.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I do wonder about McNally. He wrote two plays in which she features, _The Lisbon Traviata_, which is really about a gay man's obsession with opera and the constant quest for the unattainable, and _Masterclass_, a totally fictionalised account of Callas's masterclasses at the Juilliard, which don't paint a very flattering picture of the diva. For someone who professed to love her, he certainly didn't do her any favours.


I don't remember if I said this before but I had two long opera conversations with McNally several years apart. When I asked him who had the most beautiful voice he ever heard, he said Caballe.
Callas's recitatives were great on record, particularly the first studio version. The most thrilling version of the recitative is Ponselle's in my opinion: such a ginormous voice delivered with great authority but spun with astonishing delicacy when required. Her chest note is amazing.


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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Well I think McNally overstates the case. She was not in good voice for her Met debut, nor really for any of her Met performances. But the Met is not the world. Anyway this is a long recitative and Callas has always been known for her masterly performance of recitatives in general, and this one is particular.
> 
> Here she is singing it at Covent Garden, stamping her authority on the role from the word go.
> 
> ...


Indeed, we are voting on these two performances. But - the element that Callas has a reputation for not shining in is missing from her performance, whereas it's present in Joan's! As I say, I love both for the Aria itself......


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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I do wonder about McNally. He wrote two plays in which she features, _The Lisbon Traviata_, which is really about a gay man's obsession with opera and the constant quest for the unattainable, and _Masterclass_, a totally fictionalised account of Callas's masterclasses at the Juilliard, which don't paint a very flattering picture of the diva. For someone who professed to love her, he certainly didn't do her any favours.


Later in the same article he certainly does praise her extensively. I would describe him as loving Callas whilst still recognising that she was far from perfect. A sentiment that I agree with in many ways; she wasn't perfect but had an incredible ability to deliver amazingly expressive performances despite her imperfections. I'm probably going to get shot by several members on here for describing her as less than perfect, but it's an opinion that I hold based on listening to many of her recordings.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Aerobat said:


> Indeed, we are voting on these two performances. But - the element that Callas has a reputation for not shining in is missing from her performance, whereas it's present in Joan's! As I say, I love both for the Aria itself......


But actually she does have a reputation for shining in the recitative, indeed in all the recitatves, whereas Sutherland does not. In fact McNally's is the first negative I've read, and he is only talking about one note. Surely voting on what wasn't recorded, purely on someone else's reported statement, is rather bizarre. In the Ponselle/Bonsegna challenge, Bonisegna doesn't sing the cabaletta, whereas Ponselle does. However I took it to mean that we were voting on the aria itself rather than imagine how Bonisegna might have sung the cabaletta.


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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

This is true. I'm struggling with this one generally, simply because I like them both very much. On the Aria itself more thought is required...


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

Tsaraslondon said:


> But actually she does have a reputation for shining in the recitative, indeed in all the recitatves, whereas Sutherland does not. In fact McNally's is the first negative I've read, and he is only talking about one note. Surely voting on what wasn't recorded, purely on someone else's reported statement, is rather bizarre. In the Ponselle/Bonsegna challenge, Bonisegna doesn't sing the cabaletta, whereas Ponselle does. However I took it to mean that we were voting on the aria itself rather than imagine how Bonisegna might have sung the cabaletta.


John Steane mentioned in his article on Callas (Sep/Oct 1997 issue of OPERA NOW, later re-published as a chapter in Vol. II of _Singers of the Century_) that Walter Legge had envisioned the idea of opening a school of singers after his retirement and recruiting Callas to teach a course on recitatives. Callas' ability to make recitatives significant moments in any work she sang on stage or recorded has been acknowledged by those who either had worked with her or really able to understand her musicianship and art.

By the way, and also coincidentally, Steane opened his article by severely criticising McNally for misrepresenting and misinterpreting her in the play _Master Class_.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I don't remember if I said this before but I had two long opera conversations with McNally several years apart. When I asked him who had the most beautiful voice he ever heard, he said Caballe.
> Callas's recitatives were great on record, particularly the first studio version. The most thrilling version of the recitative is Ponselle's in my opinion: such a ginormous voice delivered with great authority but spun with astonishing delicacy when required. Her chest note is amazing.


I'd venture to suggest that Callas's recitatives were _always_ great. Even in some of her late recordings when the arias expose her weaknesses, she is often revelatory in the recitatives. She was once asked why her recitatives were so exceptional and she answered that Serafin had told her to speak them first to find the right emphasis, but there must have been a great deal more to it than that or everyone would be able to do it. Zeffirelli once mused that she would have been superb in the _recitativo cantando_ of Monteverdi, and I imagine she would have been.


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Bonetan said:


> Maria Callas, Greece/USA, 1923-1977 (defeated Raisa 21-6)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Callas, for me.

This particular recording of Casta Diva is beautiful in execution, the voice rarely sounded richer or in better balance.

On this evidence, I had mis-remembered just how good she was here in '49 and had taken for granted rather too many of the faults in the set with Corelli, Ludwig and Serafin in '60.

It is not just about steadier high notes: the diction is clearer, the decorations sound lovely and I do not, on this hearing, think that the later recording necessarily adds anything in terms of interpretation.

With Sutherland, her singing is often very beautiful but what makes for a surpassingly lovely impression as Amina or Elvira (Puritani) does not quite cut it here, I think, as Norma: temperament, in a word. I've written elsewhere that Callas as Norma and Sutherland as Adalgisa round about this time would, I imagine, have been a dream ticket: her brilliant coloratura and bright, clear voice would have been a distinct asset then.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Revitalized Classics said:


> Callas, for me.
> 
> This particular recording of Casta Diva is beautiful in execution, the voice rarely sounded richer or in better balance.
> 
> ...


Great points but I would give up 15 live opera performances to have heard Sutherland take that D in the trio. Just sayin'


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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

Hmmm. Callas gets it eventually. She's simply more believable in character. I've mentioned on other threads that I love Sutherland singing this until I consider the character of Norma and the context of the Aria. On that area, Callas wins it for me.


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