# Research question: Where to find the schedule for Callas's performance career???



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Google is not a help at all. Is it in a book my library might have? I have seen such lists for other singers. I think it would be interesting to see how her repertoire might have changed over the years.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

This is an amazing resource and goes back all the way to her student days in Greece.

http://www.frankhamilton.org/mc/index.html


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Thanks so much. I was very interested to see the repertoire difference before the weight loss. Of note: Turandot sung 25 times from 48 to 49, Aida: 26 times from 46 to 53, Parsifal: 4 times in 49, Tristan;10 times in 47 to 50, and Walkure: 6 times in 49..None of these attempted post weight loss. I wonder why she gave up Aida? Tosca, Norma, Medea,Trovatore and Traviata were constants throughout her career.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I don't think Aida was ever a conducive role for her, and I've no doubt she gave it up as soon as she could pick and choose more. She is on record as saying that she didn't much care for the music of Puccini or the role of Tosca, and, apart from her two seasons at the Met, she didn't sing it anywhere between 1953 (the year of the De Sabata recording) and 1964, when Zeffirelli coaxed her out of retirement.

I honestly don't think the weight loss had anything to do with her giving up Turandot and the Wagner roles. She was possibly at her heaviest in 1952, and she'd already given them up by then. She actually said in interview somewhere that she sang Turandot at the beginning of her career, hoping and praying that she wasn't harming her voice ("because it's not very good for the voice, you know") and gave it up as soon as she could. Of course, by this time she was becoming much more well-known and was therefore able to pick and choose what roles she would sing. In the early days she would pretty much do anything she was asked to do, which is why she ended up singing Brünnhilde and Elvira within a few days of each other. It was a momentous event, for it was singing the role of Elvira which changed the trajectory of her career, and we find her singing her first Fiorilla in *Il Turco in Italia* in 1950 just a month before she sings her last Wagner role (Kundry in concert).

She started losing weight in 1953 and there is a marked difference between her appearance in her first Medea in Florence in May and the one she did at La Scala under Bernstein in December of the same year. By the time she sings Alceste in May of 1954 she is slimmer again and by the time she sings in La Vestale in December of the same year, she looks as slim as Audrey Hepburn.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

GregMitchell said:


> I don't think Aida was a ever a conducive role for her, and I've no doubt she gave it up as soon as she could pick and choose more. She is on record as saying that she didn't much care for the music of Puccini or the role of Tosca, and, apart from her two seasons at the Met, she didn't sing it anywhere between 1953 (the year of the De Sabata recording) and 1964, when Zeffirelli coaxed her out of retirement.
> 
> I honestly don't think the weight loss had anything to do with her giving up Turandot and the Wagner roles. She was possibly at her heaviest in 1952, and she'd already given them up by then. She actually said in interview somewhere that she sang Turandot at the beginning of her career, hoping and praying that she wasn't harming her voice ("because it's not very good fo the voice, you know") and gave it up as soon as she could. Of course, by this time she was becoming much more well-known and was therefore able to pick and choose what roles she would sing. In the early days she would pretty much do anything she was asked to do, which is why she ended up singing Brünnhilde and Elvira within a few days of each other. It was a momentous event, for it was singing the role of Elvira which changed the trajectory of her career, and we find her singing her first Fiorilla in *Il Turco in Italia* in 1950 just a month before she sings her last Wagner role (Kundry in concert).
> 
> She started losing weight in 1953 and there is a marked difference between her appearance in her first Medea in Florence in May and the one she did at La Scala under Bernstein in December of the same year. By the time she sings Alceste in May of 1954 she is slimmer again and by the time she sings in La Vestale in December of the same year, she looks as slim as Audrey Hepburn.


So knowledgeable!!!!!!!!! Thanks.


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