tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post7933538463873668313..comments2024-02-28T21:14:54.693-08:00Comments on MRS JOHN CLAGGART'S SAD LIFE: The Callas CraziesAlbert Innauratohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-9575943495390424192017-08-26T20:43:36.590-07:002017-08-26T20:43:36.590-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Bloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07287821785570247118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-77676011282232335382017-05-23T03:00:05.234-07:002017-05-23T03:00:05.234-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-56251750282037620642017-05-22T06:08:36.402-07:002017-05-22T06:08:36.402-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-75403654461355276512017-02-17T17:12:05.993-08:002017-02-17T17:12:05.993-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09378872984283292478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-48908359856278106442016-07-06T08:01:06.352-07:002016-07-06T08:01:06.352-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12522465982032505525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-9983986956684152912015-06-09T11:31:45.513-07:002015-06-09T11:31:45.513-07:00Albert:
Callas was what she was. She was cer...Albert:<br /> Callas was what she was. She was certainly one of a kind. She took a highly unique and unusual voice and forged it into something that captivated and obsessed the opera world for a little over a decade. It amazes me to this day that the voice heard on those early 1949 Cetra recordings collapsed like a house of cards just a decade later. Listening to that new Warner Callas Box in chronological order, it seems to me that she was already "pushing" the voice as early as 1952 by carrying her chest voice up so high (the 1952 Gioconda), but at the same time she was so exciting that no one cared. Her voice was definitely an acquired taste. I also find that I am less bothered by her vocal deficiencies than I am at other times. Her second Norma (1960), where her vocal problems are so easy to discern, still has some amazing moments, as do some of her recital items going into the 1960's. Was she my favorite soprano? Certainly not! But I can honestly say that Callas is one artist that I'd hate to be without. Her personal life was a mess for the last eighteen years of her life and I am sure that she suffered from a lot of issues that had nothing to do with her voice. Perhaps her vocal burnout was a reflection of what she was feeling inside. She became too famous for her own good, was forced to live with the results, and was probably not at all sorry to leave at such a relatively young age.Leshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09158849047454109263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-72737912141910686222015-01-16T00:26:11.905-08:002015-01-16T00:26:11.905-08:00Jef, I can't imagine they wouldn't have so...Jef, I can't imagine they wouldn't have sold well, and continued to sell. She was among the top selling "classical" artists in the world and sales increased when she had her troubles and retired early. EMI may have gone to the well once too often with their mostly lousy CD transfers but her records were very lucrative for them well into the late '90's, thirty some years after she had signed with them. And if Evil Incarnate could make Orff and those operettas, few known complete in German world wide, Callas in her signature rep would certainly have done at least as well and probably better.<br />Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-86859555876121972182015-01-15T02:00:04.825-08:002015-01-15T02:00:04.825-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05888286520073169115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-60932327947343215082014-12-17T13:16:30.630-08:002014-12-17T13:16:30.630-08:00Thank you, RB and bravo, Virgil Thomson. I agree.Thank you, RB and bravo, Virgil Thomson. I agree.Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-69827523620958230682014-12-17T04:50:24.906-08:002014-12-17T04:50:24.906-08:00Ms. Claggart doubtless knows this but I can't ...Ms. Claggart doubtless knows this but I can't help quoting Virgil Thomson writing about Gioconda in 1945:<br /><br />"...hokum properly performed has a purity about it that is refreshing. It makes one feel good, like a shower bath, leaves a clean taste in the mouth the way a good murder story does. From that point of view Ponchielli's opera is one of the best..."<br />RBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06119700949009548630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-6191300413763731392014-12-08T09:57:07.927-08:002014-12-08T09:57:07.927-08:00I know hindsight is 20/20, but I wonder if any of ...I know hindsight is 20/20, but I wonder if any of those executives at EMI ever kicked themselves really hard they didn't record that stuff with Callas when they could. It would probably have sold into the 24th century.perfidiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11319919205377842729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-75102823411174552702014-12-07T11:57:05.957-08:002014-12-07T11:57:05.957-08:00Having re-read this again I can only repeat what I...Having re-read this again I can only repeat what I said before: I REALLY enjoyed this piece. Callas BENEFITS from examination without all the hysterical hagiography. It has always been a source of regret for me as an opera listener that an artist as interesting as Callas should so often be relegated to roles to which her talents were not particularly appropriate for. I would have loved a Macbeth, I Vespri Siciliani (if early enough), Luisa Miller, Gluck, Rossini (Armida? Semiramide?), Anna Bolena... Perhaps we'd only get cut additions, but they'd been worth hearing, I'd say. So much that might have been genuinely interesting rather than what we actually ended up with. Well, perhaps I would have bankrupted EMI if I had been in charge of A&R.Jeffrey Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15950106014184454057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-43500044054475232902014-12-05T10:10:03.730-08:002014-12-05T10:10:03.730-08:00Perfidia! It is great to see your name again. Legg...Perfidia! It is great to see your name again. Legge was NOT a nice or good man but he did have vision (he found Lipatti for example and moved heaven and earth to document him before he died, he pushed Karajan despite the Nazi stuff, which made EMI nervous, he restarted Klemperer's career (though they fought), tried to make the first complete commercial Ring with Furtwaengler and did manage the Tristan (they fought too but he supported the projects, and it's because of him that EMI owned the tapes of the Ring from RAI). But he was an employee and he needed EMI to OK the outlay for any project and they seemed to be recalcitrant about a lot of things -- not Evil Incarnate's Orff recordings or Operetta ventures but perhaps they felt there was more of an audience for them in relation to the cost, especially the Operettas. We forget how foreign early Verdi and the primo ottocento rep was to the general opera lover in the 50's and it was perhaps not so unreasonable for a commercial company like EMI not to want to spend money on what they feared were losing propositions -- short sighted, silly but not unreasonable. Callas fell apart; Tebaldi though she had a big crisis did not,. She actually managed a respectable La Wally in the studio in 1967, the same season I saw her do Manon Lescaut at the Met, not what it had been in sheer glowing beauty or consistent ease but really impressive all the same. Things became less feasible for her by 1970, as documented by that Ballo. And we are dreaming to a degree -- Callas might have been stuck with a conductor who made massive cuts in and rescored those early operas so the recordings might have had some discomfiting blemishes. But we'll never know. Thanks for asking about the play; I wish I could say you really missed something....! Thanks for checking in --- and persisting!!!!Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-72329777590585351892014-12-05T06:00:14.099-08:002014-12-05T06:00:14.099-08:00I think my previous comment just banished in the g...I think my previous comment just banished in the great internet void. Welcome back Mrs J.C. I love Callas with her many faults, but I have to agree with your assessment. It might be too forceful for some, but since I have always been a rational fan (what a contradiction) I see your point. I wish Legge had more of an interest in the kind of repertoire Callas was great at, but the again, putting a recording together must have been a difficult undertaking even then. And it didn't help to have a diva who, after 1958, was not all that focused on her art. I would have loved to have commercial recordings of Bolena, Pirata and even Poliuto (Corelli might be a tad crude in it, but boy is he exciting). I think Tebaldi and Callas, like a lot of divas of their generation had very defined vocal personalities, but Callas' sense of her musical identity seemed to have been a lot more rigid (and her vocal problems, it pains me to say, were far more profound than Tebaldi's who didn't abuse her voice as much as Callas, especially in the earlier years, and who even after the high notes got scary had that amazing tone). Oh well, I am babbling now. Maybe I am too happy that it is Friday and to read another post from you. Hope the play went well. I wish I could have seen it.perfidiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11319919205377842729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-60311297846887185272014-12-04T23:46:33.791-08:002014-12-04T23:46:33.791-08:00Thank you, schmup53, haven't seen your name in...Thank you, schmup53, haven't seen your name in a while! Kind of you to read this.Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-4103442953263479612014-12-04T23:45:50.485-08:002014-12-04T23:45:50.485-08:00Ivy, I do think the existing Macbeth is amazingly ...Ivy, I do think the existing Macbeth is amazingly conducted by Patrick Byrne, sorry, the great Victor de Sabata and I don't know that he really had a successor in his command of that rep. It does appear to be true that Walter Legge tried to make a "package" deal with her, Gobbi, and Toscanini but that EMI wouldn't fund it. I do blame them for a silly competition with DECCA, surely Callas was a huge seller and could have done roles others than Nedda or Mimi and sold just as many records, and over the long term, more. But it may have been that by the early 60's the Macbeth ship had sailed -- it was a while before another company recorded the opera after RCA recorded the Met production. In 1960 the days of multiple recordings of the same opera all made within a few years of one another were at least slightly in the future. Also I remember in the 1950's how out of the mainstream the early Verdi operas were; it was only gradually that record companies began to realize that they could sell competitively, just as opera houses began to see them as viable "commercial" revivals. But as to Callas far better a Macbeth than that Turandot or Aida! Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-78123160213613527722014-12-04T15:51:41.876-08:002014-12-04T15:51:41.876-08:00The most egregious "non-recorded" Callas...The most egregious "non-recorded" Callas item that SHOULD have happened is Macbeth. As it happens we only have the aircheck from Milan (exciting though that is), but I think even 1958, 1959, even 1960, she would have had wonderful things to offer to a Lady Macbeth. And if you think of what she could have offered compared to the camp that this role is nowadays (Guleghina? Nadja Michel?) it's really a shame. Ivy Linhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03626556117524314236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-59351772929966082112014-12-04T09:49:57.366-08:002014-12-04T09:49:57.366-08:00Reasonable points; but Tebaldi was suited to all t...Reasonable points; but Tebaldi was suited to all those roles and planned at one point or another to sing Santuzza, which she recorded but did not perform live, circumstances prevented her from two engagements that I know of, she was too expensive to hire as Liu but her first recording is phenomenally gorgeous and right in the style -- compare Callas' affected and vocally uncomfortable recordings of the arias -- she also accepted an early engagement in Trovatore, which fell through, and considered doing it again around 1960 but dates didn't line up and then she had her crisis. She was offered the Don Carlo Elisabetta often, and turned it down because she thought it was an unrewarding role. In fact all these are "Tebaldi" roles, Callas does not have the timbre or the spontaneous grasp of the style of Mimi, Manon Lescaut (where she is in obvious vocal difficulty and tried to stop EMI from publishing it), she only sang Forza a few times, never in an important theater (Tebaldi sang it everywhere always until her crisis), she only sang Turandot a few times because she wanted engagements, from a vocal point of view the recording is a disaster. Nothing about her suggested a successful Carmen. But an Alceste, Iphigenie absolutely and that was my point. There were many roles she had sung or was absolutely right for (as Tebaldi was right for that first Liu and Santuzza) that she could have managed even in her later years (as Tebaldi manages that uneven Elisabetta, or the actually quite gorgeously sung if not remarkable for coloratura Trovatore Leonora) where EMI pushed Callas to do Nedda, which I think is a camp performance, or even, sadly, the Aida, which is too late (but she might have managed a Luisa Miller at that time, even with a few uneasy moments, EMI had di Stefano, Taddei/Gobbi/Panerai under contract!). I agree with you that my point could have been more carefully made.Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-82434687877853783472014-12-04T09:32:35.054-08:002014-12-04T09:32:35.054-08:00Agree, Bill.Agree, Bill.Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-66144864525852973252014-12-04T09:31:58.554-08:002014-12-04T09:31:58.554-08:00Thanks, Jackie and for all your support!!Thanks, Jackie and for all your support!!Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-22473203807196273582014-12-04T09:31:14.579-08:002014-12-04T09:31:14.579-08:00Thanks, Ivy. I lately fell in love with her live B...Thanks, Ivy. I lately fell in love with her live Ballo, when she was said to be past her best. But she copes with a killer role well and honestly and only makes a few wobbly sounds. And in the last scene she has wonderful and singular pathos and imagination. Only Cerquetti, on the documents, does the role better vocally and almost as well interpretatively. I can understand preferring Lee Price's timbre, Arroyo's composure and even some of the shear beauty of Peggy Price's tone but Callas is quite significant there. Also because this is a b'cast in good sound there is a realistic quality both to her timbre -- more fascinating than on many of the EMI records -- and the volume of her voice, which is as I remember it at Norma in Philly and Tosca at the Met (in 58). The Norma was probably a bad night for she sounded small in the Academy of Music, a European sized house and had difficulties. But the Tosca at the Met, had some impact and overall ease, though frankly I thought Tebaldi and Stella had more abandon and force and seemed more at home in the style. (I was a girl then, but had been in Norma AND Tosca, so I knew both operas pretty well for someone my age, also I had heard them often).Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-2393343800248244562014-12-04T09:22:42.483-08:002014-12-04T09:22:42.483-08:00I do think Callas had greatness in her, Alan, but ...I do think Callas had greatness in her, Alan, but the shrieking girls and widows (all men in their 70's) are a bit much, and of course the religion of the far from virgin Mary-Ann is a confession of stupidity. Those late concerts were shocking and yes, I was at the one where the widows insisted that this or that phrase from her (amidst so much that was appalling) demonstrated her greatness. Yup. But the piece isn't meant as a put down, just as an examination from a less worshipful more realistic point of view. Thanks.Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-7766024974977577262014-12-04T09:17:53.659-08:002014-12-04T09:17:53.659-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-70181241042923050792014-12-03T23:17:40.873-08:002014-12-03T23:17:40.873-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Krunoslavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04314576976476009832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-15666788870919856502014-12-03T19:19:39.747-08:002014-12-03T19:19:39.747-08:00Mrs.JC, wonderful wonderful read! Thank you.Mrs.JC, wonderful wonderful read! Thank you.schmup53https://www.blogger.com/profile/03995304894519528582noreply@blogger.com