Despite her major stage career lasting barely a decade in the 1950s and ’60s, soprano Maria Callas left an indelible impression on the operatic world. Onstage, she was a magnetic presence; in the studio, her roles proved as engaging dramatically as they were vocally. She possessed the most incredible instrument: a voice with almost infinite dynamic range that was, nevertheless, always at the service of the music. Her Leonora from Verdi’s Il trovatore, one of the composer’s most demanding operas, quickly became one of Callas’ iconic roles. This 1956 recording with Herbert von Karajan and the Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan, proves why. Callas’ poignant Act 4 duet with tenor Giuseppe di Stefano (as the troubadour Manrico) is a vivid example of the matchless purity and intensity of her voice, while her vocal control in the Act 1 solo “Tacea la notte placida” (“The peaceful night lay silent”) is breathtaking.
- 2000
- Angela Gheorghiu, Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, Roberto Alagna, Riccardo Chailly, Simon Keenlyside & Roberto de Candia
- Claudio Abbado, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano & Plácido Domingo
- Tullio Serafin
- Dame Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Samuel Ramey, Montserrat Caballé, Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Welsh National Opera Orchestra & Richard Bonynge
- Herbert von Karajan, Leontyne Price, Vienna Philharmonic, Giuseppe di Stefano, Giuseppe Taddei & Fernando Corena
- Montserrat Caballé, Carlo Bergonzi, RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra & Georges Prêtre
- Mirella Freni, Agnes Baltsa, José Carreras, Piero Cappuccilli, Ruggero Raimondi, Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera & Herbert von Karajan