The Great Maria Callas
A Greek heroine
In April 1957 at La Scala, Callas opened in her fifth and final production by Luchino Visconti, Gluck's masterpiece 'Iphigenie en Tauride', or Ifigenia in Tauride, as it was sung in Italian. It was reputed to be Visconti's favourite production with Callas, although she really wanted to be costumed in classical Greek attire, given her background, rather than the very grand, splendid 18th century costumes designed by Nicola Benois. However, she looked magnificent and was in fine, ringing voice, excelling in the declamation of her recitatives and the wonderful legato line of her singing in the numerous arias. She recorded Iphigenie's great aria, 'O malheureuse Iphigenie' for her second French arias disc in 1963. By then the voice had weakened somewhat and the top of the voice could be tentative and precarious, but the sense of line and style and the emotion conveyed in the aria is even greater than it was six years earlier.
In 1957, Callas's friendship with gossip columnist and socialite Elsa Maxwell was at its height. However, the relationship cooled considerably later that year after a frosty exchange in Dallas, Texas during Callas's inaugural concert for the Dallas Opera.
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