The Great Maria Callas in London's Royal Festival Hall on 31 May 1963

 

Anch'io dischiuso un giorno...

After recording her second 'Callas a Paris' disc in May 1963, Callas embarked on a brief European tour of Berlin, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, London, Paris and Copenhagen. Her performances since 1959 had been much curtailed and these were her only public appearances that year. She returned to London's Royal Festival Hall on 31 May 1963, her third concert there since 1959.

Critic Harold Rosenthal, reviewing the London concert, found her voice under greater control and sounding better than at any time since her last appearance at Covent Garden (in a televised concert in 1961). The scene from Nabucco - probably the most difficult of all the concert items - was considered by the critics to have been the outstanding moment of the evening.

A week later she appeared in Paris in a slightly modified programme to include French arias, which was broadcast on radio, and is an example of her voice and art at that time. There she seems to be in slightly less secure voice, but displaying moments of great beauty and insight and superb in her first public performance of 'Les lettres' scene from Massenet's 'Werther'.

The Great Maria Callas

The Great Maria Callas