Maria Callas - The Best of Maria Callas - Her Greatest Roles (2023) (Hi-Res) FLAC/MP3

Maria Callas was born to a Greek family in New York in 1923. Her vocal training took place in Athens, where her teacher was the coloratura soprano Elvira de Hidalgo, who had sung with Enrico Caruso and Feodor Chaliapin. After early performances in Greece, Callas’s international career was launched in 1947 when she performed the title role in Ponchielli’s La Gioconda at the Arena di Verona in Italy. Her voice defied simple classification and her artistic range was extraordinary. In her early twenties she sang such heavy dramatic roles as Gioconda, Turandot, Brünnhilde and Isolde, but over the course of her career her most famous roles came to be: Bellini’s Norma and Amina (La sonnambula); Verdi’s Violetta (La traviata); Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Anna Bolena, Cherubini’s Medea and Puccini’s Tosca. Though her timbre was not always conventionally beautiful, Callas’s musicianship and phrasing were in a class of their own. She brought characters to vivid life with her skill in colouring her tone and making insightful use of the text.
She is credited with changing the history of opera: by placing a perhaps unprecedented emphasis on musical integrity and dramatic truth, and by transforming perceptions – and reviving the fortunes – of the bel canto repertoire, particularly Bellini and Donizetti.

The 1950s marked the height of Callas’s career. Its base lay in the opera houses of Italy, and she became the prima donna assoluta of Milan’s legendary La Scala – notably in the productions
of Luchino Visconti – but her operatic appearances also encompassed London’s Royal Opera House, the New York Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opéra, the Vienna State Opera, and the opera houses of Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Lisbon, and, in the early 1950s, Mexico City, São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.

From 1959, when she started a life-changing love affair with the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, her performing career slowed down and her voice became more fragile. Her final stage performances came in 1965, when she was only 42.

There were many plans for a return to the stage – and for further complete recordings – but they never reached fruition, though in 1974 she gave a series of concerts in Europe, North America and Japan with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano; he had partnered her frequently in the opera house and in the studio, not least in the 1953 La Scala Tosca under Victor de Sabata, considered a landmark in recording history. Callas died alone in her Paris apartment in September 1977.

Tracklist
[4:35] 1. Maria Callas - Madama Butterfly, Act 2: "Un bel dì vedremo" (Butterfly)
[5:41] 2. Maria Callas - Norma, Act 1: "Casta diva" (Norma, Coro)
[1:21] 3. Maria Callas - La traviata, Act 1: "È strano! È strano!" (Violetta)
[3:01] 4. Maria Callas - La traviata, Act 1: "Ah, fors’è lui che l’anima" (Violetta)
[1:07] 5. Maria Callas - La traviata, Act 1: "Follie! Follie! Delirio vano è questo!" (Violetta)
[4:02] 6. Maria Callas - La traviata, Act 1: "Sempre libera" (Violetta, Alfredo)
[1:52] 7. Maria Callas - La traviata, Act 3: "Addio, del passato" (Violetta)
[4:30] 8. Maria Callas - Carmen, Act 1: Habanera. "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" (Carmen, Chœur)
[4:33] 9. Maria Callas - Carmen, Act 1: Séguedille. "Près des remparts de Séville" (Carmen, José)
[4:28] 10. Maria Callas - Carmen, Act 2: "Les tringles des sistres tintaient" (Carmen, Frasquita, Mercédès)
[4:53] 11. Maria Callas - Andrea Chénier, Act 3: "La mamma morta" (Maddalena)
[3:01] 12. Maria Callas - Tosca, Act 2: "Vissi d'arte" (Tosca)
[6:20] 13. Maria Callas - Il barbiere di Siviglia, Act 1: "Una voce poco fa" (Rosina)
[5:07] 14. Maria Callas - Il barbiere di Siviglia, Act 1: "Dunque io son" (Figaro, Rosina)
[0:52] 15. Maria Callas - Rigoletto, Act 1: "Addio speranza ed anima" (Duca, Gilda)
[7:27] 16. Maria Callas - Rigoletto, Act 1: "Gualtier Maldè!" - "Caro nome" (Gilda, Borsa, Ceprano, Marullo)
[6:11] 17. Maria Callas - Cavalleria rusticana: "Voi lo sapete, o mamma" (Santuzza, Mamma Lucia)
[4:06] 18. Maria Callas - Lucia di Lammermoor, Act 1: "Regnava nel silenzio alta la notte e bruna" (Lucia, Alisa)
[4:00] 19. Maria Callas - Lucia di Lammermoor, Act 1: "Quando rapito in estasi" (Lucia, Alisa)
[3:15] 20. Tullio Serafin - Lucia di Lammermoor, Act 3: "Oh! Qual funesto avvenimento!" (Coro, Raimondo)
[11:52] 21. Maria Callas - Lucia di Lammermoor, Act 3: "Il dolce suono mi colpì di sua voce!" - "Ardon gli incensi" (Lucia, Raimondo, Normanno, Coro)
[4:08] 22. Maria Callas - Lucia di Lammermoor, Act 3: "Spargi d'amaro pianto" (Lucia, Raimondo, Coro, Enrico)
[4:38] 23. Maria Callas - I pagliacci, Act 1: "Qual fiamma avea nel guardo" - "Hui! Stridono lassù" (Nedda)
[4:55] 24. Maria Callas - La bohème, Act 1: "Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì" (Mimì, Rodolfo)
[4:59] 25. Maria Callas - La bohème, Act 1: "Ehi! Rodolfo!" - "O soave fanciulla" (Schaunard, Colline, Marcello, Rodolfo, Mimì)
[4:13] 26. Maria Callas - La Gioconda, Op. 9, Act 4: "Suicidio!" (Gioconda)
[2:57] 27. Maria Callas - Aida, Act 1: "Su! Del Nilo al sacro lido" (Re, Ramfis, Coro, Aida, Radamès, Amneris, Messaggero)
[6:43] 28. Maria Callas - Aida, Act 1: "Ritorna vincitor!" (Aida)
[2:35] 29. Maria Callas - Aida, Act 4: "Qual gemito!" (Radamès, Aida)
[1:42] 30. Maria Callas - Aida, Act 4: "Vedi? Di morte I'angelo" - "Immenso Fthà" (Radamès, Aida, Coro)
[4:56] 31. Maria Callas - Aida, Act 4: "O terra addio" (Aida, Radamès, Coro, Amneris)
[7:44] 32. Maria Callas - Tristano ed Isotta, Act 3: Morte d'amore. "Dolce e calmo" (Isotta)
[5:13] 33. Maria Callas - Un ballo in maschera, Act 2: "Ma dall'arido stelo divulsa" (Amelia)
[2:40] 34. Maria Callas - Il turco in Italia, Act 1: "Bella Italia, alfin ti miro" (Selim, Fiorilla)
[3:37] 35. Maria Callas - Il turco in Italia, Act 1: "Serva… Servo" (Selim, Fiorilla)
[7:28] 36. Maria Callas - Mefistofele, Act 3: "L’altra notte in fondo al mare" (Margherita)
[3:44] 37. Maria Callas - La forza del destino, Act 1: "Me, pellegrina ed orfana" (Leonora)
[6:21] 38. Maria Callas - La forza del destino, Act 4: "Pace, pace mio Dio!" (Leonora)
[2:56] 39. Maria Callas - Manon Lescaut, Act 2: "In quelle trine morbide" (Manon)
[5:53] 40. Maria Callas - Manon Lescaut, Act 4: "Sola, perduta, abbandonata" (Manon)
[3:37] 41. Maria Callas - La sonnambula, Act 2: "Oh! Se una volta sola" (Amina, Rodolfo, Teresa, Coro)
[1:56] 42. Maria Callas - La sonnambula, Act 2: "L'anello mio" (Amina)
[4:44] 43. Maria Callas - La sonnambula, Act 2: "Ah! non credea mirarti" (Amina, Elvino)
[6:20] 44. Maria Callas - Turandot, Act 2: "In questa reggia" (Turandot, Calaf, Coro)
[2:28] 45. Maria Callas - Turandot, Act 2: "Straniero, ascolta! Nella cupa notte" (Turandot, Calaf, Coro)
[2:20] 46. Maria Callas - Turandot, Act 2: "Guizza al pari di fiamma" (Turandot, Imperatore, Coro, Liù, Calaf)
[2:25] 47. Maria Callas - Turandot, Act 2: "Gelo che ti dà foco" (Turandot, Calaf, Coro)
[1:01] 48. Tullio Serafin - Turandot, Act 2: "Gloria, o vincitore!" (Coro)
[2:55] 49. Maria Callas - Turandot, Act 2: "Figlio del cielo!" (Turandot, Emperor, Coro, Calaf)
[17:09] 50. Maria Callas - Il pirata, Act 2: "Oh! S'io potessi" - "Col sorriso d’innocenza" (Imogene)
[4:34] 51. Maria Callas - Iphigénie en Tauride, Wq. 46, Act 2: "Ô malheureuse Iphigénie !" (Iphigénie)
[2:32] 52. Maria Callas - La vestale, Act 2: "O Nume tutelar" (Giulia)
[7:49] 53. Maria Callas - Macbeth, Act 1: "Nel dì della vittoria" - "Vieni! T'affretta" (Lady Macbeth)
[9:10] 54. Maria Callas - Nabucco, Act 2: Scena. "Ben io t'invenni" - Aria. "Anch'io dischiuso un giorno" (Abigaille)
[10:45] 55. Maria Callas - Don Carlo, Act 5: "Tu che le vanità" (Elisabetta)
[10:01] 56. Maria Callas - I Puritani, Act 2: "O rendetemi la speme" - "Qui la voce sua soave mi chiamava" (Elvira, Giorgio, Riccardo)
[4:29] 57. Maria Callas - Orphée et Eurydice, Wq. 41, Act 4: "J'ai perdu mon Eurydice" (Orphée)
[6:06] 58. Maria Callas - Il trovatore, Act 1: "Tacea la notte placida" - "Di tale amor" (Leonora)
[4:33] 59. Maria Callas - I vespri siciliani, Act 4: "Arrigo! ah, parli a un core" (Elena)
[5:34] 60. Maria Callas - Suor Angelica: "Senza mamma" (Angelica)