Maria Callas - The Complete Studio Recordings 1949-1969 [Remastered Edition, 70CD Box Set] (2014) (Part 3) FLAC/MP3

Due for release on September 22 is ‘Callas Remastered: The Complete Studio Recordings’, a 69-disc Warner Classics box-set produced as the result of a major remastering project to transfer the original tapes to 24-bit/96kHz digital sound.

Containing 26 operas and 13 recital albums, and the subject of a major feature in Gramophone’s 2014 Awards issue, on sale now, the Callas project will also be available as 24-bit/96kHz downloads from the Bowers & Wilkins Society of Sound, exclusively from Monday (September 22) until October 5.

The new set encompasses all the studio recordings Callas made for both EMI/Columbia and the Italian label Cetra between 1949 and 1969, and while these recordings have previously been remastered at CD quality, remastering engineer Allan Ramsay explains that this is the first time the tapes have been remastered at 24-bit/96kHz ‘beyond CD’ quality: ‘What this means is we’ve now got more high-frequency content and better definition to the sound.

‘We’ve been so careful in this project not to tamper, just to remove technical faults…for example, to reduce the rumble from a passing tube train at the Kingsway Hall, even remove the noise of a motorbike outside La Scala, Vespas going past and you can hear this noise which is terrible, it’s louder than the singing in some cases. With the technology we have now, we can reduce this noise and give the sound of the voice without interference.’

The remastering was carried out at London’s Abbey Road Studios with Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series speakers used throughout the process. The Worthing-based speaker company has a relationship with the studios going back more than a quarter of a century. Abbey Road engineer Andy Walters says that, for a project like this, ‘It’s obviously important that the monitoring speakers and room acoustics of a remastering room are superb: Bowers & Wilkins speakers don’t flatter or compliment the sound, but give a complete, true response.

‘This means we can hear exactly what problems might exist on an original master recording and then be afforded the opportunity to put them right, using our state-of-the-art technology.’

‘Callas Remastered: The Complete Studio Recordings’ contains at least one complete recording (in certain cases two recordings) of all Callas’s most famous stage roles, with the exception of Anna Bolena, though the lengthy final scene of that opera features on the recital ‘Mad Scenes’. The collection also contains complete recordings of operas she sang on stage more rarely – or even never at all – such as Manon Lescaut and Carmen.

Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924)La Bohème

Maria Callas (Mimi), Giuseppe di Stefano (Rodolfo), Rolando Panerai (Marcello), Anna Moffo (Musetta), Nicola Zaccaria (Colline), Manuel Spatafora (Schaunard), Franco Ricciardi (Parpignol), Carlo Badioli (Alcindoro/Benoit)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan, Antonino Votto

Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924)Madama Butterfly

Maria Callas (Butterfly), Nicolai Gedda (Pinkerton), Mario Borriello (Sharpless), Lucia Danieli (Suzuki), Renato Ercolani (Goro), Mario Carlin (Yamadori), Plinio Clabassi (Lo zio Bonzo), Enrico Campi (Il commissario imperiale), Luisa Villa (Kate Pinkerton)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan, Herbert von Karajan

Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924)Manon Lescaut

Maria Callas (Manon Lescaut), Giuseppe di Stefano (Des Grieux), Giulio Fioravanti (Lescaut), Franco Calabrese (Geronte), Dino Formichini (Edmondo), Fiorenza Cossotto (Madrigal singer)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan, Tullio Serafin

Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924)Tosca

Maria Callas (Tosca), Giuseppe di Stefano (Cavaradossi), Tito Gobbi (Scarpia), Franco Calabrese (Angelotti), Melchiorre Luise (Il Sagristano), Angelo Mercuriali (Spoletta), Dario Caselli (Sciarrone), Alvaro Cordova (Un pastore), Dario Caselli (Un carceriere)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan, Victor de Sabata

Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924)Tosca

Maria Callas (Tosca), Carlo Bergonzi (Cavaradossi), Tito Gobbi (Scarpia), Giorgio Tadeo (Il Sagristano), Leonardo Monreale (Angelotti), Renato Ercolani (Spoletta), Ugo Trama (Sciarrone), David Sellar (Un pastore), Leonardo Monreale (Un carceriere)
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, Paris Opera Chorus, Georges Prêtre

Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924)Turandot

Maria Callas (Turandot), Eugenio Fernandi (Calaf), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Liù), Mario Borriello (Ping), Renato Ercolani (Pang), Piero De Palma (Pong), Nicola Zaccaria (Timur), Giuseppe Nessi (L’imperatore Altoum), Giulio Mauri (Un mandarino)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan, Tullio Serafin

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)Aida

Maria Callas (Aida), Richard Tucker (Radamès), Fedora Barbieri (Amneris), Tito Gobbi (Amonasro), Giuseppe Modesti (Ramfis)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan, Tullio Serafin

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)Il Trovatore

Maria Callas (Leonora), Giuseppe di Stefano (Manrico), Giuseppe di Stefano (Azucena), Rolando Panerai (Il Conte di Luna), Nicola Zaccaria (Ferrando), Luisa Villa (Ines), Renato Ercolani (Ruiz), Giulio Mauri (Un vecchio zingaro), Renato Ercolani (Un messo)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan, Herbert von Karajan

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)La forza del destino

Maria Callas (Leonora), Richard Tucker (Don Alvaro), Carlo Tagliabue (Don Carlo), Plinio Clabassi (Il Marchese di Calatrava), Elena Nicolai (Preziosilla), Renato Capecchi (Fra Melitone), Rina Cavallari (Curra), Nicola Rossi-Lemeni (Padre Guardiano), Gino Del Signore (Mastro Trabuco), Dario Caselli (Un Chirurgo/Un Alcalde)
Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala Milan, Tullio Serafin

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)La Traviata

Maria Callas (Violetta), Francesco Albanese (Alfredo), Ugo Savarese (Germont)
RAI Chorus and Orchestra Turin, Gabriele Santini

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)Rigoletto

Maria Callas (Gilda), Tito Gobbi (Rigoletto), Giuseppe di Stefano (Il Duca), Nicola Zaccaria (Sparafucile), Adriana Lazzarini (Maddalena), Plinio Clabassi (Monterone), William Dickie (Marullo), Renato Ercolani (Borsa), Giuse Gerbino (Giovanna), Carlo Forti (Il Conte di Ceprano), Elvira Galassi (La Contessa di Ceprano)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan, Tullio Serafin

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)Un ballo in maschera

Maria Callas (Amelia), Giuseppe di Stefano (Riccardo), Tito Gobbi (Renato)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan, Antonino Votto

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