Bellini: Norma (1954 - Serafin) - Callas Remastered Maria Callas

• 1Bellini: Norma: Overture05:58
• 2Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Ite sul colle... Dell aura tua profetica (Oroveso, Chorus)10:02
• 3Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Svanir le voci! (Pollione, Flavio)02:49
• 4Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Meco all'altar di Venere (Pollione)02:28
• 5Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Odi?... I suoi riti a compiere (Flavio, Chorus, Pollione)01:37
• 6Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Me protegge, me difende un poter maggior di loro (Pollione)01:31
• 7Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Allegro assai... (Orchestra) ... Norma viene (Chorus)04:38
• 8Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Sediziose voci (Norma, Oroveso, Chorus)04:26
• 9Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Casta diva (Norma, Chorus)07:19
• 10Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Fine al rito e il sacro bosco (Norma, Oroveso, Chorus)01:37
• 11Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Ah! bello a me ritorna (Norma, Oroveso, Chorus)03:30
• 12Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Andante...(Orchestra) ...Sgombra e la sacra selva (Adalgisa)06:03
• 13Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Eccola! Va, mi lascia ragion non odo (Pollione, Adalgisa)01:31
• 14Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Va, crudele, al Dio spietato (Pollione, Adalgisa)05:24
• 15Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Vieni in Roma (Pollione, Adalgisa)03:21
• 16Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Allegro agitato (Orchestra) ...Vanne, e li cela entrambi (Norma, Clotilde)04:46
• 17Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Adalgisa!...Alma costanza (Norma, Adalgisa)03:22
• 18Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Oh! rimembranza! (Norma, Adalgisa)05:24
• 19Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Ah! si! fa core e abbracciami (Norma, Adalgisa)03:02
• 20Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Ma di'...l'amato giovane (Norma, Adalgisa, Pollione)03:02
• 21Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Oh! di qual sei tu vittima (Norma, Adalgisa, Pollione)04:13
• 22Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Perfido!...Or basti (Norma, Adalgisa, Pollione)01:24
• 23Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Vanne, si, mi lascia, indegno (Norma, Adalgisa, Pollione, Chorus)02:43
• 24Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Introduction03:47
• 25Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Dormono entrambi (Norma)04:44
• 26Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Ola! Clotilde! (Norma, Clotilde)00:50
• 27Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Me chiami, o Norma! (Adalgisa, Norma)02:34
• 28Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Deh! con te li prendi (Norma, Adalgisa)04:15
• 29Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Mira, o Norma (Norma, Adalgisa)04:00
• 30Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Cedi! ... deh! cedi! (Adalgisa, Norma)01:06
• 31Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Si, fino all'ore estreme (Norma, Adalgisa)02:09
• 32Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Allegro maestoso (Orchestra) ...Non parti? (Chorus)05:33
• 33Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Guerrieri! a voi venire (Oroveso, Chorus)01:52
• 34Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Ah! del Tebro al giogo indegno (Oroveso, Chorus)03:04
• 35Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Andante maestoso (Orchestra) ...Ei tornera. Si! (Norma, Clotilde)04:12
• 36Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Sguilla il bronzo del Dio! (Chorus, Oroveso, Norma)01:50
• 37Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Guerra, guerra! (Oroveso, Chorus, Norma)02:13
• 38Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Ne compi il rito, o Norma? (Oroveso, Norma, Clotilde, Chorus, Pollione)04:11
• 39Bellini: Norma, Act 2: In mia man alfin tu sei (Norma, Pollione)05:44
• 40Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Gia mi pasco ne' tuoi sguardie (Norma, Pollione)02:29
• 41Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Dammi quel ferro (Chorus, Norma, Pollione, Oroveso)03:26
• 42Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Qual cor tradisti, qual cor perdesti (Chorus, Norma, Pollione, Oroveso)04:47
• 43Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Norma! ... deh! Norma, scolpati! (Chorus, Norma, Pollione, Oroveso)02:36
• 44Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Deh! non volerli vittime (Chorus, Norma, Pollione, Oroveso)04:55
• Total Runtime02:40:27

Info for Bellini: Norma (1954 - Serafin) - Callas Remastered

This is the first of Callas’s two complete recordings of her signature role, the druid priestess Norma, in which she has remained unrivalled for 50 years. It captures her voice in its imposing early prime, while in the two famous duets for Norma and Adalgisa she is partnered by Ebe Stignani, generally considered the greatest Italian mezzo-soprano of her era. The conductor is Callas’s mentor Tullio Serafin.

„You can't quibble with EMI for reissuing Tullio Serafin's 1954 recording of Norma in its Great Recordings of the Century series. It is arguably Maria Callas's greatest achievement on disc. And although her second studio performance (also conducted by Serafin and available on EMI) has the benefit of the tenor Franco Corelli, a considerably better Pollione than Mario Filippeschi on this version, it was recorded in 1960 when her voice had begun to fray at the edges.

Now the choice is complicated even further by the appearance of yet another Callas Norma, taken from one of the 1952 performances in which she made her debut at Covent Garden. It is a recording that has already done the rounds on bootleg labels, but now gets EMI's badge of authority and a digital makeover.

Callas fanatics will snap it up, but everyone else should have as their library Norma the Serafin performance, even though it is only mono and the score is cut.“ (Andrew Clements, The Guardian)

Maria Callas, soprano (Norma)
Mario Filippeschi, tenor (Pollione)
Ebe Stignani, mezzo soprano (Adalgisa)
Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, bass (Oroveso)
Paolo Caroli, tenor (Flavio)
Rina Cavallari, mezzo soprano (Clotilde)
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Milan
Tullio Serafin, conductor

Digitally remastered

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.

Booklet for Bellini: Norma (1954 - Serafin) - Callas Remastered