Verdi: Rigoletto (1955 - Serafin) - Callas Remastered Maria Callas

• Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): Prelude
• 1Prelude02:21
• Act One, Scene One
• 2Della mia bella incognita borghese (Duke of Mantua, Borsa)01:42
• 3Questa o quella (Duke of Mantua)01:53
• 4Partite? Crudele! (Duke of Mantua, Contessa Ceprano)01:36
• 5In testa che avete (Rigoletto, Borsa, Chorus)00:53
• 6Gran nuova! gran nuova! (Marullo, Borsa, Duke of Mantua, Ceprano, Rigoletto, Chorus)02:31
• 7Ch'io gli parli (Monterone, Duke of Mantua, Borsa, Rigoletto, Marullo, Ceprano, Chorus)03:11
• 8O tu che la feste audace (Duke of Mantua, Borsa, Rigoletto, Marullo, Ceprano, Chorus)01:16
• Act One, Scene Two
• 9Quel vecchio maledivami (Rigoletto, Sparafucile)04:31
• 10Pari siamo! (Rigoletto)03:46
• 11Figlia!...Mio padre! (Rigoletto, Gilda)06:39
• 12Ah! veglia, o donna (Rigoletto, Gilda)05:07
• 13Giovanna, ho dei rimorsi (Gilda, Giovanna, Duke of Mantua)03:11
• 14E il sol dell'anima (Duke of Mantua, Gilda, Ceprano, Borsa, Giovanna)04:18
• 15Addio, speranza ed anima (Duke of Mantua, Gilda)00:52
• 16Gualtier Maldè ...Caro nome (Gilda, Borsa, Ceprano, Marullo)07:27
• 17Riedo!...perché? ...Silenzio! (Rigoletto, Borsa, Ceprano, Marullo)02:08
• 18Zitti, zitti, moviamo a vendetta (Borsa, Marullo, Ceprano, Chorus)01:26
• 19Soccorso, padre mio! (Gilda, Borsa, Marullo, Ceprano, Rigoletto, Chorus)01:30
• Act Two
• 20Ella mi fu rapita! (Duke of Mantua)02:41
• 21Parmi veder le lagrime (Duke of Mantua)02:43
• 22Duca, Duca! .... Ebben? (Borsam, Marullo, Ceprano, Duke of Mantua, Chorus)02:26
• 23Povero Rigoletto! (Marullo, Rigoletto, Borsa, Ceprano, Paggio, Chorus)03:59
• 24Cortigiani, vil razza dannata (Rigoletto)04:26
• 25Mio padre!...Dio! mia Gilda! (Gilda, Rigoletto)01:50
• 26Tutte le feste al tempio (Rigoletto, Gilda)07:00
• 27Compiuto pur quanto (Rigoletto, Gilda, Usciere, Monterone)01:09
• 28Sì, vendetta, tremenda vendetta (Rigoletto, Gilda)02:14
• Act Three
• 29E l'ami? (Rigoletto, Gilda, Duke of Mantua, Sparafucile)02:03
• 30La donna è mobile (Duke of Mantua, Sparafucile, Rigoletto)03:13
• 31Un dì, se ben rammentomi (Duke of Mantua, Gilda, Maddalena, Rigoletto)01:35
• 32Bella figlia dell'amore (Duke of Mantua, Maddalena, Gilda, Rigoletto)04:59
• 33Venti scudi hai tu detto? (Rigoletto, Sparafucile, Duke of Mantua, Maddalena, Chorus)04:02
• 34E amabile invero (Maddalena, Sparafucile, Gilda, Chorus)06:00
• 35Della vendetta alfin giunge l'istante (Rigoletto, Sparafucile, Duke of Mantua)04:52
• 36Chi è mai, chi è qui in sua vece? (Rigoletto, Gilda)06:35
• Total Runtime01:58:05

Info for Verdi: Rigoletto (1955 - Serafin) - Callas Remastered

Callas only sang Gilda in Rigoletto in one run of performances, in Mexico City in 1952, and she recorded the role three years later. She moves beyond the girlish tone and sparkling coloratura of the character’s first scenes to create a figure of tragic stature as events unfold. ‘Once heard, this rendering is never likely to be forgotten,’ was Gramophone’s judgement on her interpretation, and the same could apply to Tito Gobbi’s, embodying every aspect of the accursed court jester.

Maria Callas, soprano (Gilda)
Tito Gobbi, baritone (Rigoletto)
Giuseppe di Stefano, tenor (Il Duca)
Nicola Zaccaria, bass (Sparafucile)
Adriana Lazzarini, alto (Maddalena)
Plinio Clabassi, bass (Monterone)
William Dickie, bartione (Marullo)
Renato Ercolani, tenor (Borsa)
Giuse Gerbino, soprano (Giovanna)
Carlo Forti (Il Conte di Ceprano)
Elvira Galassi (La Contessa di Ceprano)
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 Verdi: Rigoletto (1955 - Serafin) - Callas Remastered