Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor / Callas, di Stefano, Panerai, Zaccaria; Karajan

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Music reviews of Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor / Callas, di Stefano, Panerai, Zaccaria; Karajan

Music Review: La Divina at her best
Rating: 5 Stars

This recording captures Callas in excellent voice, even though it is live and at some stages deteriorates a little (the general quality is actually quite good). At times the recording also has a "thin" or "sharp" quality to it. These, however, are of little concern if you focus on the music and what happens artistically. Callas sings "Regnava nel silenzio" with haunting intensity, the melody and musical line accentuated. Other singers add (excessive) fioritura at this point in an attempt to convey the drama of the narrative, but Callas never approved of unnecessary embellishments. This is part of the reason why her art is so readily misunderstood. To her, the drama of the opera was always more important than the fireworks. People tend to equate "bel canto" with vocal pyrotechnics or mere "beautiful singing", when in fact it is (in Callas's own words) "a schooling". It is a way of singing, a method through which one learns to sing. It is therefore very easy to listen to various recordings of the Mad Scene of this opera, search out the singer with the best display of vocal fireworks, and then hail her as the "queen" of bel canto and of opera.
What makes Callas different? What makes her approach unique? This very difficult to answer. One would tend to give complicated answers. When Callas was asked what she felt was the most important facet of performing music, she made a caressing gesture and answered: "You must make love to it." In this simple declarative sentence lies the essence of Maria's art. She created, through her voice and her devotion, a myriad of intensely involved emotions and colours. Bellini once proclaimed a "weeping in sound" as ideal for his tragic romantic operas. This suited Callas perfectly. But more than this, she could perfectly create an outraged tone. She could portray hatred, anxiety and pure madness. May I remind you that in this recording, Callas remained mainly motionless in the middle of the stage for the whole of the Mad Scene! She blew the audience away with her voice, gestures and her dramatic facial expressions! When you understand what she wants to do, what she wants to portray, you'd understand why she omits the first high e - flat in the Mad Scene. You will also cease your tiresome comments about her voice, because one cannot divorce the voice with what she did with it. It is true that listening to her is like listening to no other. She was like no other. Comparing her voice to others is futile. But if you can learn to love it, learn to recognise its beauty, the various timbres, you will be amazed by this rendition of Lucia.

I have also noticed that so many people proclaim their favourite soprano as the "Prima Donna Assoluta" or "Soprano Assoluta", thereby proclaiming her as the best. This title is often misunderstood and misused. Tulio Serafin once said of Callas: "That woman can sing anything written for the female voice". This embodies what was origanally meant by the categorization of "Soprano Assoluta" - a singer that transcended the traditional boundries and categories implictly and explicitly set for different female vocalists - someone who could sing both Kundry and Lucia, Norma and Anna Bolena, Medea and Violetta. In the previous century this was achieved by Callas alone. Her voice was characteristic of a forgotten age- that of the "soprano sfogato" or "soprano drammatico d'agilita". Of course she had her faults and vocal deficiencies, but she was the only soprano to sucessfully juxtapose roles that are (vocally speaking) worlds apart. Bruce Saxon made the following comments in this regard: "There are even a few sopranos that command vocal ranges as wide as that of Callas in her prime, and at least two command florid techniques which equal and at times surpass hers: Sutherland and Beverly Sills. All the notes are there, but the theoretical casting of Sills as Gioconda or Brunnhilde, Sutherland as Kundry or Carmen would be inappropriate, if not preposterous. Nor would Monserrat Caballé or Leontyne Price succeed on equal ground with Callas within the breadth of her repertoire. In these cases, vocal color, technical agility and approach would prove disappointing or unsuitable. Callas stands apart in that she was capable of actually changing the timbre of her voice from role to role, register to register, and make this peculiar vocal alchemy succeed (it's a long, long way from the requisites of Medea to those of La Sonambula)...Callas' voice type is no more, and as such she was an anachronism."
She could sing an unbelievable, technically brilliant Lucia, followed by a fierce Lady MacBeth... an example of a feat that no other soprano after her could replicate. She was the "Prima Donna Assoluta" of the previous century. There is no doubt about that.

Get this recording and indulge yourself in the art of an operatic genius - one who offered herself to her art.

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