Bellini: Norma (1960 - Serafin) - Callas Remastered Maria Callas

• 1 Bellini: Norma: Sinfonia 05:38
• 2 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Ite sul colle... Dell aura tua profetica (Oroveso, Chorus) 09:37
• 3 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Svanir le voci! (Pollione, Flavio) 03:11
• 4 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Meco all'altar di Venere (Pollione) 02:50
• 5 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Odi?... I suoi riti a compiere (Flavio, Chorus, Pollione) 01:38
• 6 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Me protegge, me difende un poter maggior di loro (Pollione) 01:38
• 7 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Norma viene (Chorus) 04:22
• 8 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Sediziose voci (Norma, Oroveso, Chorus) 04:30
• 9 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Casta diva (Norma, Chorus) 07:00
• 10 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Fine al rito e il sacro bosco (Norma, Oroveso, Chorus) 01:41
• 11 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Ah! bello a me ritorna (Norma, Oroveso, Chorus) 03:21
• 12 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Sgombra e la sacra selva (Adalgisa) 06:34
• 13 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Eccola! Va, mi lascia ragion non odo (Pollione, Adalgisa) 01:48
• 14 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Va, crudele, al Dio spietato (Pollione, Adalgisa) 05:39
• 15 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Vieni in Roma (Pollione, Adalgisa) 03:51
• 16 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Vanne, e li cela entrambi (Norma, Clotilde) 04:28
• 17 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Adalgisa!...Alma costanza (Norma, Adalgisa) 03:38
• 18 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Oh! rimembranza! (Norma, Adalgisa) 05:18
• 19 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Ah! si! fa core e abbracciami (Norma, Adalgisa) 03:03
• 20 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Ma di'...l'amato giovane? (Norma, Adalgisa, Pollione) 03:07
• 21 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Oh! di qual sei tu vittima (Norma, Adalgisa, Pollione) 04:16
• 22 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Perfido!...Or basti (Norma, Adalgisa, Pollione) 01:27
• 23 Bellini: Norma, Act 1: Vanne, si: mi lascia, indegno (Norma, Adalgisa, Pollione, Chorus) 02:49
• 24 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Introduction 03:49
• 25 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Dormono entrambi (Norma) 04:55
• 26 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Ola! Clotilde! (Norma, Clotilde) 00:50
• 27 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Me chiami, o Norma! (Adalgisa, Norma) 02:49
• 28 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Deh! con te li prendi (Norma, Adalgisa) 04:27
• 29 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Mira, o Norma (Norma, Adalgisa) 04:15
• 30 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Cedi! ... deh! cedi! (Adalgisa, Norma) 01:09
• 31 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Si, fino all'ore estreme (Norma, Adalgisa) 02:11
• 32 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Non parti? (Chorus) 05:15
• 33 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Guerrieri! a voi venire (Oroveso, Chorus) 01:56
• 34 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Ah! del Tebro al giogo indegno (Oroveso, Chorus) 03:03
• 35 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Ei torner?. Si! (Norma, Clotilde) 04:05
• 36 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Sguilla il bronzo del Dio! (Chorus, Oroveso, Norma) 01:47
• 37 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Guerra, guerra! (Oroveso, Chorus, Norma) 02:07
• 38 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Ne compi il rito, o Norma? (Oroveso, Norma, Clotilde, Chorus, Pollione) 04:06
• 39 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: In mia man alfin tu sei (Norma, Pollione) 05:43
• 40 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Gia mi pasco ne' tuoi sguardie (Norma, Pollione) 01:44
• 41 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Dammi quel ferro (Chorus, Norma, Pollione, Oroveso) 03:26
• 42 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Qual cor tradisti, qual cor perdesti (Chorus, Norma, Pollione, Oroveso) 05:04
• 43 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Norma! ... deh! Norma, scolpati! (Chorus, Norma, Pollione, Oroveso) 02:40
• 44 Bellini: Norma, Act 2: Deh! non volerli vittime (Chorus, Norma, Pollione, Oroveso) 04:46
• Total Runtime 02:41:31

Info for Bellini: Norma (1960 - Serafin) - Callas Remastered

Callas first sang Bellini’s Norma in 1948, when she was just 25. She went on to perform the role of the heroic, but vulnerable Druid priestess – the ultimate embodiment of bel canto – more frequently than any other. In this second studio recording her conductor was again Tullio Serafin (he originally tutored her in the role in 1948), and the venue was again La Scala – where the opera was premiered in 1831. By 1960, Callas brought a wealth of new nuance to her interpretation, and she is aptly partnered by the creamy-voiced Christa Ludwig (in a rare recording of an Italian role) and the towering Franco Corelli.

Maria Callas (Norma) Christa Ludwig (Adalgisa) Franco Corelli (Pollione) Nicola Zaccaria (Oroveso) Edda Vincenzi (Clotilde) Piero De Palma (Flavio) 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 (1960 - Serafin) - Callas Remastered