Bulgari "Never Too Much" With the Help of Verdi Force

Presenting MAI TROPPO: a celebration of the joyful exuberance of Bulgari and Rome. The new MAI TROPPO (Never Too Much) Bulgari advertising campaign, is an ode to life, joy and happiness. Deeply rooted in a Roman flamboyant exuberance, Bulgari invites to enthusiastically enjoy every single moment, here and now. Starring super model Lily Aldridge, British actress & singer Naomi Scott, American actress Zendaya. Directed by Johan Renck. The ad uses music from the Overture of Verdi's La Forza del Destino. Watch the full ad, as well as excerpts from the opera, after the jump.

Ex-wife of Andrew Lloyd Webber to Receive Star in Hollywood

Happy Duo: Sarah and Andrew

Soprano Sarah Brightman has performed with opera legends Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, as well as Andrea Bocelli. In June it was announced that she will be getting a rare honor: a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Curious about the opera singers that Ms. Brightman will share the same sidewalk with in California? After the jump, you can see them all and you're going to be surprised by how many appear on the list! Notably missing thus far is Renée Fleming. The British songstress first launched into fame with a 1978 hit "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper" with the group Hot Gossip. She went on to marry composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber which propelled her stage career like a rocket after appearing in several of his musicals. She has an estimated net worth of $60 million while her former husband is estimated to have $1.2 billion. Her Facebook page made the announcement: "Sarah to Be Honoured with a Star on the Iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame! Today, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced that Sarah will be honoured with a star on the world-renowned Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles for her outstanding contributions in live theatre and live performance. Currently celebrating its 60th year, the Walk of Fame was created to "maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world." Watch the announcement on the official Hollywood Walk of Fame Facebook page: https://bit.ly/37GR230. More details about when Sarah's star will be unveiled along Hollywood's most majestic walkway will be revealed in the coming year!" In his tell-all book, the Broadway composer discussed his relationship with the Royal College of Music graduate: "'I suppose it was

Music Makers: Talking music drew the couple together

inevitable that I was going to have a serious affair at some point,' writes composer Andrew Lloyd Webber of his romance with singer Sarah Brightman in his book Unmasked. The candid new memoir hits stands on Tuesday, the same month as the theatrical legend’s 70th birthday. What made the affair complicated? They first met during Brightman’s audition for Cats in the early 1980s, a time when they were both married. Lloyd Webber also had two young children with his first wife (also named Sarah) of 12 years. '[The affair with Sarah Brightman] is one of the parts of my life that I have been dreading writing about the most,' Lloyd Webber writes. 'What you are reading is the umpteenth rewrite. That is the best I can say.' In the chapter titled 'Miss Sarah Brightman,' Lloyd Webber details how his famous musical Phantom of the Opera came into existence — a show that brought both Lloyd Webber, the composer, and Brightman, who starred as Christine Daaé, great success. With their professional relationship thriving, their personal

Leading Ladies Of The Late Jon Vickers In Opera Performances

Jon Vickers (center) and Leontyne Price (right) are seen talking with producer Richard Mohr
during the recording of Verdi's Aida for RCA in 1961 at the Rome Opera.

With the most recent passing of the heroic tenor Jon Vickers, we look back at the outstanding roster of female partners he had on the opera stage and in the recording studio. During an era when operatic pairings like Callas & Di Stefano, Tebaldi & Del Monaco, and Nilsson & Corelli were commonplace, the Canadian powerhouse voice of Jon Vickers sang with voices as far-ranging as Teresa Stratas to Gré Brouwenstijn. Find more astounding clips featuring Katia Ricciarelli, Renata Scotto, Joan Sutherland, Montserrat Caballé, Maria Callas, Jessye Norman, and many more, after the jump.

Maria Callas Vocals Appear In "The Cleveland Show" On TBS

Season 2, episode 22, of The Cleveland Show is titled "Hot Cocoa Bang Bang." The plot summary is as follows: "Cleveland takes the entire family to a comic convention in an attempt to sell his comic book, Waderman. While there, Donna is horrified to find out that Robert Rodriguez is screening a Blaxploitation film that she starred in when she was younger, and Cleveland Jr., tired of Comic-Con being a playground for Hollywood to peddle their projects, gathers a band of geeks together to take the Con back to its true origins." [Source] During one of the scenes the aria "La mamma morta," from Giordano's opera Andrea Chénier (sung by soprano Maria Callas), can be heard in the background. Listen to the remastered version of the aria sung by the soprano, after the jump. Watch the full episode here.

Ángela Maureen Marambio Will Pay Tribute To Maria Callas In Concert

Soprano a Soprano: Ángela Maureen Marambio will
 honor Maria Callas with favorite arias 

"Un concierto lírico imperdible efectuará la destacada soprano viñamarina Ángela Maureen Marambio junto al pianista Pedro Urrutia, en un 'Tributo a María Callas' programado para este sábado 21 de marzo, a las 19:30 horas, en el Foyer del Teatro Municipal de Viña del Mar, ubicado frente a la Plaza Vergara. 'Invitamos a los seguidores del Bell Canto a disfrutar del talento de Ángela Maureen Marambio, soprano formada en el Conservatorio Izidor Handler quien ha deslumbrado al público en grandes escenarios del mundo, como el Royal Opera House de Londres, y en esta ocasión nos deleitará con un homenaje musical a la gran María Callas,' señaló la alcaldesa Virginia Reginato. Esta presentación, forma parte de la VI Temporada Música en el Foyer, ciclo desarrollado por el Departamento de Cultura de la Municipalidad de Viña del Mar, y contará con entrada liberada al público, con invitación, por lo que la organización se reserva el derecho de ingreso al recinto una vez completada su capacidad. En la ocasión, la soprano Ángela Maureen Marambio interpretará las aclamadas arias 'Casta Diva' de la ópera Norma de V. Bellini; 'Una voce poco fà' de la ópera El Barbero de Sevilla, de G. Rossini; 'Intermezzo,' de Cavallería Rusticana, P. Mascagni; 'Ebben, ne andrò lontana,' de la ópera La Wally, de A. Catalani; 'Tu che le vanità,' de la ópera Don Carlo, G. Verdi. Luego será el turno de 'Preludio' de La Traviata, G. Verdi; 'Merce, dilette amiche,' de la ópera I Vespri Siciliani, de G. Verdi; 'Suicidio' de La Gioconda, compuesta por A. Ponchielli; 'Preludio' de Macbeth, G. Verdi; 'Vissi D’arte,' de la ópera Tosca, G. Puccini; para finalizar con 'La mamma morta,' de la ópera Andrea Chénier, U. Giordano. Ángela Maureen Marambio, soprano chilena, estudió piano y canto en Viña del Mar, Santiago y Nueva York. En los años 1999, 2001 y 2003 ganó el Premio APES, en 2002 el Concurso Francisco Viñas, España y el 2003 el Concurso BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Realizó su debut internacional en el New York City Opera. Se ha presentado en todo el mundo en teatros como La Scala, Berlin Staatsoper, Royal Opera House de Londres, Los Ángeles Opera, New York City Opera y La Bastille de París, por citar algunos. En su destacada carrera ha trabajado junto a directores como Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Placido Domingo y Fabio Luisi. Igualmente, ha participado en producciones de óperas como Don Carlo, Simon Boccanegra, La Bohème, Cosí fan Tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Corsaro, Turandot, Otello y Carmen, entre otras." [Source] Watch videos of Ángela Maureen Marambio, after the jump.

Revisiting Dario Argento's "Terror At The Opera" From 1987

Smoking Gun: Cristina Marsillach as Betty as Lady Macbeth

A decade before his film, The Phantom of the Opera (1998), Dario Argento found himself in the opera house shooting another sort of slasher film. Terror at the Opera, or just Opera as it would later be called, featured a glimpse of soprano obsession not seen since the film Diva (1981) and the much later Las Hijas De Danao (2014). The plot of Argento's bloody film is as follows: "A young opera singer (Betty) gets her big chance when the previous star of a production of Verdi's Macbeth is run over by a car. Convinced the opera is bad luck she accepts, and becomes the target (in Argento's unmistakable style) of a psychopath - a man she has been dreaming of since childhood." [Source] The horror film's soundtrack includes original compositions of Brian and Roger Eno, Claudio Simonetti, Bill Wyman and Terry Taylor, The Group Steel Grave, The Group Norden Light, as well as opera contributions from the following: "Vieni t'afretti" from opera Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi performed by Maria Callas; "Casta Diva" from Norma composed by Vincenzo Bellini performed by Maria Callas; "Amami Alfredo" from La Traviata composed by Giuseppe Verdi performed by Maria Callas; "Sempre libera" from La Traviata composed by Giuseppe Verdi performed by Maria Callas; "Un bel dì vedremo" from Madama Butterfly composed by Giacomo Puccini performed by Mirella Freni; Macbeth (excerpt) composed by Giuseppe Verdi performed by Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz (as Elisabetta Norberg Schulz) soprano, Paola Leolini Soprano, Andrea Piccinni (as Andrea Piccini) Tenor, Michele Pertusi Baritone, with "Artouro Toscanini" Symphonic Orchestra of Emilia and Romagna. Watch the film, read more about Dario Argento, and see the cast list, after the jump.

Laura Claycomb Tries To Forget Sutherland And Callas "Lucia"

Creative Coloratura: Laura Claycomb wrote her
Lucia cadenzas with conductor Patrick Summers
(Photo: Sergio Valente)

"Laura Claycomb dies in the New Orleans Opera production of Lucia di Lammermoor. It happens every time a soprano sings the title role -- and most of the world's great sopranos have done it since Donizetti penned this hyper-romantic, bel canto masterpiece in 1835. So how does Claycomb plan to match Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland and other legends who dwell only in memory or the scratchy recordings prized by opera nuts? 'I had to clean the slate to sing Lucia,' Claycomb said. 'So my first job was trying to forget Callas and Sutherland -- all the great stars on old recordings whose singing has gotten stuck in everyone's ears. People sometimes think that's the only approach, but it's really just the style of the 1950s, the style that emerged more than a century after Donizetti wrote the piece.'... 'If you look at the early performance history of bel canto operas, you can see that the originators chose roles very differently, and that audiences expected lighter, more flexible voices -- my kind of voice -- not the big, inflexible Mack Truck singers that sometimes rumble through this repertoire today,' Claycomb said. Claycomb is thrilled with the New Orleans cast, which includes New Orleanian Casey Candebat, Michael Chioldi and William Burden, among others. She also had praise for stage director E. Loren Meeker, who has helped to set the New Orleans production in the era of Downton Abbey." [Source]

Paris Opéra Director Fails To Identify Opera Excerpts Of Callas

A controversial video interview has sparked an international debate about how knowledgable the head of an opera company must be in order to run it as a business. "The director of Paris Opera performed poorly in a surprise opera test during a television interview in France. It was a little bit awkward. Stéphane Lissner, who has previously held posts at Italy's La Scala opera house, was asked to name particular opera arias on a French television show. Despite his history in the opera industry, a visibly uncomfortable Lissner floundered during the unexpected quiz. Although he did manage to correctly identify an aria from Bizet's Carmen, Lissner was unable to connect excerpts with operas like Catalani's La Wally and Puccini's Madame Butterfly." [Source] Watch the video, and read more about Mr. Lissner, after the jump.

Maria Callas Inspires Renée Fleming Broadway Costumes By Krass

Click on the image to enlarge and see if you can
count all the images of Maria Callas.

Renée Fleming has begun rehearsals for her Broadway debut in the play Living on Love which begins previews on April 1 and opens April 20 at the Longacre Theatre in New York. "Living on Love tells the story of celebrated diva Raquel DeAngelis. When her husband, the fiery and egomaniacal Maestro Vito DeAngelis, becomes enamored with the lovely young lady hired to ghostwrite his long-delayed autobiography, Rachel retaliates by hiring her very own—and very handsome—ghostwriter to chronicle her life as an opera star. Sparks fly, silverware is thrown, and romance blossoms." Recently the production shared a photo on Instagram that shows the costume designs for Renée Fleming's character of Raquel. The designer, Michael Krass, has several images of Maria Callas (and even Lily Pons!) that serve as inspiration for the play's diva. [Source] Watch a new commercial for the play, as well as more production photos, after the jump.

Opera Connection To TIME Magazine Covers From 1942-1970

Portrait of Renata Tebaldi by Boris Chaliapin

Started in 1923, Time went on to have the world's largest circulation for a weekly news magazine with a readership of 25 million. Covers of the magazine featured politicians, business executives, religious figures, as well as artists from various genres including ballet, film, art, and music. Within the music category, it was opera singers, composers, instrumentalists, and conductors that were proudly splashed on the cover of the successful magazine. This coverage leant itself to widening the audience of the arts outside of the concert hall and opera houses. It may be surprising to know that the artwork for many of those covers was created by painter Boris Chaliapin, son of the famed Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin and brother to hollywood actor Feodor Chaliapin Jr. (know to many for his role in the operatically-based film Moonstruck). "Boris Chaliapin was the portrait artist Time magazine’s editors turned to first when they needed a cover in a hurry. As Time’s most prolific artist, he created 413 covers for the publication during his 28-year career, between 1942 and 1970. He could execute excellent likenesses in as little as 12 hours. Week after week, millions of faithful readers recognized Chaliapin’s familiar signature on the cover, and his co-workers nicknamed him 'Mr. Time.'" The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., ran an exhibition last year featuring 26 of the 300 works by Chaliapin. Browse the various works of art by clicking here. [Source, Source] Purchase past Time magazine covers here. After the jump: a curious comparison with one of Chaliapin's portraits; more biographical information about Boris Chaliapin; view all Time covers by various artists and photographers that were related to opera including such opera divas as Geraldine Farrar, Nellie Melba, Maria Jeritza, Lucrezia Bori, Mary Garden, Rosa Ponselle, Lily Pons, Kirsten Flagstad, Lotte Lehmann, Helen Traubel, Marian Anderson, Patrice Munsel, Maria Callas, Leontyne Price, and Beverly Sills. More music artist portraits by Boris Chaliapin:

George London	Gian Carlo Menotti
Alan Jay Lerner and Frederik Loewe	Fritz Reiner

Arturo Toscanini

New Study Claims Steroids Stopped Heart Of Maria Callas

What really stopped the heart of the world-famous diva?

"A study held by the University of Bologna is about to completely change the attitude towards the world-famous soprano Maria Callas. It reveals that she was suffering from a rare disease of vocal cords rather than the proverbial whims of opera divas. Professors Franco Fussi and Nico Paolillo studied the records of the famous singer and her voice changes in the last 18 years of her life using the latest technology and have concluded that Maria Callas was suffering from a rare disease that affects muscles and tissues. Long intake of cortisone, which is used for symptomatic treatment of the disease, seems to have caused the premature death of the world famous singer. The two professors from the University of Bologna presented their research on the 'Callas case.' 'We managed to separate only her voice from several bad recordings made at that time. They were made in the period 1958-1976. It was very difficult to study the changes in her voice and make our conclusions. The available videos allowed us to note the anatomical state of the muscles and their formation over the time.' According to the research of the two professors, the famous soprano Maria Callas was sick with dermatomyositis - an illness that affects muscles and tissues, including those of the larynx. Dr. Franco Fussi stresses that the disease is treated with cortisone and immunosuppressive medications that can cause heart failure. According to the official medical report, Maria Callas died of cardiac arrest." [Source] Read the whole article here.

Major Directors On Board For Marina Abramovic To Portray Maria Callas In Operatic Death Scenes

Maria Callas

Marina Abramovic

"Marina Abramovic plans to start filming her Seven Deaths project next summer, 25 years after she first conceived the idea of playing her heroine, the opera singer Maria Callas. In the seven short videos, the artist takes on the role of Callas performing the death scenes of seven operas, including Carmen, Tosca, Madam Butterfly and La Traviata. 'I [have been] obsessed with this unbelievably romantic idea of dying for love,' Abramovic tells us. 'It’s my story, but it’s definitely related to Callas and my complete craziness for her. She died of a broken heart.' The artist, who is in Miami this week, has invited leading film directors to collaborate with her. So far, five have agreed: Roman Polanski, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Marco Brambilla, Giada Colagrande and Yorgos Lanthimos. Abramovic also asked Lars von Trier, but the Danish director declined owing to a scheduling clash. After Miami, all of Abramovic’s other engagements will be put on hold, a spokesman for her studio tells us. The Norwegian writer Petter Skavlan has completed the general script, and the scripts for each opera are due to be finished this month. Abramovic also plans to make a behind-the-scenes documentary featuring interviews with the directors, as well as portraying Callas’s life and her death from a heart attack in 1977." [Source]

Maria Callas Sampled 24 Years Ago In Enigma Electronic Recording

Synthesized Immortal: Maria Callas

"MCMXC a.D. ('1990' in Roman numerals followed by an abbreviation of 'Anno Domini') is the first studio album from the electronic music group Enigma, headed by Michael Cretu. Recorded at A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, it is one of the first albums to be recorded on a computer's hard disk drive. Released in 1990 on Virgin Records, the album reached number one in 41 countries including the UK. It peaked at number 6 in the United States, and remained on the Billboard 200 for 282 weeks...."[Track 3] 'Callas Went Away' is a tribute to the opera singer, Maria Callas. Chirps from electronic birds at the beginning, mixed with a slow beat and sounds of a piano leads to Sandra's whispers and ends with some samples of Callas singing the aria 'Werther! Qui m'aurait dit /Ces lettres!' from the opera Werther by Massenet." The track was written by Curly M.C. [Source] "Michael Cretu (Romanian: Mihai Crețu pronounced [miˈhaj ˈkret͡su]; born May 18, 1957, Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian–German musician. He is also known as Curly, MC or Curly M.C. because of his fair curled hair (creț means 'curly' in Romanian). His peak musical activity was with the Enigma project, which was mainly based in Germany. He has collaborated with

Composer Michael Cretu aka Curly M.C.

many musicians along his career, including his ex-wife Sandra Lauer (Sandra Cretu from marriage in 1988), musician Peter Cornelius, guitarists Manfred Thiers and Jens Gad, Frank Peterson, David Fairstein (Fabrice Guitad), D.J. André Tanneberger (from the A.T.B. Music Project), Peter Ries, Bernt Moehrle, singer Ruth-Ann Boyle, and Andru Donalds, who produced the single Mishale in 1995. In 2002, Crocodile-Music, Cretu's management company, stated that 100 million Cretu-produced records had been sold worldwide. By the year 2008, Michael Cretu's Enigma project had sold over 50 million studio albums according to his official site. He owns A.R.T. Studios, a recording studio facility located near the resort on the Balearic Islands, where he lived with his wife and their two teenagers, Nikita and Sebastian. He and Sandra divorced in 2007. Cretu has been reported as living in Germany since that time....Cretu was born to a

Cover art for the 1990 recording by Enigma

Romanian father and an Austrian mother in Bucharest. His uncle, Ion Voicu, a Romanian violin-player and former director of the Bucharest Philarmonic, told Michael's parents that he had talent in music and as such, he studied classical music at Liceul Nr. 2 in Bucharest in 1965 and in Paris, France, in 1968. He later attended the Academy of Music in Frankfurt, Germany, from 1975 to 1978, attaining a degree in music. Cretu was taken on as a keyboard player and producer for Frank Farian." [Source] Watch the Enigma video for "Callas Went Away" and listen to Maria Callas sing the complete 'Letter Scene' from Werther, after the jump.

How Facebook Versus Drag Queens Will Affect Opera Singers

UPDATE (10/02/14): Chris Cox of Facebook has responded to the controversy and says that drag queens will be allowed to use their stage names on their accounts. No word on sopranos. Read more about it here.

==============================================================

If this Facebook debate were happening 40 years ago, this
 opera singer wouldn't even be able to go by Bubbles on
 her personal page, but rather Belle Silverman.

"Years ago, Lil Miss Hot Mess created a Facebook profile. 'The way that I move through the world as a drag queen is different than how I move through the world every day,' she says. With her stage name, she has a different social circle, a different way of being online. Her page was shut down early last week, and she wasn't the only one whose account was deactivated. Facebook also closed the pages of other queens after they were reported for not using their 'real' names on Facebook. Now, drag queens around the U.S. are gaining allies in a fight against Facebook's real name policy. Activists argue that 'real' is a complicated term, and that for some, using birth names on profiles can actually put them at risk instead of keep them safe. But Facebook contends this protocol prevents anonymous bullying. In an emailed statement, a Facebook spokesperson said: 'Having people use their real names on Facebook makes them more accountable, and also helps us root out accounts created for malicious purposes, like harassment, fraud, impersonation and hate speech. While real names help keep Facebook safe, we also recognize that a person's real identity is not necessarily the

Bianca Del Rio is one of the drag queens in danger of
 having to change her profile name to Roy Haylock.
(Photo: Santiago Felipe)

name that appears on their legal documentation, and that is why we accept other forms of identification that verifies the name a person uses in everyday life.' The policy isn't new, so why is it getting attention now? Within the last couple weeks, dozens of drag queens' Facebook profiles were reported as not having 'real' names (Facebook says it does not seek out fake profiles). Those flagged accounts were deactivated. Drag queens started organizing and, along with San Francisco City Supervisor David Campos, met with Facebook on Sept. 17. Facebook said it would reactivate approximately 200 accounts and that at the end of two weeks, queens would have to either change their names or lose their profiles. Next week, there's another meeting scheduled at Facebook — and a protest planned in San Francisco. In the midst of the back-and-forth, a number of questions about identity and safety online have come up. Here are a few of them. Facebook has said that drag queens can use their stage names if they switch over to pages in place of profiles. The way people engage is similar — except we're talking about 'fans' rather than 'friends.' Facebook also says it offered to help anyone who was interested in turning a friend list into fans. Here comes the issue: Pages are intended for 'businesses, brands and organizations.' As Lil Miss Hot Mess puts it, 'We're not Lady Gaga; we're not Coca-Cola.' For her, inviting people to a show is 'much closer to inviting people to a dinner party.' She adds, 'These names are not just marketing tools.' She says her name is another part of her identity — not a separate persona." [Source] What does this mean in terms of the opera world? If you log onto Facebook and try searching for one of your favorite singers, chances are you will get a fan page or Wikipedia produced page. Many opera singers don't want to deal with people they are not truly connected with in the offstage world sending friend requests to their private accounts. The solution? Make a variation on your name or truncate it so that no one searching actually could find it. But once they become friends with another singer,

Citizen Leah Joanne may have to become
 public figure Leah Crocetto if Facebook
 has their way. (Photo: Facebook)

for example, their identity becomes pretty obvious. For example, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton goes by the moniker Jam Barto; soprano Sondra Radvanovsky goes by her married name Sondra Lear; soprano Alyson Cambridge goes by Aly Cam (which might soon change, since she is recently engaged); soprano Leah Crocetto has taken the name Leah Joanne for her personal page (possibly her middle name as the surname?); and Deborah Voigt created two pages using her casual nickname Debbie Voigt. Will Facebook take these singers to task, along with the drag queens, and force them to either change their personal pages to the names reported on government issued IDs? Luckily Facebook wasn't around for the entire last century or we would have to search Facebook for the real names of famous singers like Alice Pons, Roberta Peterman, Mary Price, Belle Silverman, Helen Porter Mitchell, and Sophia Kalos.

Elena Souliotis Fans Rejoice For "Norma" Release On Compact Disc

Diva Turn: Souliotis in her prime.
(Photo: Francesco Scavullo)

Previously only available on compact disc in Japan, the 1967 recording of Bellini's Norma featuring 24-year old soprano Elena Souliotis now gets an international release thanks to the Eloquence label. Sporting the original cover photo shot by Francesco Scavullo, this recording can be counted among the most worthy of owning. At times the young singer is vocally gentle and serene, while other moments (namely those with powerhouse veterans Fiorenza Cossotto and Mario Del Monaco) she is ferocious and fearless. Once thought of as a worthy successor to Maria Callas, the career of Ms. Souliotis burned hot and brief. The soprano spent most of her time in the studio during the mid-1960s setting down full operas and recital discs for posterity. Originally recorded for Decca, the opera makes its worldwide debut for which many fans have been clamoring. Gramophone reviewed this set when it was released: "Elena Souliotis has the power, ferocity, energy for the role [...] Mario del Monaco’s 'Ferisci, ma non interrogarmi' is a splendid moment [...] Cosotto’s tone is always full and beautiful [...] Silvio Varviso’s direction is pleasantly spirited [...] The recording is spacious, clear and well-balanced." From the liner notes: "Bellini’s advice to librettists in 1834 might profitably hang above the desks of all who would pursue this singular art today: ‘Carve in your head in adamantine letters: Opera must make people weep, feel horrified, die through singing. It is wrong to want to write all the numbers the same way, but they must all be somehow shaped so as to make the music intelligible through their clarity of expression, at once concise and striking.’ Much of it could apply to his opera Norma. Most of the music was written between September and November 1831 at Blevio on Lake Como, where Bellini was a guest of the great diva Giuditta Pasta, who created the role of Norma. For more than a decade she was the greatest soprano in Europe and undoubtedly influenced the development of Bellini’s vocal style. This recording, made in Rome in 1967, featured the great

Souliotis (left) with Maria Callas

Greek soprano Elena Souliotis. Silvio Varviso conducts and the emphasis is on the drama and the creation of three-dimensional characters. It’s an approach that suited Souliotis. Her interpretation ranges from the ravishing simplicity of her ‘Casta Diva’ to desperate mood swings in the scene with the sleeping children (‘Dormono entrambi’) and in her dealings with Pollione. Mario Del Monaco is as strong as ever as the Roman proconsul Pollione; his high notes ringing and unforgettable. Adalgisa is sung by Fiorenza Cossotto (b. 1935), Italian mezzo-soprano regarded by many as one of the finest mezzos of the twentieth century." [Source] Full cast list and information about Elena Souliotis can be found after the jump.

Pier Paolo Pasolini's Last Days Documented In Film

Director Pasolini at work creating art.

Previously playing at film festivals, today marks the official release date of the new film Pasolini in Italy. The film, written and directed by Abel Ferrara, chronicles the last days of Pier Paolo Pasolini's final days before being brutally murdered. American actor Willem Dafoe plays the legendary Italian filmmaker. Among the legions of controversial movies that Pasolini released (Accattone, Salò, Teorema, etc.), there was a gem in the center of his career that featured renowned Greek opera soprano Maria Callas. The year was 1969 and the film was Medea. Based on the plot of the Euripides play, the Pasolini version featured the soprano as the protagonist in her only non-singing role. The plot for the film: "To

Acting Chops: Maria Callas in the title role
 of Medea film with Giuseppe Gentile as Jason.

win the kingdom his uncle took from his father, Jason must steal the golden fleece from the land of barbarians, where Medea is royalty and a powerful sorceress, where human sacrifice helps crops to grow. Medea sees Jason and swoons, then enlists her brother's aid to take the fleece. She then murders her brother and becomes Jason's lover. Back in Greece, the king keeps the throne, the fleece has no power, and Medea lives an exile's life, respected but feared, abandoned by Jason. When she learns he's to marry the king's daughter, Medea tames her emotions and sends gifts via her sons; then, loss overwhelms her and she unleashes a fire storm on the king, the bride, and Jason." The beginning of the Pasolini/Callas relationship was quite tepid: "Pasolini treated her with kid gloves from their first meeting in March 1969, one that followed on exchanges of letters and telephone calls. He spoke softly and they struck it off immediately. She had been known to snap unpleasantly about 'homosexuals and Marxists' (her friendships with both notwithstanding): Nothing unpleasant occurred. The production proceeded from the first day that summer with the calm of two professionals animated by mutual esteem, locked in their common task. Pasolini's

Dynamic Duo: Pier Paolo Pasolini and Maria
Callas at the Medea premiere in Paris.

plan was to present Medea through images, a film not directed to the obvious audience of Callas' opera fans. Besides, he did not like opera anyway. At eighteen he went to the Teatro Duse in Bologna and saw his first performance, an 'ugly' rendition of Il trovatore: 'I suffered such a shock that I never went to the opera again"; but after going with Ninetto to hear Giuseppe di Stefano in Rigoletto, in the open air at the Baths of Caracalla during the mid-sixties, 'From then on, I began to have a feeling and a love for opera. Nevertheless, he thought swooning over Callas singing 'Vissi d'arte' was so much ceccheria (approximately: queenery); Callas as the darling of homosexuals all over the world interested him not at all. He said, 'Here is a woman, in one sense the most modern of woman, but there lives in her an ancient woman - savage, mysterious, magical, with terrible inner conflicts.' Pasolini merged the real Callas, the Medea inside her but palpable to him, with the Medea of ancient myth, a personality quite as 'real' as the living opera legend before him. He noted: 'The barbarian deep inside [Callas], who emerged through her eyes, her shape, does not manifest itself directly, on the contrary, the surface is almost smooth. Overall, the ten years [Medea] passes at Corinth are a bit like the life of Callas. She came out of a peasant world, Greek, antique, and then had a bourgeois formation. Thus in a certain sense, I tried to concentrate in her character that which she is, in her total complexity.'" During the making of the film the two became good friends,

A Place in the Sun: Callas vacationing with Pasolini (and her poodles).

even vacationing together: "In the summer of 1970 he joined Callas on Tragonisi, an Aegean island in the Petalii group owned by Perry Embiricos - a great music lover, heir to one of the great Greek shipping fortunes. The part on vacation included Callas, [her confidante-assistant] Nadia Stancioff, one of Onassis' partners from his early whaling business and his wife: an odd ensemble. As he and Callas talked on the beach, Pasolini sketched her, continuing the series of portraits he had started during the filming of Medea the year before. He folded a paper into squares and drew her profile on each, using transparent glue and flowers for color. Stanciff says that he exclaimed, 'This is art in the making. Now it must dry in the sun for twenty-four hours. I shall make only three, and one will be for you.' One undated sheet, believed to be from the drawings series of 1969-1970, repeats the abstracted image of a profile or a mountain - just lines running from lower-left to upper-right in sixteen squares of a folded page. It is an image repetitive, automatic. At the bottom of this sheet, he penned, 'The world does not want me anymore and does not know it' (Il mondo non mi vuole più e non lo sa). Between 1969 and 1971 Pasolini made fourteen drawings of Callas in all: a first group in Cervignano del Friuli and five more in Greece. In Italy he worked at the dinner table, combining the red and white wine at hand, a bit of candle-wax, crushed flower petals. On the beach he took the materials he found there and worked his alchemy with them." [Source, Source, Source, Source, Source] Watch a trailer for the film Pasolini, and see world release dates, after the jump.

A private moment among friends: Pasolini and Callas on the beach in 1969.

Former Athens Home Of Maria Callas To Become Opera Academy

If these walls could talk, they just might sing:
The five-year residence of Maria Callas in Greece.

"The historic but long-neglected building at 61 Patission Street in central Athens where opera legend Maria Callas lived from 1940 to 1945 before she left for the United States is set to undergo renovation work so that it can house the Maria Callas Opera Academy, as daily Kathimerini online reported. The City of Athens has already reached an agreement with the owner of the building, the Sailors' Pension Fund (NAT), and officials are reportedly working out the details so that the project can be included under EU Community Support Framework for Greece in 2015. The agreement was marked yesterday with a grand opera gala concert organized by the association for the building of the opera house and the academy in cooperation with the Greek National Opera. Artistic director of the Greek National Opera Myron Michailidis said the organization would support plans to establish an opera academy. Born Maria Kalogeropoulos, Callas first performed in Greece when she was 18. She died in Paris at the age of 53 in 1977." [Source] "A rich audio-visual exhibition with emblematic photos and interviews, along with personal objects, will be presented in two of the building’s three floors. The museum will also have a library with books and records for opera lovers. Additionally, there will be a hall for temporary exhibitions, classes and small opera concerts. The ground floor will feature a thematic museum shop as well as a bistro named La Divina, where visitors will have the chance to taste some of Callas’s favorite dishes." [Source] After the jump is a complete list of operas that the hallowed walls of this apartment would have heard Madame Callas singing during this time period.

Callas And Tebaldi Still Rivals Thanks To Their Record Labels

In the 1950s, two sopranos reigned supreme at the premiere opera houses of the world: Renata Tebaldi and Maria Callas. There was overlapping repertoire between the artists and both sang in many of the same venues. Was there a real rivalry between these ladies or was it all salaciousness spurred on by the media? "Though many of the stock obituaries of Tebaldi characterized her rivalry with Callas as trumped up by the press, there was, in fact, much truth behind it - and it says much about who Tebaldi was and what she represented. Problems started in 1950, according to Robert Levine's clearheaded book Maria Callas: A Musical Biography (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers), when the two were alternating performances of La Traviata in Rio de Janeiro. At a gala concert, they sang their scheduled arias, and despite a no-encores agreement, Tebaldi sang two. When the two appeared at social occasions, it got ugly. Later, management favored Tebaldi over Callas, and the latter was fired - no doubt traumatized. After the two became more established, Callas was quoted as saying, 'If the time comes when my dear friend Renata Tebaldi sings Norma or Lucia one night, then Violetta, La Gioconda or Medea the next - then and only then will we be rivals. Otherwise, it is like comparing champagne with cognac. No, with Coca-Cola.'" [Source] Fans became divided and the general

Diva Love: Tebaldi (left) and Callas in 1968

sentiment for hearing Verdi's La Forza del Destino at the time was: If you want to hear Leonora sung beautifully listen to Tebaldi, if you want to know the fate of Leonora listen to Callas. Whatever the real story, the true details are taken to the beyond since both have long since passed on. During their careers, the media scandals did serve to bring the two singers much more attention in the public eye. That legacy lives on. As previously announced, Warner Classics will release the complete discography of Maria Callas with a new remastering of the original tapes. Decca Classics will match that by offering a limited edition 66-disc box set of the complete Renata Tebaldi recordings for the label. The international release date is October 31, 2014. Order your copy now by clicking here. See a few more pictures of La Tebaldi after the jump.

Warner Classics Gives Inside Look To Callas Remaster Process

See the earlier feature about Maria Callas and Warner Classics by clicking here. 

Learn more about the remastering process by clicking here.

Decca Veteran Charged With Remastering Complete Callas Catalog

Maria Callas with Nanni Ricordi in 1958. She recorded
Cherubini's Medea at La Scala with Tullio Serafin for
Dischi Ricordi on Mercury label equipment flown in
from New York. Warner Classics now owns the rights.

When the compact disc revolution began to hit the classical music world in the early 1980s, many labels looked to their back catalogs for a treasure trove of riches. The process by which they went about reviving some of the great masters was a bit painstaking to say the least. First the old analog master tapes had to be located and transferred into a new digitally encoded master. "The digital process merely translates everything on the old tape - hiss, bumpy splices, bad balances and mixes, deterioration of tape oxide - onto a new tape. Sometimes the sound is beefed up with added reverberation, filtering of high and low frequencies (to eliminate hiss and rumble) and occasionally a touch of compression (ostensibly to protect your home system from the shock of dynamic extremes)....After the recording to be reprocessed has been designated, the balance engineer assigned to the project goes back to the original

The original British cover art has been faithfully reproduced.
For more information about the release, click here.

master tape to see what shape its in. First he determines what sort of equipment it was recorded on, so it can be played back on the same system (otherwise, hiss becomes intolerable). He then looks it over for oxide deterioration, for weak or sticky splice joints, and other signs of age and/or wear. It must be remembered that producers and engineers counted on certain flaws on the master tape - poor splices, extraneous noises such as subways or outside ground and air traffic, musicians coughing, even distortion - vanishing in the general swooshing of the vinyl on the turntable....If the splice is too sticky, the tapes has to be thoroughly cleaned. If the oxide has fallen off, another copy of the master must be raided to supply the affected area. If a

Maria Callas with EMI producer Walter Legge during a break recording Ponchielli's La Gioconda. Legge is one of the few people whom could try to produce on vinyl what the Callas voice sounded like in person. An engineer working on the project today, would be working with a ghostly memory of the soprano if they had heard her live at all.

splice is too crude (as occasionally happened), it has to be targeted for attention later in the process. Then the analog master is converted to digital. Any digital cleaning up of poor