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.

Angela Gheorghiu Sings Romanian National Anthem In Celebration

Romania celebrates a Guiness Book of World Records victory as it drapes the largest flag out over
Clinceni Airfield just south of Bucharest. Read the story here and check out two more photos of
the soprano after the jump.