Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano

Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin – Bellini: I Puritani (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:22:04 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Maria Callas was born on December 2, 1923, in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood, the second daughter of Greek immigrants George Kalogeropoulos (1881-1972) and Elmina Evangelia Dimitriadou (1894-1982) of Meligalas. Their older brother Vassilios had died of typhoid fever in Greece. The parents had been living in the United States for six months at that time. The father changed the family name to Callas in 1929 after opening a low-earning pharmacy in the Greek section of Manhattan in 1927. In 1937, after the separation of her parents, Maria went to Athens with mother Evangelia and sister Yakynthy (Jackie). She made her first public appearance in Cavalleria rusticana in Athens in November 1938, while still studying at the Athens Conservatory with Maria Trivella. From the beginning of 1938 she studied singing with Elvira de Hidalgo, also at the Athens Conservatory. In August 1942 she sang the role of Tosca for the first time at the National Opera of Athens, and in April 1944 she took on the role of Marta in Tiefland for the first time. In the Greek premiere of Fidelio at the Herod Atticus Theater on August 14, 1944, she took the title role. In 1949 she married the Italian entrepreneur Giovanni Battista Meneghini and took Italian citizenship.

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Maria Callas, Tullio Serafin, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano – Maria Callas: 90 Opera Arias (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 07:36:15 minutes | 7,92 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording

Maria Callas (born Maria Anna Cecilia Sophie Kalogeropoulou), was an American-born Greek soprano who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini and, further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; and, in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner. Her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina (“the Divine one”).

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Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin – Bellini: Norma (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:40:26 minutes | 1,58 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Which cantatrice can claim she has embodied the character of Norma better than Maria Callas? The tragic figure of the Gaulish priestess torn between her rank and her love for a Roman proconsul is the emblematic role of Maria Callas, the one she performed most often on stage (almost a hundred times) and with which she attained the status of living legend. Here is the first studio version of 1954 conducted by Tullio Serafin.

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