MARIA CALLAS AT THE MET OPERA HOUSE. Y PRÓXIMAMENTE, PELÍCULA SOBRE LEONARD BERNSTEIN

On the centennial of her birth, a look at her Met career, what it was, and what it might have been.

No opera singer of the 20th century, with the possible exception of tenor Enrico Caruso, has been the subject of so many articles, books, documentaries, speculations, and general interest outside the narrow world of classical music as Greek American soprano Maria Callas (pictured above in the title role of Bellini’s Norma, 1956). 

Within that circumscribed, often conservative, and intensely opinionated body of devotees to lyrical art, it is generally acknowledged that Callas changed what we listen for and expect of an operatic performer. 

There were, of course, many great singers both before and after her, but it is impossible to point to one with a similar combination of attributes. The timbre of her voice was decidedly unconventional, with a very identifiable, haunting quality that often defied standard critical analysis. But Callas the artist was an undeniable phenomenon. 

Her intense musicality and expressive abilities revealed the dramatic genius behind the works she sang, from the most familiar operatic warhorses to the rarely heard novelties so often revived expressly for her.

 Though born in New York City, Callas only gave 21 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, the city’s preeminent company. The reasons for this paucity of appearances by the century’s most influential singer in her native city require some explanation.

As far as we know, the first time anyone at the Metropolitan Opera heard of Callas was in 1945, when she auditioned as Mary Callas for Paul Breisach, a member of the music staff. Breisach, who had conducted in Berlin before fleeing the Nazis, joined the Met staff in 1941. He was a cousin of Rudolf Bing, and the two had worked together at Berlin’s Städtische Oper from 1931–33. 

It is unknown whether he ever mentioned Callas to Bing, but Breisach seems to have been impressed with her audition, writing simply, “Exceptional voice—ought to be heard very soon on stage.” Two weeks later, she auditioned again, this time on the stage, singing arias from Bellini’s Norma, Puccini’s Tosca, and Verdi’s Il Trovatore. On this occasion, the unspecified auditioner’s only remarks were “Good material, needs work on her voice.”………….

https://www.metopera.org/discover/archives/notes-from-the-archives/maria-callas-at-the-met/

Y ADEMAS....LEONARD BERNSTEIN

#CLASSICALSUNDAY #ClassicalSunday: Leonard Bernstein en un documental revelador y un concierto histórico DOCUMENTAL   Una producción de 2015  En catálogo Con la cinta Maestro sobre la vida de Leonard Bernstein por llegar a las carteleras próximamente, creemos que es la oportunidad perfecta para ver a este gran músico del siglo XX en su elemento, con horas de material en nuestro catálogo, comenzando por Leonard Bernstein: Larger Than Life, un retrato del compositor y director en el que participan músicos de la escena clásica internacional actual como Dudamel, Nagano, Alsop y Eschenbach, a la vez que se incluyen imágenes de Bernstein dirigiendo apenas con la mirada la Sinfonía «Resurreción» de Mahler (que escucharemos en la película de Bradley Cooper por venir)…