Rating: 
Summary: An invaluable document
Review: As another reviewer has already mentioned, Callas was never filmed in a complete opera. (Ironically, no less than three films exist of the second act of Puccini's Tosca, a role that she did not regard with particular favor.) So, these filmed live concerts of varied operatic repertory are particularly valuable as a document of a spellbinding performer practicing her art. The concert from 1959 finds her in more secure voice, though she misses a top C in the Macbeth aria and omits some interpolated high notes elsewhere. However, the earlier concert as a whole is a vivid demonstration of her dramatic intensity and the variety of her vocal art, ranging from the steely intensity of Macbeth, to the ineffable grief of the Don Carlo aria, to the flirtatious charm of the Barber of Seville. By 1962, she was in noticeable vocal decline and there are frequent instances of what became an all-too-familiar unsteadiness on top notes in the later concert. She also has difficulty remembering words in the Carmen excerpts in 1962. On the other hand, O Don Fatale, a mezzo aria, is mesmerizing. Anyone who wants to learn why Callas continues to exert such a powerful force on the world of opera need only view these concerts to know the reason.
Rating: 
Summary: Divine Callas in action!
Review: Carlos James is quite correct I'm afraid (I had a good laugh with your adrenaline comment Calros). Callas truly had a wonderful, spectacular, impressive, moving, thrilling and beautiful in its own way, voice in her early years but always a somewhat problematic technique (no need to analyse more, one who knows about singing recognises the flaws). This problematic technique gave her voice a new colour and a new wave every year. By 1960, a previously spectacular Lucia with Es and everything had trouble reaching a high C. Not to mention her dissapearing middle register which her fans wisely call canto parlato. Sorry but this isn't canto parlato but canto whisper and sadly eventually... CANTO NO VOCE PIU! Fortunately for her sake many still liked her canto parlato and she kept on singing for some years. Sopranos who lack a sound technique often speak more and more as they age. Speaking is easier than singing when you have little voice left. Popp, Freni, Caballe, Horne, Ludwig, Cosotto, Bergonzi, Domingo and others with solid vocal training had (have) more than enough voice left to sing gloriously even in their 60s! Enough said. (I am expecting A LOT of negative feedback from the crazy Callas fans for this review) 3 stars because this DVD is one of the few opportunities to watch the divine Callas in action. Whatever her vocal flaws, no one can deny her gifted stage presence and ability to conect to the public. Her mediterranian flare is evident in her facial expressions and effective body language. A great visual treat! Enjoy it but do listen to more correct singing to hear the difference.
Rating:
Summary: Divine Callas in action!
Review: Carlos James is quite correct I'm afraid (I had a good laugh with your adrenaline comment Carlos). Callas truly had a wonderful, spectacular, impressive, moving, thrilling and beautiful in its own way, voice in her early years but always a somewhat problematic technique (no need to analyse more, one who knows about singing recognises the flaws). This problematic technique gave her voice a new colour and a new wave every year. By 1960, a previously spectacular Lucia with Es and everything had trouble reaching a high C. Not to mention her dissapearing middle register which her fans wisely call canto parlato. Sorry but this isn't canto parlato but canto whisper and sadly eventually... CANTO NO VOCE PIU! Fortunately for her sake many still liked her canto parlato and she kept on singing for some years. Sopranos who lack a sound technique often speak more and more as they age. Speaking is easier than singing when you have little voice left. Popp, Freni, Caballe, Horne, Ludwig, Cosotto, Bergonzi, Domingo and others with solid vocal training had (have) more than enough voice left to sing gloriously even in their 60s! Enough said. (I am expecting A LOT of negative feedback from the crazy Callas fans for this review) 3 stars because this DVD is one of the few opportunities to watch the divine Callas in action. Whatever her vocal flaws, no one can deny her gifted stage presence and ability to conect to the public. Her mediterranian flare is evident in her facial expressions and effective body language. A great visual treat! Enjoy it but do listen to more correct singing to hear the difference.
Rating:
Summary: Callas' technique from Gerald Martin Moore
Review: Graziella Sciuti had called Callas' Canto Parlato or Recitar Cantando the very definition of it as Callas was the only singer who knew how to do that. If you want quotes about Callas' technique email me and I will send you the Distinguished Vocal teacher Gerald Martin Moore talking about Callas "stunning" technique.
Callas' middle voice NEVER disappeared and she never "spoke", the tonality of her singing was never questioned. Callas was a contralto, a mezzo and a high soprano coloratura. Her vocal range was from low F sharp (1963 Arrigo) one of the deepest contralto notes to high F (Armida), three full octaves and each region had immense volume that could be heard above the loudest orchestra.
Anyone who sings understands what a vocal miracle Maria Callas was, like Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and June Anderson who have described her voice as Perfect and who were themselves Monsters of Perfectionism not lazy amateurs like Tebaldi...
Those who find flaws in Callas' early performances are usually amateur, untalented singers who adore Tebaldi as my dear Greek friend below (!!!) because with her disasterous technique and amateuristic singing made untalented singers think that they could also succeed something in opera.
You should be ashamed of writing such nonsense and above all terrible LIES about Callas that either you construct in your mind or some ridicilous teachers that wanted desperately to be Callas taught you. Above all you should be ashamed because you are Greek and to have such a hatred for Callas is sick. You need a psychiatrist.
Rating:
Summary: The legend Maria Callas in her 1962 Hamburg Concert
Review: Hello again! This second review is about the second concert which it seems I have ignored in my first one. Maria in this tour in 1962 -which started in February in London and has been preserved in audio in a very bad sound- was in a good physical condition but her voice started to fail her in the high notes region. The wobble is obvious but she still gives more than any other opera singer could give in a live performance. Her "Pleurez mes yeux" aria is heartbreaking. She does what she was doing especially in her Traviatas. She gives the impression that she will not be able to finish the aria because of the anguish and the torment of the character she is interpretting. She then sings two arias from Carmen and gives us a small idea of how Carmen would be if she would perform the whole role. She transforms Carmen in a very hard person in the whole, very secure and carefree. The ultimate perfection of interpretation of the character. The aria from Ernani is not one of my favorites but she sings it with perfection. It's Verdi after all and it is easy for her....Then comes La Cenerentola which she also sings in a joyful style. I always watch twice the "non piu mesta" part. She fascinates me when she sings those scales and with much easiness... The last aria "O don fatale" comes from Don Carlo. In this aria one can see her acting skills in small periods. In the first part she is powerful, strong and angry while she curses her beauty. In the second part she is sad, asks for forgiveness and the voice is more passionate. And at last from a point of dreadful thoughts, comes joy!! Watch as her face from sad becomes happy and gives the phrase in full happiness..."Un di mi resta...lo salvero..." that finishes with quite a fantastic way that makes people go mad. Callas la Divina in action!!! About the first review of mine I would ask the previous, friend reviewer to read carefully the booklet of the DVD that he bought. I know that you my friend did not find her singing bad, so it came across that she had not caught a cold, but in the booklet also is said that Maria had a cold during that tour. I will tell you to focus on several parts ' She was suffering from a cold at the beginning of this tour and the effects of it were still evident', 'Callas several times sends worried glances in the direction of the conductor, presumably indicating that she is not happy with the way her voice is behaving. ', ' ...the effects of the cold become apparent when a top C fails to sound properly....' . I would also go a step ahead and recommend you to listen to the Stuttgart concert four days after her Hamburg performance to whiteness a really exhausted by the symptoms of a cold Callas... As a Callas collector I own it of course. Thank you for your time.
I hope everyone enjoyed watching this DVD. It's like a legend coming alive in front of our eyes in a well preserved picture, thanks to EMI classics...:)
Rating:
Summary: UTTER DIVINITY........
Review: HOPEFULLY, Shes' looking down at all of this frenzy and enjoying quite a giggle or two! Utter meshing with orchestra, conductor, audience [and the occasional rose bouncing off her 'do']. Not just the vocal fireworks [recording quality is not too bad] but it's the person or the acting of the person, that slight little headtwinge ala Carmen ... waiting to break into a flamenco perhaps? The utter versatilityof this splendid artist .... NO it's not just the voice [there might have been 'others'] but it is the personality and her splendid acting ability. She's very timeless on this one - and connects instantly ... quite a must for the aspiring actor, actress ..... or just the bored housewife, wanting a slight mid-afternoon escape into Her world. Thank God for these old recordings! {Around today? There'd be NO competition}
Rating:
Summary: A revelation
Review: I didn't want to "review" this DVD, the 2nd concert of which I watched this morning, the 1st yesterday morning because I felt that much (too much) had been said already. But I feel a compulsion. To begin with, I only wanted to give it 4 stars (it definitely deserved that), but Callas was Callas, so 5. I discovered Callas in a 2 LP set (which I still own an unopened copy of) in 1967, and have loved her ever since. But I'd never until now seen her sing. I'm sorry I did, though yesterday I ordered her Paris recital with the 2nd act of Tosca on it. In the first concert (1959) I thought the woman was vain, pretentious, affected, conceited, and phony beyond belief from her introduction right up to the hand-kissing at the end. I was shattered. I hated everything I'd ever heard by her (and I've had a picture of her on my wall for years). Sigh. But in the 2nd concert (1962) she was (as god is my witness) just a very nice, humongously gifted woman doing her thing. She smiled, laughed, made comical self-deprecating facial expressions at the ovations. I loved her. I was enchanted. She sang, of course, like Callas. That was the same. No need to go into it. I did not notice the effect of a cold in the first concert, and I in no way felt her voice had deteriorated by the 2nd one. The video and audio were just fine. I found her renowned "acting" a little tiresome (that's another reason I want the Tosca), but that is easily explained by the melodramatic, grandiose lyrics she was forced to sing. (I watched the subtitles, and my esteem for these composers shot even higher than it had been before, to have actually composed such wonderful, beautiful music to such hyperbolic, repetitious tripe. The poetry of the original may be beautiful, but the content of these 19th Century lyrics was terrible. I've only seen 3 full operas, with subtitles, and on VHS and DVD, Boheme, Lucia and Hoffmann. I don't recall their librettos being so dismal. Incidentally, while I am passing familiar with a few popular plots (Butterfly, Rigoletto), I never read librettos or follow words to arias, I just listen to the music.) If you love Callas and want to know how she looked when she sang, what she did, I highly recommend this DVD. Only 2 major/minor quibbles. I could have done without the 2 overtures and the orchestral music from Carmen, though it was pleasant, I wanted to hear Callas. I would infinitely rather have heard the Gypsy Song (what ecstatic excitement from this singer) than either or both the prelude or entr-acte. And I frankly would have liked to have chosen her arias for her, there are several (many) I would have preferred to hear. Incidentally, unless these recitals had things left out of them, the audience didn't get much for its money, getting all dressed up, driving to the theater and all. Each one lasted about an hour. There was much hand kissing, flower throwing, walkings off and on stage, applause. Maybe (probably) these are traditional European or operatic conventions. Still, I found them a bit much. But I still love Callas. I'm eager to see the other DVD I ordered. But I think in the future I'll stick to my CDs. I really just like the voice and the music.
Rating:
Summary: A revelation
Review: I didn't want to "review" this DVD, the 2nd concert of which I watched this morning, the 1st yesterday morning because I felt that much (too much) had been said already. But I feel a compulsion. To begin with, I only wanted to give it 4 stars (it definitely deserved that), but Callas was Callas, so 5. I discovered Callas in a 2 LP set (which I still own an unopened copy of) in 1967, and have loved her ever since. But I'd never until now seen her sing. I'm sorry I did, though yesterday I ordered her Paris recital with the 2nd act of Tosca on it. In the first concert (1959) I thought the woman was vain, pretentious, affected, conceited, and phony beyond belief from her introduction right up to the hand-kissing at the end. I was shattered. I hated everything I'd ever heard by her (and I've had a picture of her on my wall for years). Sigh. But in the 2nd concert (1962) she was (as god is my witness) just a very nice, humongously gifted woman doing her thing. She smiled, laughed, made comical self-deprecating facial expressions at the ovations. I loved her. I was enchanted. She sang, of course, like Callas. That was the same. No need to go into it. I did not notice the effect of a cold in the first concert, and I in no way felt her voice had deteriorated by the 2nd one. The video and audio were just fine. I found her renowned "acting" a little tiresome (that's another reason I want the Tosca), but that is easily explained by the melodramatic, grandiose lyrics she was forced to sing. (I watched the subtitles, and my esteem for these composers shot even higher than it had been before, to have actually composed such wonderful, beautiful music to such hyperbolic, repetitious tripe. The poetry of the original may be beautiful, but the content of these 19th Century lyrics was terrible. I've only seen 3 full operas, with subtitles, and on VHS and DVD, Boheme, Lucia and Hoffmann. I don't recall their librettos being so dismal. Incidentally, while I am passing familiar with a few popular plots (Butterfly, Rigoletto), I never read librettos or follow words to arias, I just listen to the music.) If you love Callas and want to know how she looked when she sang, what she did, I highly recommend this DVD. Only 2 major/minor quibbles. I could have done without the 2 overtures and the orchestral music from Carmen, though it was pleasant, I wanted to hear Callas. I would infinitely rather have heard the Gypsy Song (what ecstatic excitement from this singer) than either or both the prelude or entr-acte. And I frankly would have liked to have chosen her arias for her, there are several (many) I would have preferred to hear. Incidentally, unless these recitals had things left out of them, the audience didn't get much for its money, getting all dressed up, driving to the theater and all. Each one lasted about an hour. There was much hand kissing, flower throwing, walkings off and on stage, applause. Maybe (probably) these are traditional European or operatic conventions. Still, I found them a bit much. But I still love Callas. I'm eager to see the other DVD I ordered. But I think in the future I'll stick to my CDs. I really just like the voice and the music.
Rating:
Summary: A DVD "Must Have"
Review: I have the Laser Disc version of this. I bought it 7 years ago and has enjoyed it since. The charm of Callas never let me down...always cheers me up...I have watched this hundreds of times and still loving it. I plan to get the DVD version very soon. My favorite is her in "O Don Fatale"...look at her expression. She went from sad, somber, to full of joy. She is truly the goddess of opera.
Rating:
Summary: La Divina of All Times
Review: If her voice ever conquered you, the image will do more! She is not only a soprano with supreme teceniques, but also a prima dona living in every characters she sings through her dramatic make-blelieve artistry. Without any knowledge of the lyrics, you understand the characters and the whole story behind them through the gestures and the facial expressions she made while singing in vivid emotions. You will never know Callas fully enough without seeing her singing. A Must-Have for Callas fans, and, of course, for those who didn't understand yet to aprreciate this prima dona of the last century.
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