Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Complete Opera recorded in 1955)

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GIACOMO PUCCINI
Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Complete Opera recorded in 1955)
Maria Callas, Nicolai Gedda, Mario Borriello / Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Herbert von Karajan

[ Warner Classics Maria Callas Remastered / 2 CD ]

Release Date: Monday 20 October 2014

This item is only available to us via Special Order. We should be able to get it to you in 3 - 6 weeks from when you order it.

A famous backstage photo was taken in Chicago after one of just three performances that Callas gave of Madama Butterfly; it shows the soprano in her Japanese costume, snarling furiously at a bailiff who had served a writ on her - the very image of the tempestuous diva. By contrast, in her recording of the role, 'it is, miraculously,' as the critic John Osborne observed, 'the 15-yearold girl and not the great Callas who stands before us'.

"Callas's view, aided by superbly imaginative and spacious conducting from Karajan, gives extra dimension to the Puccinian little woman" Penguin Stereo Guide

This 1955 La Scala recording, with its matchless pairing of Callas and Karajan, dates from 1955. The Callas authority Tony Locantro contributes a wide-ranging essay that considers Callas's Puccini roles on stage and in the studio (with the odd lawsuit along the way). As he notes, Puccini was not a composer that Maria Callas particularly favoured in her stage repertoire, and yet two of his operas - Tosca and Turandot - played a major part in her career. In the recording studio, however, Callas showed a great affinity with Puccini's heroines and made a number of outstanding recordings of his music, including La bohème, Madama Butterfly and Manon Lescaut in addition to her stage roles of Tosca and Turandot. Callas had never sung Butterfly on stage when she made her recording, yet the studio performance shows a complete understanding of the musical and dramatic requirements of the role. She brings the character to life so vividly that one might assume that she had honed the interpretation over many performances in the theatre. This vintage mono recording has been newly remastered to ART standard at Abbey Road.