Cherubini: Medea (complete opera recorded live in 1953)

The character of Medea became closely associated with Maria Callas. In 1969, several years after she had left the opera stage, she even played the betrayed and finally infanticidal sorceress in a film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Her second run of appearances in Cherubini's opera was at La Scala in 1953 with Leonard Bernstein conducting. He later described her as "a power station" in the role, and soprano and conductor did indeed strike sparks off each other in the theatre: this performance is incandescent. In 1962, Medea brought Callas's her final appearances at La Scala, the opera house that in the 1950s had become her artistic home.