Gluck: Alceste (complete opera recorded live in 1954)

Alceste, in 1954, was the first of two Gluck operas that Callas sang at La Scala, followed three years later by an Italian version of Iphigénie en Tauride. It was in the 1953-54 season that she rose to become 'Queen of La Scala', also singing Medea. Elisabetta (Don Carlo) and Giulia (La Vestale) at the Milanese theatre. Her conductor for Alceste was Carlo Maria Giulini. Describing Callas in the role of the Ancient Greek queen who is prepared to sacrifice herself so that her husband may live, he said: "[She] was opera incarnate - absolute harmony between word, music and action … In all my years in the opera house I have never known an artist like Callas. Hers is no fabricated legend: she truly did have something different."