Puccini Arias (recorded 1954)

Callas came to be closely identified with Tosca, and it was the only Puccini role she sang with any frequency during her reign as a prima donna. Turandot had figured prominently in her early career, and she performed Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly) three times in Chicago in 1955, but all the other characters in this recital did not figure in her stage repertoire. Yet, as Gramophone said when this album was first released: 'To each and every aria she brings the stamp of an individual artistry, something of character acting, and a concern for the dramatic and musical shaping of the aria which is very unlike the sort of Puccini singing we usually hear today.'