A report on Maria Callas

Callas in 1958
The apartment house in Athens where Callas lived from 1937 to 1945
The Villa in Sirmione where Callas lived with Giovanni Battista Meneghini between 1950 and 1959
Callas's range in performance (highest and lowest notes both shown in red): from F-sharp below the Middle C (green) to E-natural above the High C (blue)
Callas acknowledges applause in 1959 at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam
Callas's rival, Renata Tebaldi, 1961
Tito Gobbi, 1970
Callas during her final tour in Amsterdam in 1973
Aristotle Onassis, who had an affair with Callas before he married Jackie Kennedy
The last residence of Maria Callas, in Paris
Portrait of Callas (2004), by Oleg Karuvits
Maria Callas with her husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini in 1957
Callas getting ready with the help of Luchino Visconti in Milan, 1957
Maria Callas as Giulia in the Opera "La Vestale", by Gaspare Spontini, 1954
Churchill with Maria Callas on Onassis' yacht in the late 50s

American-born Greek soprano who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century.

- Maria Callas
Callas in 1958

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Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center

Metropolitan Opera

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American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center
Giulio Gatti-Casazza
Gatti-Casazza's last week at the Met (March 22–29, 1935)
Artur Bodanzky at the Metropolitan Opera in 1915
Otto Hermann Kahn in Berlin, 1931
Metropolitan Opera House in 1905
The new Met Opera House
Staircase

Other celebrated singers who debuted at the Met during Bing's tenure include: Roberta Peters, Victoria de los Ángeles, Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas, who had a bitter falling out with Bing over repertoire,, Birgit Nilsson, Joan Sutherland, Régine Crespin, Mirella Freni, Renata Scotto, Montserrat Caballé, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Anna Moffo, James McCracken, Carlo Bergonzi, Franco Corelli, Alfredo Kraus, Plácido Domingo, Nicolai Gedda, Luciano Pavarotti, Jon Vickers, Tito Gobbi, Sherrill Milnes, and Cesare Siepi.

Tebaldi as Madama Butterfly

Renata Tebaldi

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Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period, and especially prominent as one of the stars of La Scala, San Carlo and, especially, the Metropolitan Opera.

Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period, and especially prominent as one of the stars of La Scala, San Carlo and, especially, the Metropolitan Opera.

Tebaldi as Madama Butterfly
Tebaldi as Madama Butterfly
Tebaldi with Giuseppe Di Stefano in Rome, 1960
Tebaldi with a friend in New York, 1957
Renata Tebaldi, 1961
Garden in Milan dedicated to Renata Tebaldi

During the early 1950s, controversy arose regarding a supposed rivalry between Tebaldi and the great Greek-American soprano Maria Callas.

La Scala of Milan

Opera

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Form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers.

Form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers.

La Scala of Milan
Palais Garnier of the Paris Opéra
Macbeth at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in St. Olaf's Castle, Savonlinna, Finland, in 2007
Claudio Monteverdi
Antonio Vivaldi, in 1723
Private baroque theatre in Český Krumlov
Teatro Argentina (Panini, 1747, Musée du Louvre)
Illustration for the score of the original Vienna version of Orfeo ed Euridice
Giuseppe Verdi, by Giovanni Boldini, 1886
The Queen of the Night in an 1815 production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte
Richard Wagner
Brünnhilde throws herself on Siegfried's funeral pyre in Wagner's Götterdämmerung
A performance of Lully's opera Armide in the Salle du Palais-Royal in 1761
Magdalena Kožená and Jonas Kaufmann in a scene from Carmen, Salzburg Festival 2012
Henry Purcell
Thomas Arne
The Mikado (Lithograph)
Feodor Chaliapin as Ivan Susanin in Glinka's A Life for the Tsar
Leoš Janáček in 1917
Score of Smetana's The Bartered Bride
Ferenc Erkel, the father of Hungarian opera
Scene from Uzeyir Hajibeyovs "Leyli and Majnun" opera. 1934. Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater
Arnold Schoenberg in 1917; portrait by Egon Schiele
Stravinsky in 1921
The castrato Senesino, c. 1720
German opera orchestra from the early 1950s
Swedish opera singers in a tribute to Kjerstin Dellert and the Ulriksdal Palace Theatre at the 40-year jubilee in 2016 of its funding, renovation and subsequent reopening
Sydney Opera House

With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso and Maria Callas became known to much wider audiences that went beyond the circle of opera fans.

Sutherland in 1975

Joan Sutherland

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Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.

Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.

Sutherland in 1975
Sutherland in 1962
Joan Sutherland in 1990

She was engaged by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as a utility soprano, and made her debut there on 28 October 1952, as the First Lady in The Magic Flute, followed in November by a few performances as Clotilde in Vincenzo Bellini's opera Norma, with Maria Callas as Norma.

Domenico Donzelli, Giuditta Pasta,
and Giulia Grisi (original cast)

Norma (opera)

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Tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after the play Norma, ou L'infanticide by Alexandre Soumet.

Tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after the play Norma, ou L'infanticide by Alexandre Soumet.

Domenico Donzelli, Giuditta Pasta,
and Giulia Grisi (original cast)
Librettist Felice Romani
Giuditta Pasta for whom the role of Norma was created
Poster advertising the 1831 premiere
Domenico Donzelli sang Pollione
Giulia Grisi sang Adalgisa
Vincenzo Negrini sang Oroveso
Giulia Grisi dressed as Norma. In 1831, she also sang the role of Adalgisa
Act 2 finale, Luigi Lablache as Oroveso, Giulia Grisi (as Norma), Dominique Conti as Pollione. Her Majesty's Theatre, London, 1843
Alessandro Sanquirico's set design for act 1, scene 2, for the original production
Drawing for Norma (undated)

Notable exponents of the title role in the post-war period have been Maria Callas, Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland, and Montserrat Caballé.

Victor de Sabata, 1950

Victor de Sabata

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Italian conductor and composer.

Italian conductor and composer.

Victor de Sabata, 1950

His post-war operatic work included celebrated collaborations with Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi, most notably his famous recording of Tosca with Callas in 1953.

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Franco Corelli

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Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976.

Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976.

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Later that season he sang Pollione in Bellini's Norma opposite Maria Callas in the title role.

Original poster, depicting the death of Scarpia

Tosca

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Opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

Opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

Original poster, depicting the death of Scarpia
Punch cartoon depicting the end of Sardou's La Tosca, 1888
The Battle of Marengo, as painted by Louis-François Lejeune
The Te Deum scene which concludes act 1; Scarpia stands at left. Photograph of a pre-1914 production at the old Metropolitan Opera House, New York
La piattaforma di Castel Sant'Angelo, set design for Tosca act 3 (undated).
Tosca reverently lays a crucifix on Scarpia's body. Photograph of a pre-1914 production at the old Metropolitan Opera House, New York
The Castel Sant'Angelo (right), scene of the Tosca denouement, as painted in the 18th century
Front cover of the original 1899 libretto
Enrico Caruso as Cavaradossi. Passed over for the role at the premiere, he sang it many times subsequently.
Antonio Scotti, an early exponent of the role of Scarpia
Roberto Alagna as Cavaradossi, Royal Opera House, 2014
The setting for Robert Dornhelm's production of Tosca at the Opera Festival of St. Margarethen, 2015
Emmy Destinn in the role of Tosca, c. 1910
The execution of Cavaradossi at the end of act 3. Soldiers fire, as Tosca looks away. Photograph of a pre-1914 production by the Metropolitan Opera
Mario Cavaradossi (modelled on tenor Giancarlo Monsalve) singing "E lucevan le stelle" in a painting by Riccardo Manci

Of her successors, opera enthusiasts tend to consider Maria Callas as the supreme interpreter of the role, largely on the basis of her performances at the Royal Opera House in 1964, with Tito Gobbi as Scarpia.

Tullio Serafin

Tullio Serafin

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Italian conductor and former Musical Director at La Scala.

Italian conductor and former Musical Director at La Scala.

Tullio Serafin
Tullio Serafin plaque (Rottanova, Cavarzere)

He had an unparalleled reputation as a coach of young opera singers and famously harnessed and developed both Renata Tebaldi's and Maria Callas's considerable talents.

Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani as Lucia in the London premiere in 1838

Lucia di Lammermoor

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Dramma tragico in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti.

Dramma tragico in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti.

Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani as Lucia in the London premiere in 1838
Disegno per copertina di libretto, drawing for Lucia di Lammermoor (1954).
Lammermuir Hills, Scotland
Set design for act 3, scene 3 by Francesco Bagnara, circa 1844 (Civica Raccolta Stampe Bertarelli Milan)
A caricature of the "Lucia Sextet", circa 1900 (Civica Raccolta Stampe Bertarelli Milan)

After World War II, a number of sopranos were instrumental in giving new life to the opera, including Maria Callas (with performances from 1954 at La Scala and Berlin in 1955 under Herbert von Karajan) and Dame Joan Sutherland (with 1959 and 1960 performances at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden).