![Maria Callas, Fedora Barbieri, Maria Amadini, Giulio Neri, Gianni Poggi, Paolo Silveri, Piero Poldi, Armando Benzi, Coro Cetra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI, Antonino Votto - Ponchielli: La Gioconda (1952/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/06/q3xs3xc.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Maria Callas, Fedora Barbieri, Maria Amadini, Giulio Neri, Gianni Poggi, Paolo Silveri, Piero Poldi, Armando Benzi, Coro Cetra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI, Antonino Votto – Ponchielli: La Gioconda (1952/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:47:28 minutes | 1,66 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Although Maria Callas is perhaps most closely associated with the roles of Norma, Violetta and Tosca, Ponchielli’s passionate, generous, and ironically named heroine Gioconda played a major role in the diva’s life and career. Following the war, Callas came from Greece to New York in an attempt to launch a major career. After several setbacks, including the cancellation of a high-profile debut as Turandot, the 23-year old soprano auditioned for retired tenor Giovanni Zenatello, who was casting about for a Gioconda for the Verona Arena’s summer season. Callas landed the part, and made her Italian debut on 3 August 1947. Although Richard Tucker, the Enzo on that occasion, walked away with most of the reviews, this engagement effectively launched Callas’s career in other ways: she met and married Giovanni Battista Meneghini, who gave the penniless singer the financial security to pursue her art, and she first worked with conductor Tullio Serafin, who became her mentor and supplied subsequent bookings before Callas’ extraordinary gifts were recognised.
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![Maria Callas, Fiorenza Cossotto, Irene Companeez, Ivo Vinco, Pier Miranda Ferraro, Piero Cappuccilli, Leonardo Monreale, Carlo Forti, Renato Ercolani, Aldo Biffi, Bonaldo Giaiotti, Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Antonino Votto - Ponchielli: La Gioconda (1959) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/06/0825646254057_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Maria Callas, Fiorenza Cossotto, Irene Companeez, Ivo Vinco, Pier Miranda Ferraro, Piero Cappuccilli, Leonardo Monreale, Carlo Forti, Renato Ercolani, Aldo Biffi, Bonaldo Giaiotti, Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Antonino Votto – Ponchielli: La Gioconda (1959)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:46:31 minutes | 3,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Maria Callas sang the role of Gioconda on stage a total of 13 times – five in 1947, eight more in 1952–3. It may therefore come as a surprise that Ponchielli’s ironically named street singer played such a pivotal role in the soprano’s life and career. After numerous setbacks in her effort to launch an American career in the mid-1940s, Callas struck gold when she auditioned for retired tenor Giovanni Zenatello, searching for a protagonist for a Gioconda he was casting for the Verona Arena’s summer season of 1947. The 23-year-old soprano got the part, and during those performances met two men who changed her life – Giovanni Battista Meneghini, whom she married, and Maestro Tullio Serafin, who became her artistic mentor. Fast forward five years, and we find Callas recording Gioconda, her first complete opera release, and another seven years to sessions for this more artistically mature second studio Gioconda – during which time she announced her separation from Meneghini, mentioning her ‘profound friendship’ with Aristotle Onassis.
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Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Antonino Votto – Ponchielli: La Gioconda, Op. 9 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:46:31 minutes | 3,26 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
The character of Gioconda is one of the most tragic in the whole history of Italian opera: an altruistic cantatrice who sacrifices everything, to the death, to secure the escape of the man she loves with her rival. Who was better suited than Maria Callas to assume such a role? La Gioconda, the only opera by Ponchielli that has not fallen into neglect, is a stunning transitional work between Verdian romanticism and verismo. La Divina particularly liked this opera.
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Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Antonino Votto – Puccini: La bohème (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:45:54 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Mimì, the happy-go-lucky young Parisian discovering the torments of love and facing the dread of illness and finitude is an endearing character, easy to identify with. If Maria Callas never had the opportunity to portray it live on stage, she masterfully embodied her on record in 1956. Mimì’s zest for life, simplicity and frailty have rarely been more intensely rendered than in this fiery version featuring a beautiful cast. Callas and Di Stefano’s love duet sends sparks flying!
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Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Antonino Votto – Bellini: La sonnambula (1993/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:00:55 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Pure Amina is one of the most touching characters of the bel canto repertoire. The young somnambulist is completely unaware of her condition which loses her the love of her fiancé. Maria Callas was probably her most admirable performer, having won the heart of the Scala’s audience after a legendary series of performances staged by her close friend Luchino Visconti in 1955. Two years later, she would record this milestone studio recording – an absolute reference of Bellini’s discography – with Antonino Votto.
Read more![Maria Callas, Fiorenza Cossotto, Nicola Zaccaria, Nicola Monti, Eugenia Ratti, Giuseppe Morresi, Franco Ricciardi, Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Antonino Votto - Vincenzo Bellini: La Sonnambula (1957/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/08/29/6y0CpGK.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Maria Callas, Fiorenza Cossotto, Nicola Zaccaria, Nicola Monti, Eugenia Ratti, Giuseppe Morresi, Franco Ricciardi, Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Antonino Votto – Vincenzo Bellini: La Sonnambula (1957/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:00:55 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Warner Classics
While all of Callas’s bel canto roles were revelatory, her first Amina achieved instant legendary status partly because of the Luchino Visconti production surrounding it. Visconti replicated a bygone era visually by costuming the slimmed-down diva in the manner of a 19th-century ballerina, while Callas replicated that time vocally, combining bel canto style with a full dramatic impersonation not associated with a role owned at the time by bird-like coloraturas. Callas transported Bellini’s lyric masterpiece back to the age of Giuditta Pasta, for whom it was created, offering her share of vocal fireworks – but in the name of expression. Suddenly, the opera itself was understood anew.
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