I use to call it "The Callas Magic". There is something with Callas voice, which we fans cannot understand or explain. But it captures you and thats the end. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can ever match it. I can say 100% that after Callas I cannot enjoy any other soprano in the same role, they all sound "sterile" and dry and emotionless when compared. I am proof of that. When I learned about opera I was not very excited about it.. I used to watch videos and laugh at the singers and it was a bit cringe. But after I learned about Callas everything changed and I finally was able to understand what opera realy means. Its not about high notes or low notes or this or that. Notes are just air, but Callas made it an ART and so it fills me with various emotions, it touches. Its really a kind of magic this woman possesed, she makes you feel an ocean of emotions. Many soprani had pretty voices or pretty notes, but in the end its just air.. and air.. that most of the time doesnt make you feel emotions. With Callas its different, you can feel everything. Her voice sometimes leave you shocked, but not only because of the weight and volume and power, but because after all that volume and power finishes, it leaves a lot of feelings inside of you.. you need a moment to recover from that. Thats why she is the greatest soprano we have seen. Its a pity her prime was in a time where television and cameras were not evolved. If she can make us feel this way just with her voice, imagine watching her.
Your comment is simply stunning and absolutely spot on. There were big and small voices, light and dark, low and high ... but there was only one tragic voice in the opera world - that of Maria Callas. Thank you for your great essay!
Callas was the perfect operatic performer, in whom music, drama, technique, and acting were combined to a degree which hadn't been seen in living memory. Her perfection lay in her combination of superlative musicality, a unique and at its best, phenomenal voice the capabilities of which were often mind-boggling, and a superlative technique that allowed her to do the almost vocally impossible with unostentatious ease. At the same time, she was supremely human and was able to express the complete humanity of a character not just through her virtues, but also through her flaws. She could sing anything and make it sound as if she had created it right there on the spot, and she sang it in a way that made the listener feel it could be sung in no other way. I think Ira Siff described it beautifully when he said that when he saw her last Toscas at the old Met, he felt like he was watching the actual story on which the opera was later based. Christa Ludwig often speaks of Callas. She says, "I met Maria Callas through a recording session. She was wonderful. They said she was a tigress, but that was nonsense. That was all media-created garbage. I once read that a true Diva must have seven successes and seven scandals every year. And she had that. The newspapers were full of stories about her. The successes were there, and the scandals were there. It must have cost her a lot of strength. I had never sung Bellini, and this whole bel canto wasn't my 'cup of tea.' I had to learn the role in eight days, as another singer had become ill. I learned the role fast, and then there was a question of what is the style of this thing. Callas told me, 'Just imitate me.' And that was the difficulty, because she is inimitable. You absolutely cannot imitate her. She had something in her voice. . . I always say, the entire tragedy of her life lay in a single note. I hear her sing a recitative, and I start to cry. What is that? I have this feeling for this woman. . . The voice itself wasn't beautiful, but it was what she created with it that was so fantastic. The way she sang a recitative, no one can do that. And if you try to imitate her, that doesn't work either."
Shahrdad Some photos show her as a tigress. Those photos don’t lie. She was v sensitive about herself (I saw this in evidence the day I met her as well as on film) & often took offence when none was meant.
@@mckavitt13 She was very much past her vocal prime here, which I believe was precipitated by the her famous weight loss. The voice is in shreds, but the singing is great, and by singing I mean conveying the meaning of every word and every single note and making you feel the plight of Tosca. Ira Siff wrote that when he saw her final Met Toscas, he felt he was seeing the actual story on which the opera was later based. What more can anyone ask of a performer?
@@Shahrdad Yes, I see your point. BTW: I heard her often on the Met's Sat Matinee & heard her shrieking, but the audience was ecstatic. I also heard her in Boston on her final tour (w/o di Stefano) & found her fabulous! Pure magic. I published my first memoir about her... I'd also met her after that recital & had a message from a mutual friend. I saw how v insecure she could be.
I saw Callas in her final tour just a year before her death at the Lyric Opera. The experience was extraordinary. Yes, her voice was smaller than in her great days. However, as she stood by the piano as it introduced each aria she literally seemed to physically become the woman whose aria it was. No costume, no makeup, no sets, no special lighting yet before the eyes she became different characters even before the voice came into play. Because of that the limitations of the voice were irrelevant and what you heard was the character. One can only imagine how that ability produced such great creations within a fully staged opera.
Marina Abramović who is a great artist herself actually explains very well what I call "The Callas Magic". She said: "It came a voice in the radio, it was Callas' voice, but at that time (when she was 14) I didnt know who was the person singing. I only know that I stopped absolutely everything I was doing. I just freezed in the space and I had goosebumps everywhere, and I knew it was something extraordinary. It was electrifying, it was like an energy bomb on my soul. I got very emotional and I remember that moment." Marina even paid tribute to Callas with a stage performace called : 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. Using 7 death scenes in Callas Voice. No other voice could be used to create such drama indeed. This is exactly what no other opera singer can do: explode an energy bomb in your soul. There you have it , the Callas Magic. No other soprano achieved what Callas did, thats why she is so important. She has been revered by various great artists from various fields: singers, actors, directors, theather and so on. Her art supassed the opera world and will live for ever. No other soprano did that, and probably never will.
Larry Mitchell Her own planet...? She was unique, which I take it is what you meant, but when she sings it's definitely on our planet. I recognize it emotionally right away.
Callas was first and formost an opera singer. She always put the voice first. She was an extraordinary technishian and she taught that singers must have the low notes (implying a well develop voice is an unavoidable condition).
She possessed a quality in her field that is equatable to other divas of film, theater, art and pop music, frequently described as "there will never be another." They, for instance Meryl Streep, Helen Hayes, Judy Garland, Aretha Franklin, excelled to such a degree that it was not just excellence, it was perfection. Add to that their respective fans and lives and it's pure magic.
Perfection is cold. Callas's perfection lay in her combination of superlative musicality, a unique and at its best, phenomenal voice, and a superlative technique that allowed her to do the almost vocally impossible with unostentatious ease. At the same time, she was supremely human and was able to express the complete humanity of a character not just through her virtues, but also through her flaws. She could sing anything and make it sound as if she had created it right there on the spot, and she sang it in a way that made the listener feel it could be sung in no other way. I think Ira Siff described it beautifully when he said that when he saw her last Toscas at the old Met, he felt like he was watching the actual story on which the opera was later based.
@@septemberjanuary4636 I think that Aretha was the Queen of Soul, however, her style never attracted me; nor her singing neither her musicality were refine or elegant. She was a great vocalist as an interpreter, I never particularly enjoyed her. Be elegant enough as to respect people's taste
She is so much more than he is capable of presenting. Although he usually captures the essence of the singers he analyzes [Nilsson, Price, Pavarotti e.g.] here he relies too much on gossip and not enough on the absolute mastery of the voice which was her true achievement. Yes, she brought some unearthly expressiveness to her acting but ultimately she was the greatest musician of the voice of the 20th Century. As Nilsson said, "...at her best was better than all the rest of us put together..."; remember here that "all the rest of us" includes herself, Price, Tebaldi, Arroyo, Scotto, Sutherland, and many others. Perhaps the best comparisons would be to Paganini's mastery of the violin, Yo-Yo Ma's mastery of the cello and, perhaps, Uchida's mastery of the piano and Myra Hess' mastery of the harpsichord. Everything else is secondary [although certainly part of her uniqueness] to this absolute mastery of vocal technique. Bonynge once said in an interview that "if you master the bel canto technique you can sing anything" and Callas certainly demonstrated that across her entire career.
@@mckavitt13 no, not rarely...but because now she's a "persona" ,and we know everything about her all life and how it finished,we almost forget the gigantic singer she was and how she has transformed the opera world.NO ONE until today in that field, is as famous and legendary as her,even more than 40 years after her death.it's not for nothing.it's because she's more than an extraordinary singer.SHE'S AN ARTIST of the higher level!!
Please, can you mention the interview, magazine, audio or the exact source where stated Nilsson said that? Because I really don't believe she could diminish herself in order to exalt someone else.
Rimarrà a tutti gli effetti un fenomeno canoro e interpretativo unico e ineguagliabile. Alle straordinarie capacità vocali era in grado di unire quelle di eccezionale architetto dell'intera struttura recitativa: una frase specifica, una parola o un semplice nota erano la chiave di volta per trasferire a chi ascoltava (e sapeva ascoltare) tutto il realismo possibile. Penso ai toni cavernosi, opachi, metallici del "Suicidio!" nella Gioconda del 1952, dove la disperazione della protagonista sembra giungere dalle profondità del Tartaro, da quegli inferi che Callas sa che attendono Gioconda. O da questa stessa Tosca, dove la O di "Signor" si prolunga fino al singhiozzo e, infine, nell'abbandono straziante di quel cupo "Così" che si trascina fino alla più struggente commozione. Questa per me è e rimane Maria Callas, il transfer che ti trasporta nello spazio tempo della vicenda, consegnandoti atmosfera e verità del momento.
Pappano's documentary don't give us an ocean of information, he uses some examples from selected singers to discuss what defines a great soprano. He used Callas' skills as actress to show us the importance of it ;)
@@JoanSutherlandFan Her supposed abilities as an actress were far, _far_ from being the selling point of Callas' artistry. Out of all her peers, she was arguably the one with most complete technical arsenal, with a voice that spanned three octaves of full-bodied sounds and a gift for music that was, quite simply, infallible. To make a documentary about Callas and try to pass her off as as some hyperactive actress who could barely sing is not only highly inaccurate, it's beyond insulting.
Nicola Rescigno said something about that. He said that when she was terrible at "marking" (singing low and softly in rehearsal to preserve the voice), and she would make this funny noises when she marked in rehearsal, but you could understand every word. Grace Bumbry said you could take dictation from her singing, including the punctuation marks, and yet, it sounded so spontaneous, as if the thoughts just had occurred to her.
Such a shame that all the video footage is from 58-65 not from when she was at her finest - 49-55. So these 'introductions' never capture the magnificence of the Callas voice, in its greatest roles and how it changed an art form. Go listen to the early live recordings from Mexico City, Buenos Aires and La Scala.
I actually adore her now...…………… I wasn't born until 1986 and did not think her voice was very beautiful...…….. but she worked miracles on the stage from what one reads and sees...……….
I have a feeling that Callas would professionally utterly despise Pappano. I've heard him say things that pretty much go against what Maria Callas stood for vocally and artistically.
Maestro Pappano.. THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT CALLAS?... Rather the old gossip over and over again, how "difficult" she was, how "sad and dramatic" her life was....?.... Maestro, please.
Remember he was only born at the end on 1959. One cannot expect him to say anything original about her. Your must, however, admit that he has some insights into the voice and doesn't harp on the weaknesses.
No unique insight to the voice whatsoever. Anyone who uses Tosca as a prime example of her art has no real conception of the magnitude of her musicianship. Tosca was not an important role for Callas. This here is all regurgitated information which can easily be found elsewhere. What hasn't been talked about enough in my opinion is the nuances of her phrasing in such pieces like La Sonnambula or Il Pirata, and how despite the declining amplitude of her voice in the late 50s she was still able to deepen and refine her interpretations each year until about '59. After that her interpretations lacked the same seriousness and depth imo. This has been talked about in books of course, but is not at the forefront of the Callas discussion unfortunately.
It's true that isn't very flattering how he describes her. But without being negative, Mtro Pappano surrounded himself with singers that are very mainstream, maybe that refrains him to fully appreciate it Callas' art
Pappano, now you really have done it! More than the composers imagined? Well I don td think they would imagine a ckod like you talking about their music!
mi piace pappano....mah....perchè parla di maria callas!??! ha lavorato con lei!?!? no! e allora!??! I like pappano .... mah .... because it speaks of maria callas! ??! He worked with her!?!? no! so!??!
This wasn't as bad as expected .I fully expected tabloid level but whoever has written the script Pappano is reading isn't into the business of peddling pure garbage . This doesn't mean it's good ,it just means it isn't bad .Pity they didn't consider showing any other footage than Tosca ,there isn't much footage around ,to be sure ,but nevertheless there is a bit from roles more important to the singer's career than Tosca .And pity they didn't consider including other audio excerpts too
By today's standards, Maria's acting could often be over the top and in her later career her higher register could quickly run out of control but that middle register is without parallel and of course the sheer integrity and intensity of her performances is legendary - flawed, yes, but still IMO supreme!
*_@Nick & Others ::_* _The fanatical devotion to Callas is so far up the a.. -- stratosphere, that even when she is being glorified, it isn't enough OR what is, isn't quite right._ _Maybe Pappano only had so much time AND had to focus on "Tosca"._ _Her career was so extensive it would be hard to fit it into such a microscopic version._ _Give Pappano a break ! AND if Callas is going to continue to sing w / her voice in "shreads" AND letting the performance be filmed, then criticism is legit ; anyway, when was her voice not in some form of shread after the early 50's ?_
Mr. Pappano...…….. I consider myself Very, VERY Knowledgeable on opera of many, many nations and through the annals of time so I think I can say this without sounding "ridiculous" to myself. Why is so much casting at COVENT GARDEN so incredibly MEDIOCRE to BAD...…. e;g. the recent 2019 OTELLO. Why would you program it with such lousy singers- well not lousy- just singers not appropriate for OTELLO? Why not wait to get a PERFECT OTELLO without witch one does not really have an opera. You should be ashamed of yourself, especially with the prices you charge for MEDIOCRITY. ENO does so much finer work. It's wonderful the company is finally being truly heralded.
whatever, Julie Andrews had a prettier instrument if u listen to her singing the Polonaise from Mignon, too bad Hollywood took her away from Opera...ok im joking that Andrews is better, but still not sure what im saying, but Julie isnt a bad coloratura in her own legion.
Shams Julie Andrews as in Mary Poppins Julie Andrews? She was not even an opera singer. Let's just start there. To call her a coloratura would be plain ridiculous considering she doesn't have the discipline of one. Also her voice is too sweet and girly to have the depth to play dramatic characters, which was Maria's forte. Maria, despite having a very dark and ugly voice, had the musicianship to sing some lyric roles. Her repertoire is much more varied than most sopranos of her time.
bahaha, wait there are other classically trained Julie Andrews which other Julie would it be? And how LITTLE you know. Do you know she was the student of the Lillian Styles Allen? Have you heard her sing the Polanaise from Mignon with the F above high C? Or the Blue Danube? Songs from Rigeletto? Shadow Song? Tom Jones Waltz? Love is Where you Find it with a high D at the end? Handel's Where er you walk? or Cherry Ripe by Vaugn Williams? I suggest you do your homework before you make egregious comments. btw you do not have to search too far, some of these pieces are available on line. Search Love is Where you Find it, to get you started on your discovery. FYI I never said Julie was a better coloratura, Hollywood was more lucrative for her to not continue on a classical trajectory and good for her. Moreover, who said operatic rep was only to "play dramatic characters?" Have you not heard of sweet voiced coloraturas? Patti? Deana Durbin? Do all "operatic voices" HAVE to sing steam roller arias in order to be considered opera singers? Julie was CLEARLY classically trained even if you have only heard her sing oranmental high B-flat in Poppins and the Sound of Music or Victor Victoria. Again, i'd kindly suggest for you to do some homework before making unsubstantiated,claims based off on ONE film you obviously barely recall.
AfroPoli Totally agree! I find his arrogance unbearable and the reason that he surrounds himself by boring and crappy singers is because this is the only way he could “shine” (or at least he thinks he does).
'' The interpreting artist creates, in a sense the work anew. With his gradual penetration of the artwork he creates new Values which are of the highest importance for Art ,because without them, the creation of the great masters are only writing, and thus remain sealed to enjoyment '' Max Spicker .
Of course it is. The Bel Canto composers knew the full potential of their works and had artists like Pasta, Malibran, Colbran, etc. interpret their roles in order to do full justice to the works. It was simply that by the time Callas came on to the scene that this understanding had been lost and she had the potential to restore it.
First he says "perhaps" so he understands that he is putting forth a very controversial idea. On the other hand, we have seen in music, in theater, in movies many times when a great artist seems to make an additional creative piece when performing a given role or song or opera. For example, I saw Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, Eve Arden, Dora Bryan in the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi as well as Barbra Streisand in the movie. Although something admirable can be said about all the others, no one brought anything as unique and creative as Channing to the role. A performing artist does often bring an addition to a role that a composer may only have seen through the notes on the page with the hope that those notes would become real through the singer performing them. The creative aspect of the performer is why sequels and remakes so often fail in moveis and why revivals often fail in the theater. Even when we look just at individual popular and jazz singing there is no doubt that the composers of those songs may not have had a complete grasp of what say Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald or Janis Joplin would bring to their songs. To discount the creativity of the performing artist shows snobbery of the worst kind.
Scratch your heads a little, can't you figure out how this type of shit docs are made and for whom? And It's a borrowed statement, borrowed words, not his. Look for their origin to study the content. It's not false
Pappano faccia il direttore, è quello che gli riesce meglio... relativamente al suo.meglio... non parliamo del giudizio di Karajan, Kleiber, Furtwangler, Mitropoulos" Muti etc... la Callas è troppo per la sua valutazione... parli pure di cantanti e musicisti non di miracoli artistici come Maria.
It's not that I expected much, but this stuff is as appalling as it gets, and it serves no educational purpose whatsoever. Quite the opposite, actually. It's just the same old mixture of reductive and inaccurate clichés.
Yes a great actress but as a singer of the music of Puccini no . Her voice Is uncomfortably unstable in every loud high passage . Listen to Tebaldi ..that's how it SHOULD sound.
I guess i'm the only one who, from when i was a kid I really can't stand Callas. I mean really, I haven't heard a second...ever...where she doesn't sound like she's working too hard. .Fake sounding.
Maria was fantastic. We have never had someone like Maria again. Extraordinary woman with such class and talent.
Beautiful, unforgettable Maria Callas, there is none like her!
Rest in peace, dear Lady.
The greatest soprano she was a highly skilled, intelligent actress. She modernized opera. There will never be another.
I use to call it "The Callas Magic". There is something with Callas voice, which we fans cannot understand or explain. But it captures you and thats the end. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can ever match it. I can say 100% that after Callas I cannot enjoy any other soprano in the same role, they all sound "sterile" and dry and emotionless when compared. I am proof of that. When I learned about opera I was not very excited about it.. I used to watch videos and laugh at the singers and it was a bit cringe. But after I learned about Callas everything changed and I finally was able to understand what opera realy means. Its not about high notes or low notes or this or that. Notes are just air, but Callas made it an ART and so it fills me with various emotions, it touches. Its really a kind of magic this woman possesed, she makes you feel an ocean of emotions. Many soprani had pretty voices or pretty notes, but in the end its just air.. and air.. that most of the time doesnt make you feel emotions. With Callas its different, you can feel everything. Her voice sometimes leave you shocked, but not only because of the weight and volume and power, but because after all that volume and power finishes, it leaves a lot of feelings inside of you.. you need a moment to recover from that. Thats why she is the greatest soprano we have seen. Its a pity her prime was in a time where television and cameras were not evolved. If she can make us feel this way just with her voice, imagine watching her.
Very good comment I think!
Your comment is simply stunning and absolutely spot on. There were big and small voices, light and dark, low and high ... but there was only one tragic voice in the opera world - that of Maria Callas. Thank you for your great essay!
I am Captivated beyond words. ⚘💯❤
Have you seen any of the videos of her television performances? If not, you can find them here on UA-cam.
Fantastic voice: sung, spoken....any way shape or form. She is the original DIVA.
As Garbo was to film. Callas was to opera. Unique
Callas was the perfect operatic performer, in whom music, drama, technique, and acting were combined to a degree which hadn't been seen in living memory. Her perfection lay in her combination of superlative musicality, a unique and at its best, phenomenal voice the capabilities of which were often mind-boggling, and a superlative technique that allowed her to do the almost vocally impossible with unostentatious ease. At the same time, she was supremely human and was able to express the complete humanity of a character not just through her virtues, but also through her flaws. She could sing anything and make it sound as if she had created it right there on the spot, and she sang it in a way that made the listener feel it could be sung in no other way. I think Ira Siff described it beautifully when he said that when he saw her last Toscas at the old Met, he felt like he was watching the actual story on which the opera was later based.
Christa Ludwig often speaks of Callas. She says, "I met Maria Callas through a recording session. She was wonderful. They said she was a tigress, but that was nonsense. That was all media-created garbage. I once read that a true Diva must have seven successes and seven scandals every year. And she had that. The newspapers were full of stories about her. The successes were there, and the scandals were there. It must have cost her a lot of strength. I had never sung Bellini, and this whole bel canto wasn't my 'cup of tea.' I had to learn the role in eight days, as another singer had become ill. I learned the role fast, and then there was a question of what is the style of this thing. Callas told me, 'Just imitate me.' And that was the difficulty, because she is inimitable. You absolutely cannot imitate her. She had something in her voice. . . I always say, the entire tragedy of her life lay in a single note. I hear her sing a recitative, and I start to cry. What is that? I have this feeling for this woman. . . The voice itself wasn't beautiful, but it was what she created with it that was so fantastic. The way she sang a recitative, no one can do that. And if you try to imitate her, that doesn't work either."
Shahrdad Some photos show her as a tigress. Those photos don’t lie. She was v sensitive about herself (I saw this in evidence the day I met her as well as on film) & often took offence when none was meant.
Shahrdad What terrible singing in her Vissi d’arte. Terrible. But her acting is good. And the scene w Scarpia is deservedly legendary.
@@mckavitt13 I think that comes from being the fat ugly ducking with the beautiful sister. It has to leave bad scars on a girl's soul.
@@mckavitt13 She was very much past her vocal prime here, which I believe was precipitated by the her famous weight loss. The voice is in shreds, but the singing is great, and by singing I mean conveying the meaning of every word and every single note and making you feel the plight of Tosca. Ira Siff wrote that when he saw her final Met Toscas, he felt he was seeing the actual story on which the opera was later based. What more can anyone ask of a performer?
@@Shahrdad Yes, I see your point. BTW: I heard her often on the Met's Sat Matinee & heard her shrieking, but the audience was ecstatic. I also heard her in Boston on her final tour (w/o di Stefano) & found her fabulous! Pure magic. I published my first memoir about her... I'd also met her after that recital & had a message from a mutual friend. I saw how v insecure she could be.
Best soprano of all time without a doubt!
I saw Callas in her final tour just a year before her death at the Lyric Opera. The experience was extraordinary. Yes, her voice was smaller than in her great days. However, as she stood by the piano as it introduced each aria she literally seemed to physically become the woman whose aria it was. No costume, no makeup, no sets, no special lighting yet before the eyes she became different characters even before the voice came into play. Because of that the limitations of the voice were irrelevant and what you heard was the character. One can only imagine how that ability produced such great creations within a fully staged opera.
Her legacy will last forever!
Her voice makes the time stop for me. Trully magical.
You mean "truly"?
Marina Abramović who is a great artist herself actually explains very well what I call "The Callas Magic". She said: "It came a voice in the radio, it was Callas' voice, but at that time (when she was 14) I didnt know who was the person singing. I only know that I stopped absolutely everything I was doing. I just freezed in the space and I had goosebumps everywhere, and I knew it was something extraordinary. It was electrifying, it was like an energy bomb on my soul. I got very emotional and I remember that moment."
Marina even paid tribute to Callas with a stage performace called : 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. Using 7 death scenes in Callas Voice. No other voice could be used to create such drama indeed.
This is exactly what no other opera singer can do: explode an energy bomb in your soul.
There you have it , the Callas Magic.
No other soprano achieved what Callas did, thats why she is so important. She has been revered by various great artists from various fields: singers, actors, directors, theather and so on. Her art supassed the opera world and will live for ever. No other soprano did that, and probably never will.
Divina di che?
RIP La Divina. Nobody has come near you and it is now 2020.
Pappano...you are not fit to clean her shoes!
It was Callas...........................and then everyone else. She was one of a kind and lived on her own planet.
Larry Mitchell Her own planet...? She was unique, which I take it is what you meant, but when she sings it's definitely on our planet. I recognize it emotionally right away.
@MIMI82 Alas. So true.
That's intense. I mean, I'm not an opera fan but that aria make me drop lot of tears.
Callas was an actress who sang opera. She was vocal perfection and an actor's actor
Callas was first and formost an opera singer. She always put the voice first. She was an extraordinary technishian and she taught that singers must have the low notes (implying a well develop voice is an unavoidable condition).
She possessed a quality in her field that is equatable to other divas of film, theater, art and pop music, frequently described as "there will never be another." They, for instance Meryl Streep, Helen Hayes, Judy Garland, Aretha Franklin, excelled to such a degree that it was not just excellence, it was perfection. Add to that their respective fans and lives and it's pure magic.
Perfection is cold. Callas's perfection lay in her combination of superlative musicality, a unique and at its best, phenomenal voice, and a superlative technique that allowed her to do the almost vocally impossible with unostentatious ease. At the same time, she was supremely human and was able to express the complete humanity of a character not just through her virtues, but also through her flaws. She could sing anything and make it sound as if she had created it right there on the spot, and she sang it in a way that made the listener feel it could be sung in no other way. I think Ira Siff described it beautifully when he said that when he saw her last Toscas at the old Met, he felt like he was watching the actual story on which the opera was later based.
Aretha was terrible: always this moaning an screaming, could not listen to that.
@@gillan5 ..Aretha is the Queen of Soul...some like you lack the soul necessary to appreciate soul music.
There is no such thing as perfection in the Arts.
@@septemberjanuary4636 I think that Aretha was the Queen of Soul, however, her style never attracted me; nor her singing neither her musicality were refine or elegant. She was a great vocalist as an interpreter, I never particularly enjoyed her. Be elegant enough as to respect people's taste
How on earth can someone talk about Callas when they understand so little about music and even less about the voice!
The music director of Covent Garden knows nothing about music or voice?
❤ ευχαριστω για αυτο το video, λατρεύω την μοναδική ΚΑΛΛΑΣ
CALLAS FOREVER ! I LOVE YOU !❤
She is so much more than he is capable of presenting. Although he usually captures the essence of the singers he analyzes [Nilsson, Price, Pavarotti e.g.] here he relies too much on gossip and not enough on the absolute mastery of the voice which was her true achievement. Yes, she brought some unearthly expressiveness to her acting but ultimately she was the greatest musician of the voice of the 20th Century. As Nilsson said, "...at her best was better than all the rest of us put together..."; remember here that "all the rest of us" includes herself, Price, Tebaldi, Arroyo, Scotto, Sutherland, and many others. Perhaps the best comparisons would be to Paganini's mastery of the violin, Yo-Yo Ma's mastery of the cello and, perhaps, Uchida's mastery of the piano and Myra Hess' mastery of the harpsichord. Everything else is secondary [although certainly part of her uniqueness] to this absolute mastery of vocal technique. Bonynge once said in an interview that "if you master the bel canto technique you can sing anything" and Callas certainly demonstrated that across her entire career.
Wilson Watt She rarely manifested any complete mastery of her voice.
@@mckavitt13 no, not rarely...but because now she's a "persona" ,and we know everything about her all life and how it finished,we almost forget the gigantic singer she was and how she has transformed the opera world.NO ONE until today in that field, is as famous and legendary as her,even more than 40 years after her death.it's not for nothing.it's because she's more than an extraordinary singer.SHE'S AN ARTIST of the higher level!!
Please, can you mention the interview, magazine, audio or the exact source where stated Nilsson said that? Because I really don't believe she could diminish herself in order to exalt someone else.
Simply fabulous the greatest ever
Rimarrà a tutti gli effetti un fenomeno canoro e interpretativo unico e ineguagliabile. Alle straordinarie capacità vocali era in grado di unire quelle di eccezionale architetto dell'intera struttura recitativa: una frase specifica, una parola o un semplice nota erano la chiave di volta per trasferire a chi ascoltava (e sapeva ascoltare) tutto il realismo possibile. Penso ai toni cavernosi, opachi, metallici del "Suicidio!" nella Gioconda del 1952, dove la disperazione della protagonista sembra giungere dalle profondità del Tartaro, da quegli inferi che Callas sa che attendono Gioconda. O da questa stessa Tosca, dove la O di "Signor" si prolunga fino al singhiozzo e, infine, nell'abbandono straziante di quel cupo "Così" che si trascina fino alla più struggente commozione. Questa per me è e rimane Maria Callas, il transfer che ti trasporta nello spazio tempo della vicenda, consegnandoti atmosfera e verità del momento.
*goddess*
How can anyone describe, with illustration, an entity like Callas in less than 8 mins? This is a highly commendable attempt.
Beautiful
There is no other....
Maria loved Montserrat, her voice her beautiful nature ,they were great friends, and msrua said no one else was capable only Montse ❤
Unique! Her perfectionism was greatly misunderstood and misjudged
There is another "Vissi D'arte" here on YT by Callas from 1958 which fans may want to see.
I'm still waiting for him to say something about her DICTION, which is the key to her greatness.
Pappano's documentary don't give us an ocean of information, he uses some examples from selected singers to discuss what defines a great soprano. He used Callas' skills as actress to show us the importance of it ;)
the key? she got all the keys
Vini Soaris His documentary doesn’t try to say all, but he is so right that her true greatness lay in her singer acting, imo.
@@JoanSutherlandFan Her supposed abilities as an actress were far, _far_ from being the selling point of Callas' artistry. Out of all her peers, she was arguably the one with most complete technical arsenal, with a voice that spanned three octaves of full-bodied sounds and a gift for music that was, quite simply, infallible.
To make a documentary about Callas and try to pass her off as as some hyperactive actress who could barely sing is not only highly inaccurate, it's beyond insulting.
Nicola Rescigno said something about that. He said that when she was terrible at "marking" (singing low and softly in rehearsal to preserve the voice), and she would make this funny noises when she marked in rehearsal, but you could understand every word. Grace Bumbry said you could take dictation from her singing, including the punctuation marks, and yet, it sounded so spontaneous, as if the thoughts just had occurred to her.
A lot of scene for such little informations.
Well, I didn’t expect more from pappano
sono stupito dal fatto che Maestro Pappano non dice niente della nuova Callas ...
Such a shame that all the video footage is from 58-65 not from when she was at her finest - 49-55. So these 'introductions' never capture the magnificence of the Callas voice, in its greatest roles and how it changed an art form. Go listen to the early live recordings from Mexico City, Buenos Aires and La Scala.
Pappano, you're so astonishingly ridiculous...
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I actually adore her now...…………… I wasn't born until 1986 and did not think her voice was very beautiful...…….. but she worked miracles on the stage from what one reads and sees...……….
💝 The little that I know about her life ONSTAGE and OFF, lead me to the perhaps "clichéd" conclusion that: MARIA CALLAS (WAS) OPERA❗🥀
La Callas!❤
I have a feeling that Callas would professionally utterly despise Pappano. I've heard him say things that pretty much go against what Maria Callas stood for vocally and artistically.
Agree!
Mr pappano should comment only some gastronomic news or how to sell more ice cream during break in ROH
jacob anckrastrom Antonio Pappano is an accomplished musician himself. His is an authoritative opinion.
Maestro Pappano.. THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT CALLAS?... Rather the old gossip over and over again, how "difficult" she was, how "sad and dramatic" her life was....?.... Maestro, please.
Remember he was only born at the end on 1959. One cannot expect him to say anything original about her. Your must, however, admit that he has some insights into the voice and doesn't harp on the weaknesses.
No unique insight to the voice whatsoever. Anyone who uses Tosca as a prime example of her art has no real conception of the magnitude of her musicianship. Tosca was not an important role for Callas. This here is all regurgitated information which can easily be found elsewhere. What hasn't been talked about enough in my opinion is the nuances of her phrasing in such pieces like La Sonnambula or Il Pirata, and how despite the declining amplitude of her voice in the late 50s she was still able to deepen and refine her interpretations each year until about '59. After that her interpretations lacked the same seriousness and depth imo. This has been talked about in books of course, but is not at the forefront of the Callas discussion unfortunately.
It's true that isn't very flattering how he describes her. But without being negative, Mtro Pappano surrounded himself with singers that are very mainstream, maybe that refrains him to fully appreciate it Callas' art
Lorenzo very well said.
But it's all part of her allure and success.
✨
Pappano, now you really have done it!
More than the composers imagined?
Well I don td think they would imagine a ckod like you talking about their music!
Nilsson could afford (in every sense of the term) to be generous.
!mrdunn brucvald, I think you're being a bit harsh on Papano. He does qualify his "contention" with a "perhaps".
CALLAS ETERNA
la piu brava
No one like her yet
6:39 Who is he explaining this too? A 5 year old?
This is for the masses. Most are not trained musicians
Superficial analysis. This is a musician talking?
the documentary is intended for the masses in a language that is appealing
A fake musician.
mi piace pappano....mah....perchè parla di maria callas!??! ha lavorato con lei!?!? no! e allora!??!
I like pappano .... mah .... because it speaks of maria callas! ??! He worked with her!?!? no! so!??!
*Try to comprehend that this documentary was supercial in various aspects, here he emphasis only her acting skill, nothing more...*
Yes I understand....but
I speak so because I remain convinced that you can open your mouth only when something has been found or done
A documentary of Maria Callas????????? Incredible!!!!!!!!!
X
A world-renowned conductor - and talks such nonsense about voices! Unbelievable!
Antonios voice is so beautiful, i could have him talk in my ear all day everyday
where else would he talk?
This wasn't as bad as expected .I fully expected tabloid level but whoever has written the script Pappano is reading isn't into the business of peddling pure garbage . This doesn't mean it's good ,it just means it isn't bad .Pity they didn't consider showing any other footage than Tosca ,there isn't much footage around ,to be sure ,but nevertheless there is a bit from roles more important to the singer's career than Tosca .And pity they didn't consider including other audio excerpts too
Her singing is not my cup of tea, but her acting shined above many opera singers. It still does. Her best example is that of Tosca.
By today's standards, Maria's acting could often be over the top and in her later career her higher register could quickly run out of control but that middle register is without parallel and of course the sheer integrity and intensity of her performances is legendary - flawed, yes, but still IMO supreme!
it's called GRAND opera, for heaven sake... she had a great soul.
So funny Pappano talking about Callas and Nilsson when he is one of those conductors that destroy voices telling them to sing like a whisper hahahaha
He is a .......
*_@Nick & Others ::_*
_The fanatical devotion to Callas is so far up the a.. -- stratosphere, that even when she is being glorified, it isn't enough OR what is, isn't quite right._
_Maybe Pappano only had so much time AND had to focus on "Tosca"._
_Her career was so extensive it would be hard to fit it into such a microscopic version._
_Give Pappano a break ! AND if Callas is going to continue to sing w / her voice in "shreads" AND letting the performance be filmed, then criticism is legit ; anyway, when was her voice not in some form of shread after the early 50's ?_
Let that man rest. He does not know anything about how it should sound. Destroying opera. PTTTT
Mr. Pappano...…….. I consider myself Very, VERY Knowledgeable on opera of many, many nations and through the annals of time so I think I can say this without sounding "ridiculous" to myself. Why is so much casting at COVENT GARDEN so incredibly MEDIOCRE to BAD...…. e;g. the recent 2019 OTELLO. Why would you program it with such lousy singers- well not lousy- just singers not appropriate for OTELLO? Why not wait to get a PERFECT OTELLO without witch one does not really have an opera. You should be ashamed of yourself, especially with the prices you charge for MEDIOCRITY. ENO does so much finer work. It's wonderful the company is finally being truly heralded.
whatever, Julie Andrews had a prettier instrument if u listen to her singing the Polonaise from Mignon, too bad Hollywood took her away from Opera...ok im joking that Andrews is better, but still not sure what im saying, but Julie isnt a bad coloratura in her own legion.
Shams Julie Andrews as in Mary Poppins Julie Andrews? She was not even an opera singer. Let's just start there. To call her a coloratura would be plain ridiculous considering she doesn't have the discipline of one. Also her voice is too sweet and girly to have the depth to play dramatic characters, which was Maria's forte. Maria, despite having a very dark and ugly voice, had the musicianship to sing some lyric roles. Her repertoire is much more varied than most sopranos of her time.
bahaha, wait there are other classically trained Julie Andrews which other Julie would it be? And how LITTLE you know. Do you know she was the student of the Lillian Styles Allen? Have you heard her sing the Polanaise from Mignon with the F above high C? Or the Blue Danube? Songs from Rigeletto? Shadow Song? Tom Jones Waltz? Love is Where you Find it with a high D at the end? Handel's Where er you walk? or Cherry Ripe by Vaugn Williams? I suggest you do your homework before you make egregious comments. btw you do not have to search too far, some of these pieces are available on line. Search Love is Where you Find it, to get you started on your discovery. FYI I never said Julie was a better coloratura, Hollywood was more lucrative for her to not continue on a classical trajectory and good for her. Moreover, who said operatic rep was only to "play dramatic characters?" Have you not heard of sweet voiced coloraturas? Patti? Deana Durbin? Do all "operatic voices" HAVE to sing steam roller arias in order to be considered opera singers? Julie was CLEARLY classically trained even if you have only heard her sing oranmental high B-flat in Poppins and the Sound of Music or Victor Victoria. Again, i'd kindly suggest for you to do some homework before making unsubstantiated,claims based off on ONE film you obviously barely recall.
Shams Julie was classically trained?
No... a lovely musical comedy presence... a middling voice at best.
Wow. This is a fake video lol. The intro of the "interviewer" asking her about interviews (lol) is totally fake lol.
He makes so many crappy recordings and hires so many crappy singers... he should just keep his mouth shut.
You make so many crappy comments... you should just keep your mouth shut.
Dici le parole della verità.
AfroPoli What an unnecessary, unkind & inaccurate comment.
@@acardi48 he is 100% right.
AfroPoli Totally agree! I find his arrogance unbearable and the reason that he surrounds himself by boring and crappy singers is because this is the only way he could “shine” (or at least he thinks he does).
Pappano's contention that she imagined more than the composers....nonsense.
'' The interpreting artist creates, in a sense the work anew. With his gradual penetration of the artwork he creates new Values which are of the highest importance for Art ,because without them, the creation of the great masters are only writing, and thus remain sealed to enjoyment '' Max Spicker .
Of course it is. The Bel Canto composers knew the full potential of their works and had artists like Pasta, Malibran, Colbran, etc. interpret their roles in order to do full justice to the works. It was simply that by the time Callas came on to the scene that this understanding had been lost and she had the potential to restore it.
Its open secret mr. Pappano thinks more than anybody else can imagine
First he says "perhaps" so he understands that he is putting forth a very controversial idea. On the other hand, we have seen in music, in theater, in movies many times when a great artist seems to make an additional creative piece when performing a given role or song or opera. For example, I saw Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, Eve Arden, Dora Bryan in the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi as well as Barbra Streisand in the movie. Although something admirable can be said about all the others, no one brought anything as unique and creative as Channing to the role. A performing artist does often bring an addition to a role that a composer may only have seen through the notes on the page with the hope that those notes would become real through the singer performing them. The creative aspect of the performer is why sequels and remakes so often fail in moveis and why revivals often fail in the theater. Even when we look just at individual popular and jazz singing there is no doubt that the composers of those songs may not have had a complete grasp of what say Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald or Janis Joplin would bring to their songs. To discount the creativity of the performing artist shows snobbery of the worst kind.
Scratch your heads a little, can't you figure out how this type of shit docs are made and for whom? And It's a borrowed statement, borrowed words, not his. Look for their origin to study the content. It's not false
Pappano is dull. He's just riding the Callas train.
papano shut up !!!!!
Pappano faccia il direttore, è quello che gli riesce meglio... relativamente al suo.meglio... non parliamo del giudizio di Karajan, Kleiber, Furtwangler, Mitropoulos" Muti etc... la Callas è troppo per la sua valutazione... parli pure di cantanti e musicisti non di miracoli artistici come Maria.
It's not that I expected much, but this stuff is as appalling as it gets, and it serves no educational purpose whatsoever. Quite the opposite, actually. It's just the same old mixture of reductive and inaccurate clichés.
He who changes what the composer wrote. Not a fan of his.
People need to stop obsessing over her.
people will always be obsessed with Gods
Why, exactly?
Sorry, but I have never understood the cult of Callas. I find the whole thing very peculiar.
Yes a great actress but as a singer of the music of Puccini no . Her voice
Is uncomfortably unstable in every loud high passage . Listen to Tebaldi ..that's how it SHOULD sound.
Or Mirelaa Freni.
I guess i'm the only one who, from when i was a kid I really can't stand Callas. I mean really, I haven't heard a second...ever...where she doesn't sound like she's working too hard. .Fake sounding.
I agree. She is great insome roles. Not so much in others. Nilsson's Tosca is unsurpassed musically and dramatically " enough."