TEATRO ALLA SCALA, MILANO 17 JUN 1954
STUDIO REMASTERED 2014
CD 0825646340910 – DIGITAL
Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
ORCHESTRA E CORO DEL TEATRO ALLA SCALA DI MILANO
TULLIO SERAFIN
While Pagliacci’s regular companion piece, Cavalleria rusticana, figured prominently in Callas’s early career, Leoncavallo’s one-acter had no place in her stage repertoire. But as Gramophone wrote of this recording: ‘When Callas [as Nedda] and Gobbi [as Tonio] are on the stage the drama is strikingly unfolded … There has been [no Nedda] more urgently or pressingly feminine than Callas … the only one to create real tension at the idea of Canio reading her thoughts; the only one to give meaning … to her mood as the birds fly overhead; and … the only one to greet her lover with delight.’
NEDDA: MARIA CALLAS
CANIO: GIUSEPPE DI STEFANO
TONIO: TITO GOBBI
BEPPE: NICOLA MONTI
SILVIO: ROLANDO PANERAI