Callas à Paris I
Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française
Georges Prêtre
Callas never sang a role in French on stage, though she had studied French repertoire as a student and one of her most famous roles, Cherubini’s Medea, had originally been written in French as Médée. From the early 1960s she made her home in Paris, where in 1961 she recorded this recital of French-language arias for both soprano and mezzo-soprano, composed in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. ‘The recital … is a tour de force of sympathetic interpretation,’ wrote Gramophone after her death. ‘The range is astounding, so much so that hearing the record is both an inspiring and upsetting experience; not merely because of the sense of the early loss of so great an artist [as Callas], but because the plights of these great human archetypes – Orpheus, Alceste, Carmen, Dalila, Chimène and Juliet – are themselves so uplifting and disturbing as Callas presents them to us … Records like this change people’s lives.’
| Gluck |
| Orphée et Eurydice 1. J’ai perdu mon Eurydice (Act VI) |
| Alceste 2. Divinités du Styx (Act I) |
| Bizet: Carmen 3. L’Amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera) (Act I) 4. Près des remparts de Séville (Sèguedille) (Act I) |
| Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila 5. Printemps qui commence (Act I) 6. Samson, recherchant ma présence...Amour! Viens aider ma faiblesse! (Act III) 7. Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix (Act III)* |
| Gounod: Roméo et Juliette 8. Ah! Je veux vivre dans ce rêve (Act I) |
| Thomas: Mignon 9. Ah, pour ce soir...Je suis Titania (Polonaise) (Act II) |
| Massenet: Le Cid 10. De cet affreux combat...Pleurez, mes yeux! (Act III) |
| Charpentier: Louise 11. Depuis le jour (Act III) |
| Maria Callas soprano |