Maria Callas at Covent Garden – London 1962 & 1964

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Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Carlo Felice Cillario

Callas first appeared at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1952, as Norma. It became the scene for her last-ever operatic appearance: in June 1965, in a Zeffirelli production of Tosca that had been mounted for her the previous year. This Blu-ray disc includes Act 2 of that production, recorded in February 1964. Callas is joined by that Scarpia of Scarpias, Tito Gobbi, and, as Cavaradossi, the dynamic tenor Renato Cioni. The conductor is Carlo Felice Cillario. This disc also contains extracts from a gala concert given two years earlier at Covent Garden. Callas performs Elisabetta’s magnificent Act 5 aria from Don Carlo (recalling a role she sang at La Scala in 1955) and the Habanera and Séguedille from Carmen, evoking one of the great might-have-beens of operatic history, since she never sang the entire role of Carmen on stage.