The tracks on this album were recorded over a period of no less than 16 years. The earliest, the two versions of Donna Anna’s ‘Non mi dir’, date from 1953, and were intended to test microphone placings before Callas made her first commercial recording for EMI: Lucia di Lammermoor. The latest, the Verdi arias recorded with Nicola Rescigno in 1964–1965 and 1969, were never approved for release by the soprano. When Callas Rarities was first released in 1993, Gramophone wrote: ‘Each item, each phrase almost, has something to be said about it: the whole collection makes essential listening.’
The Callas Rarities 1953-61 |
THE 1953 TEST |
1-2 MOZART Non mi dir (Don Giovanni) |
THE MONO VERSION OF THE SLEEPWALKING SCENE FROM MACBETH |
3 VERDI Una macchia è qui tuttora (Macbeth) |
4-9 THE 1960 and 1961 TONINI SESSIONS |
Scenes & Arias from ROSSINI Semiramide – Guglielmo Tell, VERDI I vespri siciliani |
DONIZETTI Lucrezia Borgia BELLINI Il pirata |
The Callas Rarities 1962-9 |
10-12 THE 1962 TONINI SESSIONS |
Arias from VERDI Don Carlo ROSSINI La Cenerentola WEBER Oberon |
THE 1964 Prêtre Sessions |
13 VERDI Pur ti riveggo, mia dolce Aida (Aida) |
14-15 THE 1964/5 RESCIGNO SESSIONS |
Arias from VERDI I lombardi alla prima crociata, Il trovatore |
16-19 THE 1969 RESCIGNO SESSIONS |
Arias from VERDI I vespri siciliani, Attila, Il corsaro, I lombardi |
Maria Callas soprano |
Monica Sinclair contralto |
Franco Corelli and Alexander Young as tenor |
Georges Prêtre, Nicola Rescigno, Tullio Serafin, Antonio Tonini conductors |