Maria Callas
Teatro alla Scala, Milano 09 Sep 1956
Studio Remastered 2014
2CD 0825646340873 - DIGITAL

Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

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Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano

Antonino Votto

Callas’s first stage appearances in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera came at La Scala in 1957, a year in which Milan also saw her in La sonnambula and Anna Bolena. As in this recording, made the year before, she shared Verdi’s most spectacular soprano-tenor duet (in Act II) with Giuseppe di Stefano. This was the last time Callas and Di Stefano appeared together in opera, though they reunited in the 1970s to direct I vespri siciliani in Turin and to give a series of joint concerts in Europe, the USA, Canada, South Korea and Japan. Gramophone judged this recording of Ballo to be ‘one of Callas’s most compelling assumptions’.

Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

Amelia: Maria Callas
Riccardo: Giuseppe Di Stefano
Renato: Tito Gobbi
Ulrica: Fedora Barbieri
Oscar: Eugenia Ratti
Silvano: Ezio Giordano
Samuel: Silvio Maionica
Tom: Nicola Zaccaria
Un giudice/Un servo: Renato Ercolani