GREAT RECORDINGS phase 11

BELLINI: NORMA
Maria Callas, Mario Filippeschi
Ebe Stignani, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni
Paolo Caroli & Rina Cavallari
Coro e Orchestra del Teatro
alla Scala di Milano
Tullio Serafin

5 62638 2 (2CDs)

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'The recording captures Callas's commanding and moving assumption of the title role, the vocal line etched with deep feeling, the treatment of the recitative enlivening the text. Stignani is a worthy partner and Serafin knew better than anyone since how to mould a Bellinian line to best effect.' (Gramophone)

Rarely does a great singer and dramatic artist become so identified with an operatic role as Maria Callas (1923-1977) and the eponymous Norma in Bellini's opera. Of her 47 stage roles, Norma was the one she performed the most, and she recorded it in the studio twice.

Both recordings were conducted by her mentor, the inspirational Tullio Serafin, a master of Italian opera and of Bellini in particular, and made in Milan. The first, reissued here, was recorded in 1954 and is felt by many to present Callas's interpretation of the notoriously demanding role of the druid priestess at its finest.

Her supporting cast, all Italian, is a distinguished one with Ebe Stignani as Norma's rival Adalgisa, a role with which she was closely identified, Mario Filippeschi as Pollione, the father of the priestess's illegitimate children, and Nicola Rossi-Lemeni as the warlike Oroveso, Norma's own father.