GREAT RECORDINGS phase 19

PUCCINI
Turandot

Maria Callas

5 09683 2 (D&T)
5 09682 2 (Angel)

Mono
ADD
Recorded 1957
1:58:24 (2CD)

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This classic recording was made at La Scala, Milan, in 1957. As Callas authority Tony Locantro says in his comprehensive booklet notes, the role was somewhat of an old war horse for the singer, who had begun her career in the heaviest dramatic parts but by 1949 felt glad to be able to leave this most taxing of parts behind as she found dazzling success in the bel canto repertoire.

It was Columbia’s Walter Legge who led Callas to re-create the icy Chinese princess in the studio, with his wife Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in support as Liù. Oddly, the Manon Lescaut recorded the same year at La Scala caused Callas some vocal problems and its release was postponed; but the Turandot came out in the usual way and was greeted with enthusiasm by critics and public alike.

At the helm is the incomparable Tullio Serafin, who did so much to nurture Callas’s career.

In an innovation for GRoC, the full libretto and translations are now accessible by computer in pdf form on CD 2; the booklet retains the full track-by-track synopsis.

This new ART transfer and remastering supersedes the previous release in EMI’s 1997 Callas edition.