Catalogue # 0843562

Maria Callas is the ultimate and original diva. Widely regarded as the greatest Opera singer and performer of all time whose life, voice and performances have intrigued, thrilled and inspired all others.

Maria Callas

34 years after her death Maria Callas remains the definition of a diva. She is not only the world’s bestselling soprano but also EMI Classic’s bestselling artist of all time. Widely regarded for her intense characterisation and unique interpretations she has become a cultural icon whose music and life continues to influence today.

“Her reputation, extremely high when she died, has become ever greater in the years since her death. As a personality she remains controversial, but as an artist hardly at all: her genius is recognised as supreme by virtually all opera lovers, indeed it is often from listening to her many recordings that people discover what an incredibly potent art form opera can be.” BBC Music Magazine

The Music

This wonderfully constructed 2CD collection of opera arias highlights Callas’s spectacular climb to fame tracking her move from innocent young woman to the tragic heroine in her later years through the opera arias she recorded.

Featuring the most special and exquisitely interpreted arias of her output this collection brings together such opera favourites as O mio babbino caro, Vissi d’arte and Casta diva.

Callas’s recordings have featured prominently in many critically acclaimed movies including Academy Award winner Philadelphia and Academy Award Nominated Milk

Callas is the immortal diva whose music transcends time and sounds as unique and inspired today. Many noted musicians have quoted Callas as a musical influence including Linda Ronstadt, Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris, Celine Dion, Jason Mraz and Rufus Wainwright.

Documentary

EMI Classics has made The Callas Effect because there are powerful first-hand accounts that have not before been revealed of how and why Callas has exerted a unique and extraordinary effect – on other celebrity opera singers, on distinguished stage directors, on actors and actresses, on backstage theatre crews, on recording staff, on impresarios, on audiences who queued up for days and nights to see her, and now on young music-lovers who are captivated by her CDs and DVDs. People from all these walks of life, newly captured just for this memoir and including some who personally knew her, are the passionate witnesses of Maria Callas’s genius in The Callas Effect, which also includes extracts from her performances, recordings and interviews.

Bellini:
Casta Diva (from Norma)
Col sorriso d'innocenza (from Il Pirata)

Bizet:
L'amour est un oiseau rebelle ‘Habanera’ (from Carmen)
Carreau! Pique! La mort! (from Carmen)

Catalani:
Ebben? Ne andrò lontana (from La Wally)

Delibes:
Où va la jeune Indoue? ‘Bell Song’ (from (Lakmé)

Giordano, U:
La mamma morta (from Andrea Chénier)

Gluck:
Divinités du Styx (from Alceste)

Gounod:
Ah! Je ris de me voir (from Faust)

Mozart:
In quali eccessi … Mi tradì quell'alma ingrate (from Don Giovanni)

Ponchielli:
Suicidio! (from La Gioconda)

Puccini:
O mio babbino caro (from Gianni Schicchi)
Si, mi chiamano Mimi (from La Bohème)
In questa reggia (from Turandot)
Vissi d'arte (from Tosca)
Un bel di vedremo (from Madama Butterfly)
Senza mamma, o bimbo (from Suor Angelica)
Sola, perduta, abbandonata (from Manon Lescaut)

Rossini:
Una voce poco fa (from Il barbiere di Siviglia)

Saint-Saëns:
Amour, viens aider ma faiblesse (Samson et Dalila)

Thomas, Ambroise:
Ah, pour ce soir…Je suis Titania (from Mignon)

Verdi:
Mercè, dilette amiche ‘Bolero’ (from I Vespri Siciliani)
Caro nome (from Rigoletto)
Ah, fors'è lui che l'anima (from La Traviata)
La luce langue (from Macbeth)
D'amor sull'ali rosee (from Il Trovatore)
Surta è la notte…Ernani! Ernani, involami (from Ernani)
Ritorna vincitor! (from Aida)
Tu che la vanità (from Don Carlo)

DVD ‘The Callas Effect’