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Callas: The Art and the Life - The Great Years
This is the story of Maria Callas. Perhaps no performer in this century has generated such adulation, stirred such controversy, and had so grteat an impact on the world of opra and the arts as Callas. The unrivaled singing actress of our time, she is the standard against which all others must measure themselves. She brought back a style of singing forgotten for more that a century, revived a repertory all but lost, and restored to the musical stage the dramatic power thaqt is opera at its grandest. En route she created a legend.
282 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
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November 13, 2016
Written before Callas's untimely death in 1977, this is arguably the best coffee table/picture book ever written about the genius that was Maria Callas.
First we get a potted history of her life by John Ardoin, which concentrates on the musician and the qualities that made her unique, rather than the scandals that dogged her for most of her life, and then we get a section of photos, sorted into chapters, of many of the productions she appeared in at La Scala, starting with I Vespri Siciliani in 1951 up to her last production at the theatre, Medea in 1962. We finish with two productions mounted specially for her by Zeffirelli (Tosca at Covent Garden and Norma at L'Opera de Paris) and a chapter of photos from Pasolini's film of Medea.
Some, those from Visconti's La Traviata for instance, are so many and so detailed, that you can almost match photo and gesture to exact moments in the score, and the commentary vividly brings the productions, and Callas's unforgettable presence, to life.
Long out of print, but well worth seeking out.
First we get a potted history of her life by John Ardoin, which concentrates on the musician and the qualities that made her unique, rather than the scandals that dogged her for most of her life, and then we get a section of photos, sorted into chapters, of many of the productions she appeared in at La Scala, starting with I Vespri Siciliani in 1951 up to her last production at the theatre, Medea in 1962. We finish with two productions mounted specially for her by Zeffirelli (Tosca at Covent Garden and Norma at L'Opera de Paris) and a chapter of photos from Pasolini's film of Medea.
Some, those from Visconti's La Traviata for instance, are so many and so detailed, that you can almost match photo and gesture to exact moments in the score, and the commentary vividly brings the productions, and Callas's unforgettable presence, to life.
Long out of print, but well worth seeking out.
Displaying 1 of 1 review
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