Callas, Maria. (1923–1977). Early Signed Semo Photograph in "La Traviata.". Original vintage 8 x 10 inch Semo glossy photograph of Callas in one of her earliest appearance as Violetta in "La Traviata," Mexico City, 1951. Fully signed and inscribed to a darker area of the image "A Guido Focaccia / Codialmente / Maria Meneghini Callas." Signed photographs of Callas from this period are uncommon. The present fine example was originally in the Bob Tollett collection.
"In the course of her career Callas sang Violetta 63 times; it ranks next after Norma as the rôle she sang most often. Through the eight years it was in her repertory her interpretation changed and developed, rapidly and prodigiously. The first time she undertook it, in January 1951 at the Comunale, Florence, she was a very bulky lady and weighed nearly ninety kilos. Hardly surprisingly there was nothing tubercular about her conception, and the emphasis then was all on voice. Zeffirelli, who was present on that occasion, recalled in an interview, ‘how the audience went mad ... it was sensational, vocally and musically.'...Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was at a performance at Parma with her husband Walter Legge, EMI’s record producer. ‘We ... witnessed a major victory for Callas. As everyone knows, there is no victory in Italy like being acclaimed in Parma in a Verdi rôle! ... I went backstage [and told her] there [was] no point in my singing this rôle again. ... And I didn’t.’... Recordings of Callas’s Violetta from Mexico City survive from 1951 and 1952 and both show her a vocal powerhouse. In the first, at the end of Sempre libera, she makes a sweeping portamento to the high E flat. In the second, perhaps because the performance is a bit of a mess and the conductor lacks any authority, at the end of the act three ensemble, Alfredo, di questo core, she takes the opportunity of completing the upward arpeggio to another high E flat." (Michael Scott, in notes for Naxos reissue of 1953 Callas Traviata)
"In the course of her career Callas sang Violetta 63 times; it ranks next after Norma as the rôle she sang most often. Through the eight years it was in her repertory her interpretation changed and developed, rapidly and prodigiously. The first time she undertook it, in January 1951 at the Comunale, Florence, she was a very bulky lady and weighed nearly ninety kilos. Hardly surprisingly there was nothing tubercular about her conception, and the emphasis then was all on voice. Zeffirelli, who was present on that occasion, recalled in an interview, ‘how the audience went mad ... it was sensational, vocally and musically.'...Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was at a performance at Parma with her husband Walter Legge, EMI’s record producer. ‘We ... witnessed a major victory for Callas. As everyone knows, there is no victory in Italy like being acclaimed in Parma in a Verdi rôle! ... I went backstage [and told her] there [was] no point in my singing this rôle again. ... And I didn’t.’... Recordings of Callas’s Violetta from Mexico City survive from 1951 and 1952 and both show her a vocal powerhouse. In the first, at the end of Sempre libera, she makes a sweeping portamento to the high E flat. In the second, perhaps because the performance is a bit of a mess and the conductor lacks any authority, at the end of the act three ensemble, Alfredo, di questo core, she takes the opportunity of completing the upward arpeggio to another high E flat." (Michael Scott, in notes for Naxos reissue of 1953 Callas Traviata)
Callas, Maria. (1923–1977). Early Signed Semo Photograph in "La Traviata.". Original vintage 8 x 10 inch Semo glossy photograph of Callas in one of her earliest appearance as Violetta in "La Traviata," Mexico City, 1951. Fully signed and inscribed to a darker area of the image "A Guido Focaccia / Codialmente / Maria Meneghini Callas." Signed photographs of Callas from this period are uncommon. The present fine example was originally in the Bob Tollett collection.
"In the course of her career Callas sang Violetta 63 times; it ranks next after Norma as the rôle she sang most often. Through the eight years it was in her repertory her interpretation changed and developed, rapidly and prodigiously. The first time she undertook it, in January 1951 at the Comunale, Florence, she was a very bulky lady and weighed nearly ninety kilos. Hardly surprisingly there was nothing tubercular about her conception, and the emphasis then was all on voice. Zeffirelli, who was present on that occasion, recalled in an interview, ‘how the audience went mad ... it was sensational, vocally and musically.'...Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was at a performance at Parma with her husband Walter Legge, EMI’s record producer. ‘We ... witnessed a major victory for Callas. As everyone knows, there is no victory in Italy like being acclaimed in Parma in a Verdi rôle! ... I went backstage [and told her] there [was] no point in my singing this rôle again. ... And I didn’t.’... Recordings of Callas’s Violetta from Mexico City survive from 1951 and 1952 and both show her a vocal powerhouse. In the first, at the end of Sempre libera, she makes a sweeping portamento to the high E flat. In the second, perhaps because the performance is a bit of a mess and the conductor lacks any authority, at the end of the act three ensemble, Alfredo, di questo core, she takes the opportunity of completing the upward arpeggio to another high E flat." (Michael Scott, in notes for Naxos reissue of 1953 Callas Traviata)
"In the course of her career Callas sang Violetta 63 times; it ranks next after Norma as the rôle she sang most often. Through the eight years it was in her repertory her interpretation changed and developed, rapidly and prodigiously. The first time she undertook it, in January 1951 at the Comunale, Florence, she was a very bulky lady and weighed nearly ninety kilos. Hardly surprisingly there was nothing tubercular about her conception, and the emphasis then was all on voice. Zeffirelli, who was present on that occasion, recalled in an interview, ‘how the audience went mad ... it was sensational, vocally and musically.'...Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was at a performance at Parma with her husband Walter Legge, EMI’s record producer. ‘We ... witnessed a major victory for Callas. As everyone knows, there is no victory in Italy like being acclaimed in Parma in a Verdi rôle! ... I went backstage [and told her] there [was] no point in my singing this rôle again. ... And I didn’t.’... Recordings of Callas’s Violetta from Mexico City survive from 1951 and 1952 and both show her a vocal powerhouse. In the first, at the end of Sempre libera, she makes a sweeping portamento to the high E flat. In the second, perhaps because the performance is a bit of a mess and the conductor lacks any authority, at the end of the act three ensemble, Alfredo, di questo core, she takes the opportunity of completing the upward arpeggio to another high E flat." (Michael Scott, in notes for Naxos reissue of 1953 Callas Traviata)