Name: Bizet: Carmen
Brand: Maria Callas

Tax rate EU

Default:19

Supplier EU

Warner Music Group Germany Holding GmbH

Total Cap

Format detail

Colour details

Discogs ID

Limited edition

Colour

Black

Format Music EU

Extended format

Extended format: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Download code

Download code: No

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Release date

2023-05-12

Format multiplier

Catalogue number

5054197464324

UPC / Barcode

Black LP

Artist

Maria Callas

Label EU

Warner

Genre EU

Modern Composition

Maria Callas, a Greek-American operatic soprano, was born in New York on December 4, 1923. Her exceptional musical and dramatic talents earned her the title of La Divina. With a career spanning from the 1940s to the early 1970s, Callas became renowned for her powerful voice and captivating stage presence. She mesmerized audiences with her emotional performances and impeccable technique.

Callas's artistry brought new dimensions to opera, breathing life into iconic roles such as Tosca, Norma, and Violetta. Her ability to convey deep emotions through her singing made her an unparalleled force in the world of opera. Despite facing personal struggles and controversies throughout her life, Callas remained dedicated to her craft until her untimely death in Paris on September 16, 1977.

To fully appreciate Maria Callas's remarkable talent and extensive discography, make sure to explore both [a3893735] profiles on our music e-commerce website. You will discover a treasure trove of timeless recordings that showcase the extraordinary artistry of this legendary soprano.

Warner is a renowned music publishing company and a division of the Warner Music Group. With its origins dating back to 1811, when Chappell & Company was founded as a music publishing company and instrument shop in London's Bond Street, Warner/Chappell has grown to become one of the largest music publishers in the industry.

Established in 1987 after Warner Communications acquired Chappell & Co., Warner/Chappell boasts an impressive catalog of over one million songs and represents more than 65,000 talented songwriters. Having operated under the name Warner/Chappell Music for over three decades, the company recently rebranded itself as *Warner Chappell Music* in May 2019, unveiling a fresh new logo.

With various name variations such as *Warner/Chappell*, *Warner-Chappell*, *Warner Chapell*, and *Warner Chappel*, this label continues to make significant contributions to the music industry by nurturing and promoting exceptional talent worldwide.

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Towards the end of Callas’s career, there were many rumours that she was planning to perform Carmen on stage. This was never to be, but Carmen became her penultimate complete recording of an opera – and her only complete recording of a French opera. With Georges Prêtre, one of her favoured conductors, and the ever-stylish Nicolai Gedda as her Don José, she captured every facet of the role. As Gramophone said when the set was first released: ‘Hers is a Carmen to haunt you.’ ‘Callas is Carmen’ proclaimed the publicity when this recording first appeared on LP in elaborate red and gold faux-leather luxury packaging with three separate booklets. It was a major coup for the record company to get Callas to record this most intriguing of all operatic roles, and its release was eagerly awaited. Opera houses around the world had been trying for years to persuade Callas to play Carmen, but the closest this ever came was when she sang the two first-act arias in a Golden Hour TV concert from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1962.  Callas had thought long and hard as to how she might portray the fiery gypsy on stage, but in a filmed interview with Lord Harewood she said that Carmen behaved like a man in that she took her lovers as it pleased her, whereas she (Callas) was a more romantic, feminine person who would not behave in this aggressive way in affairs of the heart.  At the beginning of 1964, after a gap of several years, Callas had returned triumphantly to the operatic stage in the acclaimed Zeffirelli production of Tosca at Covent Garden and then appeared in a sumptuous new staging of Norma at the Paris Opéra. The Carmen sessions began two weeks after the final Norma and found Callas in magnificent voice. Despite certain expectations that Callas’s Carmen would somehow be the most violent, most extreme interpretation of the part, the actual result is a superb performance of infinite subtlety and detail that brings the character vividly to life. All the requisite elements of seductiveness, charm and defiance are there. It is a performance full of inner fire, but everything is kept totally under control until the final blazing outburst at the end.  Was Callas Carmen? We will never know how she would have interpreted the role on stage, but as far as singing is concerned the answer is: ‘Yes’, and this recording is the proof.

Bizet: Carmen

Music EU