Sola, perdutta abbandonata

dug dug Follow Dec 18, 2003 · 1 min read
At almost every performance, Callas paid the price for not being a 'perfect' singer. And yet for the rest of the audience (the good people, I want to call them) these human failings were of small importance next to the total accomplishment of Maria Callas herself and a Callas Violetta or Norma in particular. For them, for us, for me, Callas made opera live. She made the notes and words of the great 19th-century Italian Romantic composers and poets sound spontaneous, inevitable, even natural.

AFFILIATE LINKS

properbroadband.co.uk

Other sopranos only sing ‘Vessi d’arte’ in Tosca. Only Callas talks to God.

“Sola” is 12 minutes long. It’s the last fragment of Pucinni’s Manon and I still find myself crying at the end of it. I’m not normally partial to romantic nonsense, but Callas–in mono–in mp3–on shitty computer speakers–wow.

More from the Guardian

dug
Written by dug Follow
Hiya, life goes like this. Step 1: Get out of bed. Step 2: Make things better:-)
Sex and death
Guest blog