Bizet - Carmen - Callas, Gedda - Prêtre 1964 - Remaster 19972CDs - ADD Stereo - EMI 1997
Maria Callas, Nicolai Gedda, Robert Massard, Jane Berbié, Andrea Guiot, Claude Cales, Jacques Mars, Nadine Sautereau
Georges Prêtre, Orchestre de Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris,
This recording was made near the end of Maria Callas's career. It is a role she never sang onstage, but it suited her almost perfectly, and she gives a deep, compelling performance on this recording. The mezzo-soprano tessitura was comfortable for her voice, and the role did not call for a pretty sound. Nor did the recording studio require the kind of huge vocal power expected in an opera house. And furthermore, the character of a strong-willed, capricious, sexually compelling woman who thinks exclusively of herself was close to the offstage personality that made Callas so famous. --Joe McLellan
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