Ponchielli: Suicidio! (from La Gioconda)

Elena Souliotis, hailed as a successor to Maria Callas, resembled a comet that flashed brightly across the operatic scene and was all too soon extinguished. With a lifelong love of horseriding and the outdoors, she often commented that she preferred animals to people. She spent much of her childhood in the spectacular garden of her parents’ home in Buenos Aires, only starting to train her voice when she was 16.While she was active, she recorded some memorable discs for Decca in the mid-1960s, most of the ‘plums’ of which are included here, recalling the excitement she then created. This collection, which first appeared on Decca’s ‘Grandi Voci’ series, includes a complete recital recorded by Decca; Santuzza’s aria ‘Voi lo sapete’ from the complete recording of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, and items by Verdi and Ponchielli recorded at the same sessions under Silvio Varviso. Also included are one of her calling cards, Abigaille’s terrifying Act II scena ‘Ben io t’invenni’ from the complete and much-prized recording of Verdi’s Nabucco by Lamberto Gardelli, and an aria from Donizetti’s Anna Bolena.

As Alan Blyth who wrote the original liner notes remarks: ‘It is good to be reminded of her achievement by the reappearance of these interpretations and to hear again, in an age of too many mundane and orthodox singers, such a splendidly uninhibited artist, one who could rouse an audience to a frenzy through her singing and her acting.’

This wonderfully constructed 2CD collection of opera arias highlights Callas’s spectacular climb to fame tracking her move from innocent young woman to the tragic heroine in her later years through the opera arias she recorded.

Featuring the most special and exquisitely interpreted arias of her output this collection brings together such opera favourites as O mio babbino caro, Vissi d’arte and Casta diva.

Sylvia Sass was born near Budapest, Hungary, in 1951 to a very musical family. Her mother was a coloratura soprano and her father a high school music teacher. She made her stage debut at age 14 in Adam’s operetta Die Nürnberger Puppe and then commenced study at the celebrated Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, completing a five-year program in two. Her professional debut was as Frasquita in Carmen in 1971. Several awards followed – 1st prize at the Kodály Voice Competition in Budapest, 1972; winner at the International Opera Competition for Young Singers, of the Grand Prix as Violetta in La traviata, 1973, the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, 1974. She was also made an Honoured Artist of Hungary in 1977.

While still in Budapest, she performed such dramatic roles as Freia in Das Rheingold, Violetta in La traviata and Mimi in La bohème. International stardom came with a composer with whom she is most associated and in a role represented on her Decca recitals – Giselda in Verdi’s I Lombardi at Covent Garden in London, 1976. The next year she made both, her Italian debut in Turin as Lady Macbeth, and her Metropolitan Opera debut as Tosca alongside José Carreras. La Scala followed the year after, in 1978, where she sang Puccini’s tragic heroine Manon Lescaut alongside Plácido Domingo.

Soon, Sass was being heralded as ‘the new Callas’, and she did meet Callas in person, thanks to a meeting set up by Leonard Bernstein. True, the voice had a similar dramatic colour, but Sass quickly rebuffed the comparison, saying, ‘Callas was so great and so unique. I just don’t think it’s fair to compare somebody with such a great artist.’

Her three recital records for Decca include two discs of operatic arias, including all her most celebrated roles, both conducted by Lamberto Gardelli, and a disc of songs by Liszt and Bartók with her compatriot, pianist András Schiff. All of these are issued collectively as a 2CD set for the first time. In recent years, Sass has settled in France, where she keeps busy painting and giving masterclasses.

Cerquetti became well-known in the mid-fifties and “inherited” roles that Maria Callas had abandoned such as Abigaille, Gioconda and Aida. Her singing career was short and she only made two commercial recordings. This collection includes a recital of arias recorded in 1957, excerpts from La Giaconda, recorded in the same year and some RAI broadcasts dating from 1955 and 1956.

Arangi-Lombardi was underestimated during her lifetime and was a belcanto specialist. She valued exquisite vocal artistry, musical phrasing and rich tonal shading much more than outward effects. Unfortunately, Vol. I of her collection on Preiser is out of print.

The great British soprano Rita Hunter will always be remembered as a great Wagnerian soprano, having sung Brünhilde at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, ENO and the Australian Opera. This CD of Arias stands as a fitting memorial to her.

To commemorate 30 years since the death of Maria Callas.