Puccini: Turandot - download (MP3 & FLAC)

Puccini’s Turandot, first performed in 1926, was the only work in which Callas sang that was younger than herself and is a perfect vehicle for a dramatic soprano with a steady, steely and brilliant voice capable of rising to top C. Although she had last sung the strenuously demanding title rôle on stage in 1949, her subtlety in is apparent in this dramatically and musically effective 1957 recording.

Schwarzkopf (Liu) and Fernandi (Calaf) perfectly complement Callas as the legendary Chinese princess whose icy heart is melted by the power of love.

"Callas had not performed the role of the formidable princess for eight years, but her first entrance in ‘In questa reggia’ is commanding… the taxing high tessitura seems to pose her relatively few problems…Not a role that was central to Callas’s repertoire but a good example of her ability to breathe new life into an old warhorse.” MusicWeb International on a previous issue

Studio recording, 1953

2008 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Puccini (22 December). Decca’s recordings of Puccini’s operas rank among the very finest ever committed to disc. This legacy was started in 1951 when Renata Tebaldi made her first recording of Madama Butterfly and throughout the rest of the 1950s Tebaldi recorded Puccini’s other major operas. At the end of the 1950s new stereo versions were made of Madama Butterfly and La Bohème. Tebaldi was cast alongside such distinguished colleagues as Carlo Bergonzi and Mario del Monaco and acclaimed opera maestri at the helm of these recordings include Francesco Molinari-Pradelli and Tullio Serafin. This collection of the great Puccini operas includes the stereo versions of Butterfly and Bohème and is the ideal collection of some of the world’s most popular and enduring operas in acclaimed recordings that have been an integral part of Decca’s legendary opera catalogue for the past fifty years.