DVD 'The Callas Effect'
1. Introduction
2. Humble Beginnings
3. The New Star
4. Norma at Covent Garden
5. Records and Romance
6. La Traviata
7. Il Trovatore
8. Bringing drama to the opera stage: Tosca
9. Concerts
10. Audience Response
11. High Society and Fashion
12. Losing Voice
13. 'Sola, perduta, abbandonata'
14. The Callas Effect today
15. Conclusion
Maria Callas is the ultimate and original diva. Widely regarded as the greatest Opera singer and performer of all time whose life, voice and performances have intrigued, thrilled and inspired all others.
Maria Callas
34 years after her death Maria Callas remains the definition of a diva. She is not only the world's bestselling soprano but also EMI Classic's bestselling artist of all time. Widely regarded for her intense characterisation and unique interpretations she has become a cultural icon whose music and life continues to influence today.
“Her reputation, extremely high when she died, has become ever greater in the years since her death. As a personality she remains controversial, but as an artist hardly at all: her genius is recognised as supreme by virtually all opera lovers, indeed it is often from listening to her many recordings that people discover what an incredibly potent art form opera can be.” BBC Music Magazine
The Music
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.
Callas’s recordings have featured prominently in many critically acclaimed movies including Academy Award winner Philadelphia and Academy Award Nominated Milk
Callas is the immortal diva whose music transcends time and sounds as unique and inspired today. Many noted musicians have quoted Callas as a musical influence including Linda Ronstadt, Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris, Celine Dion, Jason Mraz and Rufus Wainwright.
Documentary
EMI Classics has made The Callas Effect because there are powerful first-hand accounts that have not before been revealed of how and why Callas has exerted a unique and extraordinary effect – on other celebrity opera singers, on distinguished stage directors, on actors and actresses, on backstage theatre crews, on recording staff, on impresarios, on audiences who queued up for days and nights to see her, and now on young music-lovers who are captivated by her CDs and DVDs. People from all these walks of life, newly captured just for this memoir and including some who personally knew her, are the passionate witnesses of Maria Callas’s genius in The Callas Effect, which also includes extracts from her performances, recordings and interviews.
“memorable artistry is evident everywhere - utterly exemplary in its musical intelligence, stirring in its interpretative eloquence. The technique dazzles in marvellously expressive trills...and everywhere, of course, the uniquely penetrating dramatic involvement.” International Record Review, January 2012
“This makes a good Callas set for beginners. It contains arias that showcase a good section of her most successful repertoire and it captures her voice at its best.Exactly when it is captured remains a mystery, however: the set’s main problem for pre-existing fans and aficionados is that, while it contains information about where and with whom each track was recorded, we are not given any dates.” MusicWeb International, January 2012
