Featured In
ALBUMBellini: NormaTullio Serafin, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano & Maria Callas
Albums by Maria Callas
ALBUMVerdi: La traviataUgo Savarese, Gabriele Santini, Ede Marietti Gandolfo, Orchestra Sinfonica Di Torino Della RAI, Maria Callas & Francesco Albanese
ALBUMDiva by Daisy GoodwinMaria Callas
ALBUMThe 1949 Cetra Recordings: Works by Bellini, Mozart & Wagner (The Original Sound of Maria Callas)Maria Callas
ALBUMPonchielli: La Gioconda, Op. 9Piero Cappuccilli, Antonino Votto, Irene Companeez, Fiorenza Cossotto, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Maria Callas, Pier Miranda Ferraro & Mario Borriello
ALBUMBellini: I PuritaniTullio Serafin, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano & Maria Callas
ALBUMBellini: La sonnambulaAntonino Votto, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano & Maria Callas
ALBUMVerdi: Un ballo in mascheraAntonino Votto, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Maria Callas & Giuseppe di Stefano
ALBUMBellini: Il pirata (1959 - New York) - Callas Live RemasteredMaria Callas
ALBUMDonizetti: Anna Bolena (1957, Milan) - Callas Live RemasteredMaria Callas
ALBUMGluck: Alceste (1954 - Milan) - Callas Live RemasteredMaria Callas
Maria Callas's Popular Music Videos
Bizet: Overture and Habanera (From the opera Carmen)
Georges Prêtre, Maria Callas & Sinfonieorchester Des Norddeutschen Rundfunks
The Callas Effect - Reflections from Those Who Knew Her
Maria Callas, Mirella Freni, Tito Gobbi, Sir John Tooley, Jon Tolansky, John Copley, Reginald Suter & Priscilla Pritchard
The Life of Maria Callas - Chapter 2: Metamorphosis
Maria Callas, Daniel Richards, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano & Herbert von Karajan
The Life of Maria Callas - Chapter 1: Early Years, Maria Before La Callas
Maria Callas, Daniel Richards, Philharmonia Orchestra & Tullio Serafin
The Callas Effect Today
Maria Callas, Joyce DiDonato, Maite Pernas, Federica Rayman & Myrto Papadopoulus-Rochat
Vissi d’arte (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, November 25, 1956)
Maria Callas
The Life of Maria Callas - Chapter 3: Prima Donna at La Scala
Maria Callas, Daniel Richards, Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI, Coro Cetra, Gabriele Santini & Francesco Maria Piave
The Life of Maria Callas - Chapter 6: Affairs of the Heart
Maria Callas, Daniel Richards, Choeurs René Duclos, Paris Opera Orchestra & Georges Prêtre
The Life of Maria Callas - Chapter 4: Recording a Legend
Maria Callas, Daniel Richards, Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano & Tullio Serafin
The Life of Maria Callas - Chapter 5: La Divina - The Glory Years
Maria Callas, Daniel Richards, Orchestre National de France & Georges Prêtre
Artist Playlists
Maria Callas Essentials
Immerse yourself in the world of iconic soprano Maria Callas—one of opera’s true phenomenons.
Artist Biography
Maria Callas is the ultimate opera icon. At the height of her powers, the American-born Greek soprano performed Puccini’s dramatic roles as convincingly as she tossed off bel canto ornamentation. Born in New York in 1923, Callas moved back to Greece in her teens and established a reputation as an obsessively dedicated music student who absorbed every sound she encountered. After performing Tosca in 1942 at the Greek National Opera—a role she reprised in the definitive recording with the tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano (1953)—she went to Italy as a rising star in heavy Verdian and Wagnerian roles. However, her success in an unexpected I puritani performance in 1949 catapulted her to fame as a bel canto soprano whose acting prowess infused the operas of Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini with new vivacity and dimension. Callas’ voice had a range of color that was by turns penetrating, peculiar, and even vehement on the world’s great stages; she could famously execute a diminuendo on the stratospherically high E-flat of the La sonnambula finale with ease and total control. Yet despite the grandeur of opera and Callas’ acute dramatic abilities, her musical choices were elegant and unostentatious. Through her inimitable sound, incisive musicality, and resurrection of bel canto repertoire, Callas became the unrivaled operatic embodiment of emotive power.
Hometown
New York, NY, United States
Genre
Classical