Becoming Callas - What made her so special?
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- čas přidán 17. 06. 2024
- In this special episode we have a return ghost guest - the birthday girl herself, Maria Callas! At her centenary, we ask the questions: What made her so special? Was she really the best ever? And will we ever hear her like again?
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:06 Welcome
2:35 Who was Maria Callas?
6:52 Bel Canto vs Verismo
10:37 Becoming Callas
17:44 The Old School
29:44 Her Predecessors
46:54 The Eras of Callas
59:12 How to create a Callas
1:08:39 What we owe her
Sources
Recorded music:
Maria Callas - “Il Trovatore” live in Mexico, 1950, remastered by Divina Records: divinarecords.com/maria-calla...
Maria Callas - “The Complete Master Classes”, 1972, remastered by Divina Records: divinarecords.com/maria-calla...
Rae Woodland - “Attila” live in Sadler’s Wells, 1963: • Attila - Verdi 1963 Sa...
Elvira de Hidalgo - “Ah! Non giunge”: • Elvira de Hidalgo sing...
Transcripts made from my EMG mark Xb oversize gramophone of Callas (Cetra), Nordica (Columbia), Destinn, Raisa, Burzio
Interviews:
“L’invité du dimanche”, ORTF, 1969: • The Callas Conversatio...
• The Callas Conversatio...
• The Callas Conversatio...
• The Callas Conversatio...
“La Monde de la Musique” with Bernard Gavoty, ORTF, 1964 & 1965: • Maria Callas in Conver...
• Maria Callas In Conver...
With Norman Ross jr, Chicago, 1957: • Maria CALLAS. Entretie...
“Collector’s Corner” with John Ardoin, Dallas, 1958: • Maria Callas - Dallas ...
“Albo d’Oro della Lirica” with Rodolfo Celletti and Giorgio Gualerzi, Rai Radio 2, 1972: • "Albo d'Oro della Liri...
“The Callas Conversations” with Lord George Harewood, BBC, 1968: • Maria CALLAS. [RARE] '...
With Edward Downes, New York, 1967 & 68: • Maria CALLAS. Entretie...
Written:
“Great women-singers of my time”, Herman Klein, 1931: archive.org/details/greatwome...
“Prima Voce: Emmy Destinn”, liner notes by Alan Bilgora, Nimbus Records: web.archive.org/web/200503021...
“Vocal Mastery”, Harriette Brower, 1920: archive.org/details/vocalmast...
“Maria Meneghini Callas”, Michael Scott, 1992: archive.org/details/mariamene...
“Cast a Diva”, Lyndsy Spence, 2021: / cast-a-diva
“A Controversial Prima Donna”, by Philip Hope Wallace, Manchester Guardian, February 1957: www.theguardian.com/music/201...
My videos:
Bel Canto vs Verismo: • Puccini’s Mimì - It’s ...
Legato: • What is legato? (And h...
Registers: • A brief history of voc...
Diagnosing Callas: • Diagnosing Callas - Wh... - Hudba
Everything said by Callas in this video was said by her in life, and in many cases more than once, because she was pretty consistent in how she talked about bel canto. Please see the description box for all my sources and follow the links to learn more. Thank you.
As someone who can not sing with any great skill and certainly not at this caliber, I am very much enjoying this well done presentation. Thank you for keeping things accessible. I find Opera intimidating yet undeniable. Great job
BUT WHY NOT DOWNLOADING TEXTS BY HERSELF (HER OWN VOICE) INSTEAD OF A ROBOTIC, CHATGPT VOICE?
I would encourage anyone who is devoted to the legendary soprano
Maria Callas to read "Worlds within Worlds" by Barbara Kendall-Davies published by Austin Macauley Publishers in 2021.
"We can create another Callas" No. There will never be another Callas. And for me personally, there is no doubt that she is the greatest of all time. There was something in her voice that makes everyone else sound dull in comparison. Divine.
Well obviously I didn’t mean we can clone her. But another star of the same calibre, I think is absolutely possible.
@@PhantomsoftheOpera We did not see another like Callas yet. So, is it possible? o we should be happy that we had her?
Can we create another Callas? Absolutely. Not a clone but someone with her dexterity, technique and acting ability. And not only female. Listen to "la donna e mobile" as sang by a young pavarotti. Its on youtube. You will hear his clarity of sound, the perfect vowels and diction
As a singer who "missed the boat" for going to the conservatoire, I realised that not getting the official education is actually a blessing in disguise. It has not only allowed me to musically explore things that don't fit into the conservatoire mold, but also to look at other schools of vocal pedagogy. Thank you so much for all that you do, your videos have taught me a lot!
As an undergrad, all of my friends were music majors but I was never a music major - music training at the university seemed horribly cookie-cutter to me - how would I ever have anything unique if I got the exact same music training as everyone else - so I took music classes - while studying with opera coaches off campus.
I listened to hundreds of recordings of world famous sopranos and developed a performance repertoire of over 50 arias by Mozart, Puccini, Rossini, Verdi, Vivaldi and dozens of other composers. Leading up to that level was my training in German Lieder, French Art Songs, Italian and Spanish. I was also taught Latin - I learned to sing in Czech because of the Song to the Moon. I also learned Arabic, Sanskrit and Hawaiian songs.
I began singing professionally as a teen in NY under contract and have performed coast-to-coast and abroad.
I was behind in music theory and sight reading but I'm so glad I made the choices that I did - none of my music major friends became professional singers.
Maria Callas went to the Athens Conservatory during the War years, studied with a famous Bel Cantist, Elvira de Hidalgo. In Italy, she was fortunate to have Tullio Serafin as conductor and coach. Callas was also a good pianist. Musical education doesn't detract at all. Knowing history, harmony and musical structure can only add to a singer's tool box.
Maria was a mad dog ravenous wolf who was self sabotaging, going from one abusive man to another - because she couldn't escape the psychological trauma she endured from her mother - so she had cosmetic surgery, then she had an abortion and then she committed suicide.
"History, harmony and musical structure" couldn't save her.
Callas was a great pianist and she read music, she stopped the conductor Bing and told him the orchestra was a quarter note off, Bing was not amused.
@@kirkcox9162Rudolf Bing non era un direttore d'orchestra ma il sovrintendente del Metropolitan di New York.
The point is that Callas DID IT! She's unsurpassed, a brilliant musician and a supreme artist who willingly paid the price for her art, and does not need patronizing posthumous whimsical condescension, even if well-intended and well put together.
With regard to the issue mentioned that Callas had with her high notes it is worth noting that her first teacher Maria Trivella had wanted to take more time over creating greater security as the vocal range was extended. She was the person who had taken on the young Maria and gradually evolved her voice from a lowish mezzo to soprano.
However there was always pressure surrounding Callas.
Her mother wanted her to get her Certificate and start earning some money as the family was struggling financially . Trivella tried to delay the certificate by an extra year as she wanted to work on the top of the voice.
Pressure also came from the opera class directors who , recognizing her talent , wanted her to sing strenuous roles and arias to suit their programmes. They were also Directors at the Greek National Opera.
Trivella may not have been a world famous teacher, but she certainly seems to have been a sound one. Unfortunately, she did not seem to command the level of professional authority and respect to put a stop to Callas being given strenuous repertoire at an early stage of development.
A further complication was that Callas had got the idea ( through chatting with other students) that this was a clear choice between two schools of singing, Trivella representing the French school and De Hidalgo the Italian School. She became convinced that De Hidalgo's teaching would be right for her ..and indeed she always spoke of De Hidalgo and not Trivella. She gained a place at the Athens Conservatoire in De Hidalgo's class and left Trivella.
There is no doubt that she learned much stylistically from De Hidalgo who had been trained in the bel canto and knew her way around the repertoire, but would she have known greater vocal security at the top if she had stayed an extra year or two with her original teacher I wonder?
The Unknown Callas by Petsalis - Diomidis is a good source of information on Callas' early years and training. It contains the recollections of her contemporaries , some of which no doubt are very personal opinions and should be treated with caution, but there is much that helps us understand her development as a singer.
It is also becoming clearer that Callas' health played a large part in her vocal decline, but she was certainly unique, gave everything she had to her art and drove her audience to a frenzy. It is right to celebrate her I think.
Overrated, histrionic and with an uncontrolled vibrato. I think Callas voice is just a painful schreek. She would have done well in movies? an actress. But singing....no....
Interesting! What are your sources about Trivella?
Maria Callas, is Divine. always imitated, never equaled.
Callas voice is magnetic. It casts a spell on those who enjoy her singing. It's very hard to explain, is something one feels. Her voice vibrates inside the listener in a very peculiar way.
Happy 100th birthday to the queen!!
For me she is and probably will always be number 1, there's a divine spark in her art.
I remember first getting into opera in my teens. I can't even remember what prompted me to try listening to opera but I remember the first recordings I listened to were Maria Callas's because they were most recommended. When I listened, I couldn't decide how I felt. Her voice had this ... Astringent, cutting quality, incredible but not quite pleasant to my ears. I didn't even know if I liked it... but I still remember how I felt listening to it the first time. 50 years after her voice was recorded, it still had the ability to create a lasting impact on a 17 year old girl who knew almost nothing about classical music.
For many many years I have been an admirer of Callas, to the extent that in opera I can only listen to Callas. How wonderfully grateful am I that, by chance, I 'stumbled' upon this appraisal of her art. Such an intelligent analysis of the intricate, worldly and very complex mind that this young presenter has appraised Callas and Opera .... well done you! Surely there is hope for this younger generation ... Awesome ! Thankyou so much. You a young person, really really gets it, it is so tremendous
Really fantastic video!! You make very convincing arguments when comparing Callas to her predecessors - very obvious she at times sang so heavy in the upper register that her words were lost in these examples. Also how a sense of ease could be lost due to general heaviness or registration imbalances, and that in general she sometimes sang things all sort of the same way emotionally, like she defaulted to anger, which could also be the technical approach of her's.
However, to me, she still completely stands apart despite these faults that potentially even limit accurate expression of the score. This is subjective but I'd just would like to state some thoughts:
One quote of Callas' that stands out to me is "ART is domination. It’s making people think that for that precise moment in time there is only one way, one voice. Yours.”
For me she did exactly this to a greater extend than any other singer hands down. The thoroughness of her technique and serious handling of the scores allowed for her profound musicality to be fully realized. Yes she was seemingly at times an egocentric megalomanic, but she was also always definitive in everything she sang bc you believe her so much, even when there are examples of others doing many things better. I think it was this egotistical yet simultaneously passionate and devoted (humble) DRIVE and WILL that made her so believable. She was a bit insane, but in a necessary way. You don't become Callas without a zealous, religious, and practically unrealistic belief in your work and your ability to serve it. She transcends the boundaries of adjudication and I feel that she is best judged as someone who used the foundations of bel canto to bring old operas to life for the modern audience of her time. She did this in a way that was (unfortunately for her voice?) a response to her time and was influenced by not just verismo but also cinema and Hollywood.
All of this combined in one person who achieved such a modern success and popularity not in spite of being just "an opera singer" but BECAUSE of her unique devotion to the drama of bel canto operas is imo what makes her so fascinating to this day. Callas is like a philosophy. One can never truly tire of discussing her.
Thank you truly for making such a thorough and wonderful video for the 100th anniversary of her birth. I really enjoyed it. I was hoping we'd see more thoughtful videos like these, but you seem to be the only one up to the task :)
Very well said, thank you.
She made me fall in love with opera only her ! And so many others like me
I think the ground is certainly fertile for a resurgence in bel canto. Many younger listeners of opera have been disenchanted with mediocre singers of the past 20 years in particular.
Netrebkko is one the most financially successful opera singer of all time. Never being anything greater than mediocre, she possesses a voice that has been in complete shambles for years. Yet she still commands a large audience. I will never be able to fully understand this.
Agree 101% the fact that she is beautiful says a lot. She was pushed by Peter Gelb because he knew that this “ level “ will sell more performances than someone who is a lot more talented
ABSOLUTELY. The pendulum always swings back, it's just a matter of when. What's hilarious to me, as well as pisses me off, is that these upper echelons the industry, such as Gelb, etc. is that they'll claim they discovered this new thing, these new and fresh voices when we here know it's the complete opposite.
She had a great light lyric voice early on in her career. It was the lure of bigger roles that ultimately ruined her.
@@pedrohasallthepower Her vocal problems were apparent from the very beginning. Her tone lacked focus, she held her mouth strangely and more importantly too widely. This led to vocal instability and the disaster we have seen for many years.
While in her 20s she was able to get away with it as the voice is young. But as early on as her 30s the damage was clear. For instance, there is footage of her singing O Mio Babbino Caro at the Kennedy Center Honors at the age of 35. It was out of tune and unfocused. It was a mess.
In the same year she had her live in HD broadcast of I Puritani. It was so unpleasant to listen to, I had to walk out. This is the only performance I have ever walk out of in my entire life.
At the time, I knew little of Netrebko. Only that she was taking the opera world by storm.
Whenever someone brings up Netrebko's vocal condition there are always individuals who will say that it was the heavy roles that hurt her voice.
Perhaps they didn't help, but vocal problems were evident early on to those with discerning ears.
@@davidalbro2009 explain what you mean by focus as it applies to the voice. From what I gathered from your reply do you have stated that there was a lack of focus, a mess, and strange mouth positions?
A new phantoms of the opera video?
What a *wonderful* early christmas present!
As a young student who is struggling and trying as best as he can to learn singing the right way, your videos are absolutely necessary to me. Great video!
I think this is a great video. I LOVE Callas, and I admit hers might not be a pretty voice per se as many love. One thing I don't agree with at all, is that she was not expressive enough. On the contrary, she was outstanding in conveying emotion. She also was responsible of reviving many bel canto roles that at her time were basically dead. We owe her that for ever. Thanks for sharing❤
Yes, how much a certain singer moves you is entirely subjective, as I said. The clips I used here were demonstrating the tools of expression, but they’re much too short to give an idea of the overall impression of an artist. I recommend the final scenes of Butterfly with Destinn or Norma with Burzio. They really get me.
@@PhantomsoftheOpera totally true! That is 100% subjective. I will check those clips for sure🥰
You're totally right. I don't agree also with the lack of expression she mentions. She is comparing a very young Callas with singers with large careers. It is not the same Traviata the one she sang in Mexico in 1951 in comparison with the one at La Scala in 1955 or Lisbon in 1958. It happens exactly the same with her Leonora (Trovatore) in comparison with the one in studio under Karajan. We can not compare those shellac recordings (done in a room smaller than my bathroom with an almost a quartet) with a live recording with a large orchestra. Thank you for the video and producers should ban Jolie as Callas and hiring you.
In 1953, at La Scala, Callas also does a trill at the end of D'amor sul ali, and she even does a mesa di voce on the trill!! That performance is probably her ultimate version of the role. Also, the 1950 examples of trovatore you play is when she prepared and learned the role alone by herself, whereas the next performances were coached and prepared with Serafin and were more refined.
What happened to Callas's voice was that she lost 1/3 of her body mass in less than a year, and in the process, she lost a great deal of her breath support. You can hear the voice changing as her physical mass reduced. She built her technique on a large, strong body which could support that big and heavy voice, and with the slimmer body, she no longer could support the voice. Joan Sutherland who heard Callas in 1952 and 1953 when Callas was heavy and later when she was thin said that the body became too frail to support the of sound she had been used to making. Even critics noted that the "too slim" singer could no longer support her voice properly and produced sounds that were forced and out of control (Chicago 1958).
While she was at her natural weight, there was no deterioration in the voice, and if anything, she gave some of her most vocally magnificent performances in 1952 and 1953, after years of singing the heaviest repertoire, and then suddenly a year later, there is a different woman with a different voice. You can hear the change in the voice on the Cavaleria/Pagilacci set. Cav was recorded in 1953 when she was larger and the voice is huge, full, under full control, and the high notes ring and spin on a solid column of breath. Pag recorded a year later shows a much slimmer sound, and the high notes now are thinner, less easily managed, and have a shrillness that wasn't there the previous year. This had nothing to do with the alleged dermatomyositic or Ehler Danlos (as a physician, I call BS on both of these alleged diseases) and everything to do with the change in the physique. A singer sings with her whole body, and when the body changes, so does the voice. She herself told Peter Dragadze shortly before she died that she lost "strength in her diaphragm," singer's jargon for losing her breath support.
Callas was no dummy and knew exactly what was happening with her voice, and she began to talk of retiring as early as 1958. It must have been nerve wracking for someone who was as much perfectionist as she suddenly to deal with a voice which no longer wanted to obey her.
I think Callas's greatest genius was her musicality and her ability to make everything she sang sound spontaneous and inevitable, as if the thought her just occurred to her. As Rudolf Bing said, once you saw and heard her in any role, it was impossible to accept another performer in that role, no matter how great they were, and that a single move of her hand was more than another performer could do in a whole act.
There have been many great singers, many with more beautiful voices and purer techniques. But there have been very few singing geniuses, who, when they sang a role, became as much the creator of the role as the composer. Callas was such a genius, which is why she continues to reign supreme as one of the greatest operatic geniuses of all time.
To your surprise there was a period in her later Greek years when she was actually quite slender.
@@Fairpavel Not to my surprise at all. Look at her photos as Euridice at La Scala, and she was much slimmer than we are wont to remember her. Even as Lady Macbeth in 1952, she shows a beautiful waistline and looked gorgeous. She was slim but still curvy and voluptuous, whereas by December of 1954, she had become skinny. According to Visconti (or was it Zeffirelli?) when she did Sonnambula, she had a 22 inch waist, and that is for a woman who was almost 5 feel 9 inches tall. I think the way she looked at the end of 1953 was perfect for her. As Medea, she was beautiful, but still looked powerful and strong. Wallman described her as looking like one of the Caryatids on the acropolis. You simply cannot go from that kind of a figure to an Audrey Hepburn-like figure without doing damage to the voice. Perhaps if she had been a light-voiced coloratura, it wouldn't have mattered so much, but that's not the kind of voice Callas had. Even Marilyn Horne warns a student about the irreparable damage too much weight loss can do to the voice of a singer who has always been larger: czcams.com/video/iQz8Xuy6190/video.htmlsi=RQAnwWFh4-WjTjov&t=6345
Clearly, even Horne thinks that there is a lower limit to how thin a larger singer can get without the weight loss adversely affecting the voice, and Callas seems to have gone below that threshold.
@@Shahrdad 🙂My point is she hadn't always been larger.
@@Fairpavel And my point is that although she clearly had weight fluctuations pre-1953, she was never as skinny as she became by the end of 1954. Even at her thinnest prior to the "diet," she had always been curvy and voluptuous. And as photos show, even then, she could be incredibly beautiful, though not in a fashion model, Audrey Hepburn way. Callas never needed to be morbidly obese to sing well, but there was definitely a weight threshold below which her voice changed and ceased to function the same way as it had prior to the massive weight loss.
@@Shahrdad I am sorry I cannot show you the pictures. However, by "slender" I mean as slender as in 1955.
You really do a great impression of Callas. You're giving Angelina Jolie a run for her money.
I am a day late in catching this! Thank you for unbiasedly expressing facts and using comparisons to back your facts up. We all appreciate your dedication and commitment to preserving Bel Canto and bringing the phantoms of the opera back to speak with us!
*1. An incredible instrument with a unique timbre. Her voice is instantly recognizable and sounds like no one else. 2. A fairly large voice with a large range, flexibility, and a multitude of colors that enabled her to sing from Lyric Coloratura to (in her early days) Dramatic Soprano roles. 3. Her unequaled musicality and acting. 4. Her tempestuous personal and professional life. 5. Her unconventional beauty and sense of style.*
6 Bel canto schooling, 7 Hard work, 8 Soprano and contralto, 8 The Fire
A great singer must-should be able to sing a note straight without any wobble, particularly in legato, Callas could not control unintended vibrato, she worked her way around it with more emphesis on histrionics, to cover up. I find her voice grinding, schreeky and the shift between chest to head voice, and vise versa, lacking seemlesnes, it's like two different singers. But she was a good actress, and should have settled with that. The fact she came back on tour with de Stefano, years after retirement, tells me she never realized how bad she sounded. The London concert on CZcams,,,,,,,,,,shows her poor judgement. And she certanly did not need the money. Joan Sutherland said very politly; "She expected to much from her voice", and that she was " haming" it. Sorry Callas fans but I am not seduced by her celebrity as a tragidienne.
@@annedanotha-thing2509 The only one who could "cry" with her voice. You can see her crying when listening her records.
@@lenapires7793 Yes, she could colour the tone with a tearful sound
Sooooo good, so far! I'm only 15 minutes into this, and already see what an amazing job you've done! Can't wait to hear and see the rest!!
Great done! Chapeau especially "acting Callas". 👍😲🎶
Greetings from a Tenor Collegue 🇨🇭 to 🇬🇧,
J.B. 🙋♂️
I thought that this video was BRILLIANT and wonderful and I learned a lot about the controversial Callas I adore. MANY thanks for everyone involved in its productions. Bravissimi to the commentator. WHAT A TRIUMPH. Grazie. x and happy holidays
This is such an insightful, thought-provoking, and yes, fun! video to watch. I completely agree with the fact that Callas is immense, not because she was the best lyric artist (IMO that doesn't even exist), but because she did show that Bel Canto, properly understood, could bring even a flawed voice to greatness. Thank you so much for sharing.
On a lighter note, the Callas mannerisms are spot on, you could do wonders as a coach on that Angelina Jolie movie currently on production 😅
Yes! I think her contribution to the understanding of bel canto is her greatest legacy.
DON'T NAG US WITH THIS ANGELINA JOLIE SHENANIGANS !
So happy to have another video from you! 💕 Excited to learn more about Callas and Bel Canto! (edit - after watching): that was so moving, I am in tears.
Didn’t Maria Callas tell us that the composer has provided everything in the music. Those composers wrote for singers properly schooled in Bel Canto, they expected performers to have technique. A very interesting video; I think it’s too late to revive that real bel canto method. Too much is glossed over now, singers really don’t seem to bother with the technical things, they sing music with written trills and scales and just fluff through them and everybody cheers. We are becoming more accustomed to see an opera singer in a stadium sucking on a microphone than hearing a real voice, and proper technique, thrilling us in theatre. And drama coming from the composer and the music, not the performer pulling faces and flapping about at random because they think it looks like they are creating a character.
Ps… if anybody thinks a big voice can’t be flexible or sing a trill, listen to Raisa’s acoustic Leonara, the trills and scales are “instrumentally” clear and accurate… I listened to a modern Anna Bolena recently, massively praised for her “acting” but didn’t even bother to attempt the trills in the climax… imagine if instrumentalists pulled faces and “acted” if they couldn’t manage the difficult bits !
Thank you so, so much for sharing your knowledge and research with us! ✨ I've also worked in the bel canto school, and I so appreciate this history being passed on through your channel!
(Signed: another opera CZcamsr with EDS
Another great video, brava! Now I do think she is the greatest of all time, simply because to have perfect skill, or pretty voice, or never losing a voice is not enough to be the greatest. Many are the singers who have had perfect skills, pretty voices or very long careers, yet nobody had the historical impact/importance of Callas. One indeed can point one singer here and there who was better at this and that, yet I dare anyone to name a singer, that overall, was greater than Callas, it will simply not sound right, because its the impact of her art, a combination of her skills and flaws, that proppeled her into this position of such greatness. She is opera history.
That's a very good point, and the reason I made this video is because she is so unavoidably important in the history of opera. But I didn't mean "greatest" to be "most historically significant", I meant it in terms of best all-round artist *as well as* historically significant. I would argue that perhaps Rosa Ponselle had even more impact in the 20th century for setting the trend of dark soprano voices, which influenced Callas among many others, also for being one of the first "naturals" that didn't need the old training, or didn't need to gain experience in Europe before heading straight to starring at the Met after just a few months of coaching. There was no going back after her. I don't believe there is any "greatest singer", because we will never be able to agree on the criteria for choosing one!
I love your passion for Maria and for singing. ❤
54:52 Yes! This can apply to anyone you get advice from tbh
Also, your channel is a gold mine for aspiring singers. I hope it flourishes in the future.
OMG. So happy this video dropped when it did! Welcome back PotO, you're video's are amazing!
Thank you!
Good this is a documentary, thank you so much for existing. I'm a materials science researcher and specialty coffee roaster and this video and La Callas are an inspiration, I reckon that's what magnetic about her, you can tell how deep she felt opera... and the same can be said frío you 😘
Thank you once again for teaching me so much about the Bel canto tradition of training and music, Maria Callas was wonderful and tragic. You are wonderful too, please try not to be tragic also. Take care of yourself.
Your callas impersonation is top notch!
One must admit that Callas was always exciting.
That was great to watch (and listen to) ! Thank you 😊👏 It was fair and balanced and done with obvious affection and admiration even if you (spoiler!) may not think she was the ‘greatest of all time’! The comparisons were insightful and it inspires me to want to keep doing my exercises and looking to bring out the best I can in music that I do 😊 As with others you shared before, the clip of Rae is a revelation and her Sadler’s Well’s bit was lovely, but Callas’s version was also beautiful and a surprise that it was as late as it was so, as you said, maybe she didn’t really ‘lose her voice’. The clips of the older stars like the Emmy Destinn Leonora were fab and I enjoyed how you looked in detail at the subtleties and variety 💖Brava for putting in so much effort to do this long, moving video!
I’m glad you liked all the examples
@@PhantomsoftheOpera 🙂
Callas's sister said that she did not lose her voice - she lost her health. Her voice wasn't perfect, but her art was - very nearly.
Thanks for making your videos. They're always very interesting.
Looking at some of the comments, I can confidently say the cult of personality is real! I can’t believe this video is in any way looked at as a condescending critique of her - rather than a critique at the musical stylings, teachings and dying art of bel canto *of this period.* I see this video as a musing of what could’ve been for Callas had bel canto not been seemingly at it’s death rattle at the moment. Nobody is subject to some academic critique, even Callas.
She will always be a powerful, unique and unrivaled singer for so many….but she is still an artist who took her studies seriously, and I completely believe she would’ve still been studying and striving to perfect her art to this day if she were still alive! That’s why she was the best!
Dear teacher; what ones can say when we discover such a video, just thank you for your... generosity, sapiency and originality; also charming.
The actress who performs" Maria Callas" is brilliant - she really is...Callas - without singing.
I learn a lot ...
They are very " mediocres" videos , so this one... really give me " emotion" and restless" at the same.
Thanks for the examples and the quality of the análisis of the theme.
Brilliant!! and please, more like this.
As a voice student myself, I found your channel at the right time, which is towards the beginning of my journey. I’ve loved singing my whole life and I love classical music, but I’ve always been a bit turned off by many of the operatic voices of today. While I do have a preference for the sound and singing of early Baroque (e.g. Monteverdi, Strozzi, etc.), I was glad to hear that the often heavy and overly dark voices of today aren’t necessary for the operas of later eras. And, luckily for me, my teacher shares many of my sentiments. I’m looking forward to discussing a lot of the things covered in this video with them!
The Pride and Prejudice insert about killed me 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
That said, the pendulum always swings back...opera will absolutely go back to more natural sounds, it's just a matter of when. I spoke to my teacher about this, and since he has a currently working opera career, I tend believe him when he said he agreed with me. He also sees the trends better than I can at the moment, and he absolutely believes the tide will turn to more natural ,light bright voices, and considering I am one myself, I was important to hear that one day my voice type will be welcome on the opera stages again.
Thank you for all your work. You have so beautifully put into words what my ears have been hearing for years now. Thank you, thank you ✨
This is all so important and you clearly hit upon the distinction of two completely separated systems of vocal emission, tied to two completely separated musical CULTURES. Brava!
Thank you for this deep dive into the voice of Callas. I learned a lot from your fair and fact supported narrative. Still, for me at least, there is something about her work that transcends all verbal description, that "je ne sais quoi", I suppose. And that transcendence that cannot be fully captured with words is what makes all great art great. There will never be another Callas! Viva La Callas!
Fantastic work and video. I would just like to say that of all the recordings of Callas you played a clip of, the 1964 recording was the Callas voice that I first heard that blew my mind. The fact it was a period in which she doubted herself makes sense as this would mean she was emotionally vulnerable and sensitive at that time which is a very necessary place to be in producing your best art, especially as a musician. She may not have known it, but it is that work that will and probably has made her transcend opera on a way no other opera singer has and cut into people's hearts whether they are opera lovers or not, as it sounds so real and sincere making you forget you are listening to opera at all as if someone was expressing themselves to you in normal everyday behaviour and language with sincerity. I also would like to add that the great opera singers of the 1800's you speak of did not have gospel and blues music to learn something new from that was to Western music so revolutionary, and there is no doubt in my mind the changes in Callas' style entering the 1950's is very much Callas hearing and being sensitive to the musical art around her of her time (such as from Mahalia Jackson to Coltrane and Monk for example) and responding to it in a very intelligent and powerful way to create something that is not only distinctly Maria Callas as an artist, but a Maria Callas vocal style for Opera revealing an understanding of how to reach people emotionally to levels achieved by jazz, gospel and blues music where the art is so powerful a physical response is provoked by the music, leaving you responding physically whether you want to or not, be it by dancing, laughing, feeling inspired or by releasing tears. I think this is the magic of Callas that she could reach these places with her operatic voice, it's texture and her understanding that there is a job of improvisation to do, not just in jazz, blues and gospel, but in opera through the improvisations of phrasing, colours, tones, contrast in gentility and aggression, and so on, and this one must be good at to compose something within the original compositions of the opera piece created by the composer, and Callas knew she could do it well which would not be the case for all musicians no matter how good their technical ability. This involves a spiritual understanding that is carried into an artists work. It's a blessing from God to have this understanding and ability to use it and she had both the understanding and ability because she was a blessing from God, blessed to be singing at a time of such musical power and revolution happening in the world around her from jazz to blues and blues to gospel and she was very much a part of this revolution, but participating in it alone in the opera arena which made her stand out today and forever as an operatic thunderbolt where it will be very hard for her position to be challenged as what she has done is so unique m. Even if others follow her approach and do it well or better, transcending opera through opera in it's purest form, she will always be the first. Peace and love
A very nice video! You imitate Maria very well......even the small movements and manners 👍👍👍👍
Firstly, what a well crafted video! It is obvious the countless hours of effort you put into this. I am a young university student studying opera performance and a long time Callas fan (or stan,if you will). I really appreciate this as an educational resource for understanding, through the framing of Callas’s career, the practice of Bel Canto.
Something that came to mind when listening to your statement on your life’s mission to teach bel canto was, “Huh, what better a space than CZcams?” Truly, the video platform here is educational and wide-reaching in a way no other format is. Live teaching sessions would cost money and be limited to a seating capacity. Books, though possible to be distributed to a larger audience, are limited by their printed words. You can write as many adjectives on a page as you want, but the only way a singer will understand how to make a sound is by hearing a sound. CD’s don’t have the visual aspect that is also essential to teaching (ambusher, jaw placement, posture, etc.), and DVD’s could perhaps do the job, but in the new digital age, the youngest generations of singers won’t be purchasing these.
All this to say that I believe you have chosen the best place to spread your teachings, me being evidence to their efficacy. I wish you the best with all future projects! I’ll be tuning in.
You are so amazing!! Great work!!
Amazing how much influence Callas has on you. You've got her down to the T. You could've played her in a biopic. Would've liked to see if you could portray the tigress Callas.
Loved the video. So insightful!
Extraordinary! 📽 BRAVA BRAA BRAVA! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Ciao. Non ho ancora finito di vedere tutto il video, ma devo dirti che sei divertente e gradevole :)
Operatic heroism. Thank you for this Miss Phantom 🎶💙
Thank you! 🥰
Amazing work, thank you so much for this amazing video!!
We will never get another Callas.
Thank you for doing these enchanting videos. I love every minute of what you do, even if cannot fully understand all of it just yet.
Amazing work. Bravo!
I love your Channel, work and research. Congratulations!!!
Thankyou so much for your videos, they truly inspire me in my singing journey. It almost makes me emotional to think about the school of belcanto and how it has disappeared over the last century in favour of a technique that, to me, doesn't feel intuitively right.
I would absolutely love to see more recordings of your teacher on this channel, she is such an inspiration. Love from Vienna
I thoroughly enjoyed this assessment of Maria Callas’s voice and career.
Wonderfully produced and represented. I applaud you endlessly. Great Job! And long live Bel Canto!!!
thank you for your work!
An informative presentation. Maria put herself in a class on her own.
This is such a great channel 😍👏🏻
I am very touched and very thankful for this video.
GRAZIE GRAZIE GRAZIE
Brava, brava, brava. ❤
Welcome back. You have been missed. Please keep doing what you're doing.
She speaks perfect English, Greek, Italian, French - WOW!!!
Exceptional presentation! ❤️❤️❤️ Callas!
As a singer I don't see faults is her singing. I see choices of an extremely smart and talented artist.
Thank you, that's a beautiful and thought provoking piece of work! 🙏💝
Maria Callas was primarily an original and a very individual kind of voice and talent. So in that sense, no, there will never be another Maria Callas, and there is no need. We can only lament that so little of her was put on film so that we can only imagine the full range of her acting talent. Incidentally, before Maria Callas there was the immense influence of Feodor Chaliapine in the field of operatic acting. So as revolutionary as Maria Callas may have been as an actress, I believe we can safely say that operatic acting has drastically improved. At the same time the conceptual modern stage directions have created quite a new challenge for opera singers. It would be very hard to imagine Maria Callas in some (many? most?) of those very free interpretations of the 19th century repertoire. But it's definitely something that contemporary opera singers have to deal with. As an example, here's the Mad Scene from Hamlet, sung and acted by Lisette Oropesa: czcams.com/video/xqI82nvAWNY/video.htmlsi=AtbBovtLy3R_Smaj She does an exceptional job at combining her acting in a challenging staging, with some very expressive, secure en precise singing. She in one example of a new generation that shows great promise for the future of Bel Canto style singing. And there are many more!
I do not believe in the decline of vocal technique. Vocal technique is very much a dynamic thing, and very much dependent on the type and style of music a singer chooses to sing. "Classical" vocal technique is already a very broad spectrum of approaches, tastes and opinions. But also the modern day and ages dictates that one's ears are trained and focused very differently. Classical repertoire once was modern, it was most common that in the 19th century the majority of the works that were performed were contemporary. So composers would write for the voices they were used to hearing, singers who sang with a technique of that era. It is only since the 20th century that classical music has become a kind of musical museum. Singing contemporary music became a specialism, especially in the light of atonal music. So there was quite suddenly a separation in 'classical' singing, or should I say, the definition of classical singing, where the schooling was based on 19th century music, and the contemporary music (Stockhausen, Boulez, Cage, Xenakis, etc.) left the singers to their own devices. In this setting we could say that Cathy Berberian was the Adelina Patti of the atonal part of the 20th century. Meanwhile in the past few decades, many composers went back to a tonal idiom, and the 19th century vocal technique is being applied successfully to those works (Pärt, Adams, Tavener, Glass etc.)
As for Bel Canto technique, here are a few thoughts that I would like to add to the excellent discourse in the video.
First of all, there is the issue of volume. It is my belief that the increased demand for higher volume singing is very much part of the reason that many voices lost their flexibily. Or should I say, the focus on volume has become so predominant, that agility has become optional. But agility can only be achieved if there is at least flexibility in the volume. Singining at full power always, will render the vocal cords unable to make the micro-movements necessary for precise and fast agility. When I was studying Rossini a lot, I read in a biography that in the earlier years of his life when he was writing most of his operas, critics would some times complain 'we cannot hear the singers any more'. This was referring to the balance of Rossini's orchestration with the voices. Since the early 19th century, the repertoire has been evolving extremely fast. Rossini himself said, at the time he stopped composing (in between Semiramide and Guillaume Tell): no one is able to sing my music any more. I believe he was commenting on the style of singing, where many singers were already losing agility, and possibly also he referred to the higher volumes. I believe it was Rossini also who, when he first heard a tenor sing a 'full voice' high C, commented that it sounded like a pig being slaughtered. There was probably some humor in his remark, but it's still a refection on how these kind of sounds were quite new and modern. Soon after Rossini came Verdi and Wagner, and their music is so much heavier in orchestration and overall dramatic demands, that singers were quite rapidly challenged to sing in a different way, louder! And then then came verismo: louder, and the opera houses often became larger.
In my year spent with Rossini, I began to work from the Manuel Garcia excercise book. What I found very fascinating already is the fact that the first page of excercises is just the unifying of the registers, the lower one defined as chest. I believe that this is one important detail that has become obscured in the female training in the modern interpretation of bel canto technique. It is clearly indicated that this chest register should be trained up to middle F-G. Many (good) female singers seem to sing everything in a non-chest register, and only go in chest for drama, or often it sounds involuntary and untrained because all they did was avoid to go in there. There are of course exceptions, like Agnes Baltsa, Rita Streich, Brigitte Fassbaender, Frederica vomn Stade, to name a few. Overall the mezzo's and contralto's are more inclined to train their lower notes in the chest voice, for obvious reasons. For the vocal nerds, I highly recommend this excellent video where this specific topic is being illistrated with many many examples (including Maria Callas) from 1903-1980, short samples with scrolling sheet music and explanations what to listen to. Fascinating stuff!
Can’t wait to watch this ❤
I am about halfway through your video. It is an extraordinary document about the art of singing; it is a pure treat and fascinatingly interesting. Brava!
Thank you ! Well done ! 👏👏👏👏👏
you are amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is great 😊
For an hour and thirteen minutes, my eyes were briming up with tears. Any other words would be superfluous.
Oh, Ziazan, every time you put a video out, the sun shines and your rainbow graces us indeed. The depth and beauty of what you are doing are sans pareil. Auguri e ringrazio..
That's so sweet, thank you!
I wish I had more people to discuss opera with. So much to learn. I read entry found a singer with the first name Sabine..I think she’s amazing, but I don’t know if it’s just because I don’t know enough about opera. This video was fantastic.
This is spectacular! BRAVA #PotO!!! This is very enlightening, and so well produced AND performed! You are doing a great service to our great art, as well as to Callas and Bel Canto!
Loved this video so much! Wonderful context and research. I've watched it several times over. One question (of several) that pops up for me is this: We know that de Hidalgo was Callas' primary voice teacher who gave her the Bel Canto training. But we also know that Callas wasn't de Hidalgo's only pupil at the conservatory. Did de Hidalgo produce any other singers that sang in line with the Bel Canto tradition? And if not, how is it that Callas was the only student of de Hidalgo's to carry it on?
A beautiful, critically focused video essay. Your loving approach to gently educating is wonderful and inspiring. Brava! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I absolutely adore that “Mimi” shirt 💜 I have one like it in pink- I never noticed the resemblance to the classic Mimi costume- haha
Eternamente Maria Callas...!!!
Diva Assoluta Eterna...!!!
La Unica Divina Greca...!!!
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Your work and investment are AMAZING Thank you
Very interesting, great video. I'd love more comparison between Callas and the belcanto soprano of "the past". I'd love a comparison between Callas and Tetrazzini in operas like Lucia, La sonnambula e il Trovatore. Thanks for posting this video ❤
I think the metaphor of the pearl necklace has been the clearest to me around what "legato" is. That each pearl (note) is connected by the thread.
Thank you so much for this wonderful, insightful video! I learned so much from it -- your discussion and descriptions of bel canto technique are fascinating and thought-provoking. Have you thought of creating a piece about your own teacher, Rae Woodland, with examples of her technique? I have also heard Joan Sutherland described as an exemplar of bel canto singing, and wonder how she might compare to Callas or to singers of the past. I look forward to more of your videos on this subject!
I love this exposition of Belcanto. I always thought classical music had to be sang with clarity of vocals, diction, a clear tone and less of a wobbling vibrato. Do you wanna train a high tenor in the pure belcanto and agility techniques?
This video shows me why I need to add you. I need some Bel Canto Culture added to my already formidable training!
A delightful presentation! I started singing with a naturally very light voice, and most teachers I had suggested heavy, dark pieces that dragged my voice down, or romantic tones that lended itself to verismo presentation. I should have known about Bel Canto...but didn't. This is an excellent video to present the missing element in my voice. Even at 84, I can improve and properly address the "Potter's vessel" which I once performed, to my great shock....and quite well....albeit accidentally.
Excellent video, well presented, informative and entertaining, one could not ask for anything more. Somewhat surprised there was no menton of Joan Sutherland, who sang Bel Canto roles in the same era.
Sutherland’s career started around 1960 and she ‘did well to copy’ Callas - as Callas told her.
Bravissima! What a pleasure to watch and learn from your delightful videos - I'm not a singer but I greatly enjoy operatic singing and your artful presentation and clear explanations really help me to deepen my knowledge and to sharpen my ear. And your spectral dialogues are simply exquisite, though it's hard to believe that Callas felt herself insufficient in expressing herself considering her clear proficiency in (presumably at least) four languages :) But I'm a little confused - I believe that there were several renowned post-'60s bel canto singers such as Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballé - did they not also contribute to continued interest and training in the bel canto style? Is it really so moribund nowadays?
Brava!!!!
you are an AMAZING mimic and also a splendid advocate
You are the greatest
I’m a young singer in the conservatory and love every point in this video. I have many fellow students that is trying ti force there sound to get bigger voices, but i have decided not to go down that route! I’m also going to look in to the Panofka and the Concone vokalises Right away!! ❤️ Thanks🙌🙌🙌
That's great! I would recommend starting with Mathilde Marchesi, she explains a lot as well as giving progressive exercises and vocalises: archive.org/details/belcantotheoreti0000marc
And you can work through these exercises of Panofka before getting onto the hard vocalises: vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/e/ec/IMSLP39413-PMLP86522-Panofka,_Heinrich_-_Vocal_ABC.pdf
Amazing video! I think there is demand for this from modern audiences. However, they won’t want to listen to something they can’t relate to! New works telling the stories of today can do that. As you stated at the end of the video, I think the bright future of opera (and classical music for that matter!) is in the hands of wonderful current artists and musicians like yourself.
I think it's a shame there aren't enough beautiful and exciting new operas, but I don't agree that young people can't relate to 'old' stories.. I mean audiences in Bellini's time weren't ancient Druids and could relate to the passions in the story..
@@livrowland171 Of course! Old stories can still be relatable, but they are made relatable by those retelling them. Bellini brought that old story to audiences of his time in a way they connected to it, just as composers today can bring stories of the past to contemporary audiences!
What you’re doing is definitely worth it. As I mentioned in another comment, I don’t know much at all about opera, much less bel canto-but the first thing which stood out to me when I started paying attention was bel canto and how everything about it seemed so beautiful, how the singers seemed so committed to their art. Just anecdotally-what first tweaked my interest was reading an old antebellum novel-“Beulah” by Augusta Evans-who had her heroine sing “Casta Diva”, apparently not many years after it was first performed. Her beautiful singing of it gave her superiority over some rich snobby rivals lol. A strange way to get interested in it, but whatever works:) So I’m looking things up, listening on YT, etc. And I realise that as far as I can understand it, I have a preference for it over verismo, Wagner, etc.
But I’m just weird that way maybe-I also very much regret that I’m too late to get to see undiluted Bournonville style ballet, because from what I know and the little I’ve seen, I prefer it over the other styles/schools. And now even its home in Denmark has incorporated Russian and Balanchine style into their teaching and performance.
Such a pity. Because apparently Bournonville style isn’t flashy enough for modern audiences, no touching their ankles to their ears etc.
You made me realize
I don't focus enough
On every peak and trough
Of those I idolize
Please don't stop making videos