Unseen photos: an emotional Maria Callas with Herbert von Karajan at La Scala in the ’50s
An (almost) unseen photo from the archives at Teatro alla Scala which shows an emotional Maria Callas moved to tears by the incredible success of her Lucia di Lammermoor as the curtain closes mid-performance. A young Herbert von Karajan looks pleased too.
These historic performances of Donizetti’s opera were during the 1954/5 season.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
Beautiful picture. Callas shared the same emotion about her art as did her audience. She was unique in so many ways, truly irreplaceable. The closest I got to her was seeing her performance costumes on display at a museum in Westwood. Even that was a chilling experience. Even though she shared her great gifts with the world, she is gone too soon.
Of course, von Karajan is laughing, the Nazi! Not that she was much of a human being, either!
I was at that great performance. I also attended all its rehearsals. They were also great. Callas was always very professional, arriving on time and completely prepared. Whatever Karajan asked her to do she complied beautifully.
Karajan was, is & passed as a hateful self loathing ignorant arrogant pos in dolce & Gabbana. The racist snake studied la callas shoulders (breath control, before each line inhale) & when her shoulders rose he knew she was about to sing & made her sound off. I forget exactly how look it up