Fifty years ago today, on 3 October 1968, Tullio Serafin died in Rome. In a long career he conducted singers from Caruso to Pavarotti. He was born near Venice in 1878, but when he was 11 the family moved to Milan where he eventually played viola at La Scala under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, […]
Tullio Serafin
A first listen to the new Maria Callas Live: Remastered Live Recordings 1949-1964
More than a gift to their own coffers, Warner Classics in releasing Maria Callas Live is giving fans of La Divina and lovers of opera a meticulously restored collection of some of her finest performances to treasure. It is timed to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of her death in Paris on 16 September 1977. The […]
Maria Callas was a tenor
In a bizarre muddle-up by someone at the Verona Sera online news service, a headline stated that 2 August was the 70th Anniversary of ‘tenor’ Maria Callas’s debut at the Verona Arena. Part of a large group of online local news sites, the Verona Sera headline read: Verona remembers Maria Callas, a bronze statue will […]
Interview with Virginia Zeani at 90 “My brain believes that I’m eternally young”
Inside I feel 50, outside I feel 70, and my brain believes that I’m eternally young. But on 21 October the great soprano Virginia Zeani will be 90. Naturally, many of my friends are dead. It’s normal. One is condemned after 70 to see many friends die, so when one reaches 90… well, I hope […]
Fiorenza Cossotto answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A in italiano When did you start singing? When I was a girl. Why did you start singing? For my own personal enjoyment. Which singer inspired you most when you were young? No one. Which singer do you most admire? The good ones. What’s your favourite role? More than one… all the masterpieces. What role […]
Newly discovered letters by Maria Callas on the eve of her Norma début
On 13 May a group of letters written by Maria Callas to her teacher Elvira de Hidalgo will go under the hammer. Callas auditioned for de Hidalgo – herself a famous coloratura soprano – in Greece in 1939. It was de Hidalgo who understood the potential of this voice and moved Callas toward the repertoire that […]
Will the real Maria Callas please stand up
Anthony Tommasini, critic for the New York Times, has some very interesting points to make about the real Maria Callas, and Terrence McNally’s fictional one, currently to be see on Broadway interpreted by Tyne Daly. Here is a selection of his article (the link to the original is below): The first student, called Sophie, an […]
