Medea

Serafin is not at all dull and undramatic in this performance as Gramophone has written but in my opinion just classically restrained. The conducting tempi are however slower than other recorded performance versions. But this doesn't mean dull, considering that this is a very emotionally intense opera even a restrained reading is a passionate one. The EMI remastering of this edition is a miracle of sound remastering. The opening overture is a splendid musical work given an equally splendid performance here. Callas may not have reached the electrifying fireworks of the Bernstein version but she is still all the same exceptional and fully immersed in the role. For the record it should be noted that some critics have written that she is "off form" in this studio recording. It doesn't seem to me to be very grave however. The full and contrasting emotions of the character are exceptionally conveyed in what is, notwithstanding the minimal restraint, an unforgetable performance all the same. Although this performance is all about Callas the parts of Neris, Medea's attendant sung by Miariam Pirazzini (?),that of Glauce (Renata Scotto) and Jason (Mirto Picchi) are notable .Of the 3 versions available the one with the worst sound is the Bernstein one, which however maybe the most electrifying and dramatic for a one time listen, but with repeated listenings the bad sound may become a very big problem. It is mainly of historical importance and for a one time listen for experts and connoisseurs. The Dallas performance may be the most musically perfect, but probably not the most beautiful or faithful to Cherubini's intentions emotionally. This new re-mastering is probably the most enjoyable and the most listenable of all the available performances. Recommended.

Callas at her fiercest and most vocal

[This review also posted on MusicWeb International]Medea was a role which Callas kept in her repertoire over the glory years of her career from the revival in Florence in 1953 until the 1962 La Scala performances under Thomas Schippers. She sang it 31 times and recorded it for Ricordi in 1957; it was a role which ideally suited her vocal gifts and temperament, and which offered complexity of characterisation without unduly exposing her voice to undue wear and tear, yet simultaneously offering maximum scope for the singularity of her stage presence. Medea does not appear on stage until well over half an hour into the opera, yet henceforth, from the moment of her baleful intrusion, her presence looms over the whole proceedings if the role is interpreted by a great singing actress such as Callas. It was of course also her role as a film actress when she was directed by Pasolini in "Medea", made in 1969-70 when her singing career was over.I have dipped into four others in addition to listening to this live BBC recording, ranging from that first in the Maggio Musicale under Gui, to the famous five performances under Bernstein at La Scala later the same year, the studio set and the two runs under Rescigno at Dallas in 1958 and here at the Royal Opera. Callas is superb in all of them and considerations governing choice, if only one is required, depend more on quality of her co-singers and the clarity of recording itself. The solitary studio recording made under Serafin's measured baton, has since been accepted into its Callas canon by EMI; it is a rather more staid affair, lacking both the best cast and the electricity of a live performance, but it still merits consideration in that it is the only option in good stereo sound. This latest issue is in fact marginally the most muffled of all the other mono recordings, with both voices and orchestra rather too distant but offering the compensations of a stellar cast and the recreation of the excitement of live theatre.Callas herself gives little evidence of any vocal deterioration; her vibrato in 1953 was marginally tighter and top notes slightly less inclined to flap, but really differences over the six years covered by the recordings I mention above are negligible. The worst sound amongst the live recordings is in Dallas in 1958 but for many this is the most impassioned performance and even the earliest recording from Florence in 1953 is perfectly listenable despite some echo. If you sample her lovely Act One aria, "Dei tuoi figli" from all of them, you will simply hear an amazing interpretative and artistic consistency. Callas encompasses all the tortured anti-heroine's moods, from her chilling first entry to the heart-breaking intensity of her plea to Giasone to return to her in "Torna a me!", all the while maintaining the loveliest legato and an immediacy of utterance that no singer since has ever emulated. Her B flats on "Perché Giasone è mio", the top B on "senti" just before "Dei tuoi figli" and "Dell'Orco", and even a slightly effortful top C at the end of Act Two all remain secure and stupendous; she is suffering womanhood incarnate.Her co-singers here are much the same as in Dallas the year before and offer the best cast; the replacement of the excellent Berganza by Cossotto as Neris is no loss as you may hear from Cossotto's poised account of her beautiful aria, "Solo un pianto" which forms the emotional still point at the heart of this most turbulent of operas. Vickers repeats his noble Giasone, singing smoothly and heroically; he is better than either the stentorian Gino Penno or the less imposing Mirto Picchi, good as they both are. The quality of the Royal Operas cast is immediately established by the delightful voices of two British unknowns as the maidservants and then especially by the under-recorded Joan Carlyle, who is in purest voice as Glaucis and preferable even to Scotto in the studio recording. Zaccaria adds his big, smooth, incisive bass to the mix as an impressive Creonte. The whole is expansively and dramatically conducted by Rescigno, always the most sensitive accompanist to Callas in her latter years.If you don't already own the Dallas performance, this is the one to have if you want to hear La Divina in finest form in a favourite role, worthily accompanied.PS: the London recording has now been issued by Pristine Classics, remastered from a new and better radio source into Ambient Stereo, and it sounds superb.