Young Callas caps O patria mia with a 10sec long Divine pianissimo C6

Highlighted comments from the commmenters below:
-From jmiller05
I never get people who think Price was the ultimate Aida.... and after hearing this I don't even know how they can prove it. Callas's recitative always gives me chills in Aida and her High C is placed so perfectly and with such longing in the voice. Plus she sings the final phrases with more melancholy than anyone has ever infused into Verdi's music.
Also Merry Christmas! :D
-From Roman Shmelkov
Che meraviglia, un vero dono della natura! Una voce chiara e opaca, profonda e densa. Nessuna come lei. Una leggenda per i secoli
-From numetutelare:
Ascoltando arie come questa cantata da Maria nel suo splendore vocale si comprende perché molti soprano sono grandi interpreti e professioniste ma solo lei é una leggenda .....é il suo unicum ad essere ineguagliabile ...... Il C6 pianissimo é da capogiro, solo un'altra volta ho avuto una simile emozione, sentendo il Di Stefano degli inizi nel suo clamoroso diminuendo nel Faust mai riuscito ad altri .... Ci sono pochi cantanti che hanno fatto la storia della lirica... gli altri devono farsi bastare la cronaca.
Disclaimer - I own nothing

[@voceangelo]

Did you hear the audience audibly draw a breath after that last note before they cheered? She held them in a spell so deep they barely breathed. This is how this aria should always be sung. She is the gold standard.

[@cedricsmith505]

Robusta Capp by the doctor next

[@nelsonjoseperez-sosa8809]

I was always an admirer of Callas. Since my very early years I would play her recordings over and over. As time passed I realized that Callas was not only a great singer, but a musical genius!

[@julesmanresa2302]

Price and Callas offer different things. I find the quality of acting and dramatic interpretation to be very similar - Price was always praised for her dramatic fervor on stage, but she certainly doesn't sing with tears in the voice as Callas does. Then again, there is one Callas and all the rest of us are mere mortals (or at best, angels and saints). I think I can recognize the superhuman achievement of Callas' Aida and still revere the Price Aida. Callas' Aida doesn't make Price look utterly incompetent, and honestly, Price's Aida is better judged by her earlier rather than later work, which I find to be cleaner stylistically and less swooping. 1957-72 Price was a lot better. She worked with first-rate conductors and orchestras. That said, this is simply exquisite, obviously the definitive because it is Callas singing it. The colors, the gestures I can hear, it's all so breathtaking, it's opera as it always should be, profoundly dramatic in the Aristotelian sense. This is what opera was invented for. Price offers a certain treasure that audiences and critics have always delighted in, but objectively, I reluctantly say this is on a different plane: I yield to genius whenever it presents itself, as we all should. With Price we touch heaven, but Callas makes us see God, as she is one of his finest creations. I wish Price sang more cleanly at times and I find the diction to be a bit spread, but that's likely because of her gospel roots: when you begin in a particular style it becomes difficult to unlearn those mannerisms. Ultimately, Price is still a first-class voice who could have sang assoluta roles but stressed preserving the voice and was very cautious about what she sang. Callas sacrificed herself to art, nevermind what always was a healthy vocal choice.

[@Trinite33]

"Our great Verdi would have found her [Leontyne Price] to be the ideal Aida," an Italian critic wrote after Price's La Scala debut as "The Definitive Aida." Now, your glaring error here is that Price's roots are in Gospel performance. Absolutely not! Her roots are actually in the interpretation of Spirituals - Big, Big Difference. African American Spirituals are to music as Lieder and Mélodie are to music. They constitute the complete refinement of vocal technique that is essential to a balanced and perfect voice resulting in an instrument that can sing anything. It is true, however, that later in her career Price did lend her glorious instrument to some very refined and moving interpretation of some of Thomas Dorsey’s beautiful Gospels. In this regard, we contrast Callas who only sang opera. This means that neither her voice nor her vocal technique was ever fully developed over the complete range of possible vocal musical production. Anyone who sings only one genre of music will have basic vocal flaws, both in the voice and in its production, that is, its technique, which quickly appeared in Callas' vocal performance, a weakening and ultimate savaging of the voice. Her histrionics on stage is what really sets her apart from all other singers, except of course the great Feodor Chaliapin, perhaps the greatest actor who ever set foot on an opera stage. And it is precisely Callas' histrionics that Leontyne praised whenever she spoke of her. I have never heard the Assoluta praise Callas as a pure singer, while that accolade is exactly the high regard in which she holds Marian Anderson, Price's ideal singer who to her is the embodiment of the "Ave Maria." She said of Callas, "She makes me want to go out on stage and do a better job [of acting]." Price, The Assoluta, knew her singers and exactly how to categorize them; and she gave no quarter in that respect. No doubt the Assoluta loved Callas, and Callas the Assoluta, but she would never have been a vocal student of La Divina. She loved the vocal art in its entirety just that much. And it is telling that she began and ended her peerless music career as a recitalist, the most perfect and demanding of the vocal art forms, and not as a mere opera singer. She never sacrificed that perfect instrument, molded by the Hands of God to represent His Own Perfect Voice, and Lovingly placed it in her consummate throat, on the altar of mere fame and, even worse, caprice. No, Price is that rarest of opera Divas who put the music of the beauty of performance of a perfectly tuned instrument to the service of the healing of the human soul itself. Sherrill Milnes said of her, "Listening to Leontyne sing is like having a spiritual experience." Mezzo-soprano Denis Graves said of her, "Hearing her sing is like looking at the Face of God." Mezzo Marilyn Horne said of her, "This is singing of the first rank, the very highest order." For these reasons, and others besides, Leontyne Price is "The Prima Donna Assoluta." She is "The Diva of all divas no matter whom," to quote Time Magazine and Radio Canada. In Heaven, all the singers will be gathered closely around God’s throne singing His Praises. Leontyne will be sitting on His Lap.

[@numetutelare]

E' perfetta in ogni momento ma sono stupefacenti le sue messe di voce che ormai quasi nessuno riesce a fare correttamente... una voce la cui linea di canto in quest'aria lei lei riesce a far piangere mentre fraseggia...

[@andrecooper3663]

Speaking of comparisons, not even Callas could compete with early Callas.

[@lukasmiller486]

Leontyne Price gives you pretty singing. Maria Callas gives you fire and brimstone.

[@celloguy]

Thank you for all these early Callas jewels. This has never been more beautifully or movingly sung, ever. Is this her finest performance? I think it must be.

[@LohengrinO]

Well before I post I usually listen to all of them.. this one I think is the most detailed and decorated with myriads of vocal colors and technical details... but it is very difficult to choose the best cause every time you listen to a Callas performance it is as if you notice something entirely different that your brain didnt manage to notice last time... endless details... and people have no idea how Callas sang in her early years with all these video clips of hers in full vocal decline that have 500 000 - 1 000 000+ views in KZbin

[@deadwalke9588]

I think Callas would agree that even in the vocal decline era, that's where she had her most profound moments in singing and in art. The early Callas is great and all but once you've been submerged into '56-'64 ; ''69-'75 Callas and the nuances are still sharp it's hard to go back to the early part of her career. Most of the recordings are usually distorted and are horrible (even by 1940's standards) but the ones remastered shows an intelligent artist even when the voice was unresponsive at times.

[@LohengrinO]

deadwalke Callas herself had described her early singing as "bloody miraculous" and I personally find very little extra refining in her later performances... 95% of the Genius was there from the begining because as Caballe had said: Callas was born with the ability to actually to be able to see whence reading a score EVERYTHING... all the phrases, the colors, the gestures... and she was amazed that others couldnt see all that as well... (in other words I am afraid I dont vote for the late Callas theory one bit)

[@garygenemckenzie469]

I wish she hadn't starved herself down. I think this photo shows a lovely, voluptuous woman with a voice to match, beacause that IS what she had.

[@arnoldamaral7406]

Gary Gene Mckenzie I totally agree if she would of just lost 25 pounds etc. She was a very beautiful woman before the weight loss.What a narcissistic hateful woman her mother was. To treat our Maya like she wasn't loved since infancy. Arnold Bourbon Amaral

[@romanshmelkov9144]

Che meraviglia, un vero dono della natura! Una voce chiara e opaca, profonda e densa. Nessuna come lei. Una leggenda per i secoli

[@fabriziomariagarzi5534]

bravo, vero.

[@numetutelare]

Ascoltando arie come questa cantata da Maria nel suo splendore vocale si comprende perché molti soprano sono grandi interpreti e professioniste ma solo lei é una leggenda .....é il suo unicum ad essere ineguagliabile ...... Il C6 pianissimo é da capogiro, solo un'altra volta ho avuto una simile emozione, sentendo il Di Stefano degli inizi nel suo clamoroso diminuendo nel Faust mai riuscito ad altri .... Ci sono pochi cantanti che hanno fatto la storia della lirica... gli altri devono farsi bastare la cronaca.

[@casimiralexander]

The only Soprano that sings this as a prayer. As it must be. Wow* Also, i.live the still, she honored that Aida was African and did not come off as "blackface", but as an African woman. Callas is Aida Exquisite, vocally, and interpretively. My God! That this artistry existed on earth.

[@neilcowan6789]

I heard Price in Aida atbthecShrine Auditorium in LA with the San Francisco Opera in the mid 60s. At least 60% of the audience was African American. That huge theater roared and rocked with approval. Price’s velvet voice was superb and her portamento exemplary. As a neophyte Callas fan due to the Angel boxed sets and actually seeing her at the Civic Auditorium in 1959 and later seeing her in my aunt’s driveway (!) with the Queen of Greece and SF mayor Christopher who was Greek I can never deny her artistic superiority. But Price, whom I later met at Carnegie Hall, was phenomenal. I also met Callas backstage during her farewell tour with h DiStefano and it was my fault. Irene Dunne was behind me and she waved me aside. Still I can’t imagine why Onassis only gave her half a tanker. I assume it was because she was rich. BTW Ari suffered from myasthenia gravis, ant at 77 I developed it too.

[@beachfanatic2010]

I've never heard this recording before. Some people state that Callas could not sing high and soft and this recording proves everybody wrong. Her pianissimos here are so much on point and not only the high C but all of them.

[@LohengrinO]

She is phenomenal here... the details are myriads... the vocal control is superhuman... she literally paints with her Voice like Michelangelo would... it is impossible to produce singing of this kind

[@gd3172]

yea. i agree with u! and this is not the only recording that proves everybody wrong about Callas not being able to sing high and soft.. hear her sonnambula. she did a dimuendo on a high Eb. changing the volume and dynamics of a high note is not very easy, and she pulled it off phenomenally!

[@LohengrinO]

Callas' recorded l egacy is full of piani and pianissimi and not only in two diferent volumes but in infinite volumes... those who claim she couldnt sing piani / pianissimi havent heard her recordings at all...

[@jjh2456]

chosentenore you know her Gilda very well. Callas had pianissimos for days with that role.

[@SilfredoSerrano]

She made a career of singing high and soft. And loud. And medium. Come to think of it, she sang high ,low, in between, etc.

[@pammyjones1151]

Sublime......and real!!....thank you 😚

[@biancalajolo8764]

Un'estensione vocale eccezionale e prodigiosa. Maria Callas, un mito!

[@tiagocosta8648]

Qui Radamès verrà!... Che vorrà dirmi? Io tremo... Ah! se tu vieni A recarmi, o crudel, l'ultimo addio, Del Nilo i cupi vortici Mi daran tomba... e pace forse, e oblio. O patria mia, mai più ti revedrò! O cieli azzurri, o dolci aure native, Dove sereno il nio mattin brillò, O verdi colli, o profumate rive, O patria mia, mai più ti revedrò! O fresche valli, o queto asil beato, Che un dì promesso dall'amor mi fu; Or che d'amore il sogno è dileguato, O patria mia, non ti vedrò mai più!

[@arnoldamaral7406]

Tiago Costa Thank you my friend.I really appreciate it when someone sends the complete lyrics of any ARIA/SONG to forward to my friends that show great interest in Opera etc. Take care 😷😳🌍🌎🌏 Arnold Bourbon Amaral 🙏

[@asastigenlund8656]

As ever, when I hear Callas or Bjoerling sing no one comes near. They never disappoint!

[@XPRT10R]

the 10 seconds sustained note is not a C, but a Bb. The C6 occurs in the earlier crescendo phrase.

[@juanmorales569]

I have always had a problem with Aida. In a word it leaves me cold, except when Callas sings it. There are colors in her interpretation that the others just don't have. Even if the others do a technically commendable job, for me, only Callas gives it feeling, more than feeling it has dimension, qualities from one phrase to the next that makes me empathise with what she is singing. I read once that Callas fell into a kind of trance when she sang. I know that sounds a little corny but it is a good explanation of how she became the character that she was singing. It is that ability to become that character with her voice and with her entire being that is unexplainable. Again thank you Lohengrin O for sharing this lovely piece.

[@lukacs37]

Stunning! ❤❤❤❤❤

[@rugby8-Philadelphia]

Oh damnnnnnnnnnnnn.....out of this world ...........sighhhhhhhh 🤪🤪🤪

[@janie1929]

AMAZING!

[@fabriziomariagarzi5534]

Caro Roman,sono sempre d'accordo con te.

[@papaki88]

In my opinion, this is her best live Aida, except from the E flats from the other two renditions in 1950 and 1951. Here (London 1953) we have a slightly more mature Callas voice. The feelings, the emotions, the temperament, the power, the intesity flood Covent Garden. She definitely would have blown any other soprano off the stage in this role.

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

george pangeo another commenter says this is Mexico June 5th 1950

[@papaki88]

you are right i got distracted by the photo of the video which is in that period of her 1953 London Aida which is my favorite also. Nevertheless this is 1950 but not her 30th of May performance also, its part of fragments from another performance in 1950, which is very rare!!!! :)

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

george pangeo thanks!

[@malipasta1]

Where is this from? As the surface sound is quite bad I assume one of the Mexico city performances. The Rome ex 1950 is in much better sound so is London. Love your posts but often they are not located or dated.

[@LohengrinO]

always not located - dated and never will be

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

I remember commenting once on one of your videos that Callas had matched her voice to a cor anglais and you said you had never heard this comment before. But now I can’t find which video!

[@marcopaolocastagna7842]

Forse pochi sanno che noi appassionati di lirica siamo "in debito di gratitudine" con la madre di Maria Callas, la quale ha voluto che la figlia studiasse canto e non odontoiatria. Maria Kalogheropoulos infatti desiderava avviarsi a quella carriera. Per nostra fortuna ha poi intrapreso gli studi di canto con i risultati che ben conosciamo ed apprezziamo.

[@fotiskaras9654]

And then Aida transforms into Norma 1955 for the last couple of minutes

[@LohengrinO]

και νόμιζα οτι μιλούσες μεταφορικά... το movie maker που χρησιμοποιώ μου έκανε merge δύο tracks... πάντως και μεταφορικά έστεκε το σχόλιό σου... :D

[@casagrandecantatas]

MOVING!

[@vincenzopezzella6993]

... ad ascoltare questa interpretazione il maestro Verdi si sarebbe inginocchiato davanti a Lei...

[@andrenassife]

You raised the bar too high, my love. ❤️

[@davidhumphrey3842]

Remember..this is YOUNG Callas ! Price sang an almost perfect Aida at her Met farewell in her 50's!!!!!

[@LohengrinO]

age is something terminally not important to the singing product for me... also I would rephrase your remark as: Price sang her always boring Aida at the Met farewell in her 50s... Beautiful voice Price had and a very good range and technique but as she herself said: she sang with the interest and not the capital of her voice (to preserve it till she was old) and the result was just boring... and omg was she so afraid of taking chances in her singing... so cautious

[@rothvinbosley1335]

They say it is one of the most difficult to sing. Very high demanding a dramatic voice. Callas always seems to make these arias her own. Today both Callas and Price are long gone and few are left in either's place. I only heard Price in 1967 at the Met and her voice was very rich and unforgettable. I think Callas was a unique singer and will be for a long time to come. Ponselle was also great technically but none had the emotional impact that Callas' had.

[@LohengrinO]

I agree on Callas and Price... regarding Ponselle, she had Diamond class vocal material but unfortunately, Zero technique to support it... Category of Lazy singers (along with Flagstad and Tebaldi)

[@arnoldamaral7406]

Merry Xmas After slamming Madame Price. And have a happy Tomarrow!& TWICE ON SUNDAY! Oh what a wonderful 🌎. Arnold Bourbon Amaral

[@petergraham8681]

Good to hear Callas in THIS particular recording. I have no idea when it was done & even in her Mexico City performance from 1951, she was not as secure on the pianissimo high C in this aria as she is here. In fact she stopped the show in the Triumphal scene with a high E flat in the 1951 performance while the high C in O Patria Mia here & on other recordings I have heard with her, was nowhere near as solid as what I hear in the above excerpt. As far as Price is concerned, her main claim to fame in her AIDA, in my opinion, was her wonderful upper register. Otherwise, I find her interpretation far less interesting dramatically than what several other sopranos brought to the part such as Callas, Milanov, Rethberg, Spani, Varady, & Gweneth Jones to name a few.

[@LohengrinO]

when I began my Callas-Aida-journey with the studio Aida by Callas I was so disappointed that I agreed with the general opinion that Aida was not a Callas role... after listening to her early Mexico Aidas I now believe that Callas was the greatest Aida of the 20th century with no one even coming close to her... indeed this above example is her best C6 in the role... C6 in general is a very difficult note and when sung piano or pianissimo it becomes a vocal feat of Olympic proportions... Price had a fantastic instrument but she was always so afraid she might crack or do a mistake that she never let herself free to sing which she herself describes as singing with the interest and not the capital of her voice, I describe as singing like a very talented student at the conservatoire

[@jmiller05]

I never get people who think Price was the ultimate Aida.... and after hearing this I don't even know how they can prove it. Callas's recitative always gives me chills in Aida and her High C is placed so perfectly and with such longing in the voice. Plus she sings the final phrases with more melancholy than anyone has ever infused into Verdi's music. Also Merry Christmas! :D

[@vxhorusxv]

+jmiller05 This performance was a monumental achievement, no doubt. And you could probably make an argument that this is a more sophisticated musical reading of the score ... But, there is something Price brings to this role that's almost indefinable. I heard in an interview somewhere a lieder expert commenting on Caballe's performance of lieder and how it was often riddled with errors versus the text and that there were many singers who could and would perform it more accurately ... but, Caballe's was the one he always wanted to hear because it was unsurpassed. That's Price and Aida for me and, I think, for a lot of others. That doesn't take away from the glory of this performance, though :)

[@LohengrinO]

indeed the details Callas adds in this performance are Myriads and done by no other singer...

[@jmiller05]

Vincent Tecchio I can appreciate Price's Aida for sheer beauty of tone, but she never comes close to the detail and nuances Callas puts into the music, as well as the technical facility in which she sings it. Price to me was a vocal purist, but musically she was never really channelling the role. Listen to her reading of this aria, and the words are so much less emphasised than Callas, and it's like she's just ploughing through the score to sing her gorgeous high C. Callas adds incredible rubato, is constantly changing the volume of the line, mixing colours in her middle to low voice and singing dynamics on the high tones. Price to me never compared to Callas in anything she sang, and this is by no means a dig at her.

[@vxhorusxv]

I definitely get more than plowing through the score from her, but I'm happy that we can agree that both performers are exquisite in their ways!

[@RestlessTheRED]

Of course she wasn't. Price has always been your typical post-war mediocre soprano with no understanding about correct vocal placement whatsoever. Her voice was all over the place: deep, stuck in the throat, non-resonant.

[@mertuncensored]

My favorite version along with Giannina Arangi-Lombardi.

[@LohengrinO]

noooooooooooooo... the greatest in this aria is the legendary singer Kaluna Putsa Margala

[@mertuncensored]

Who is Kaluna Putsa Margala?

[@daniel_5606]

Great low notes...

[@elisabethpetronellalautrup3915]

❤💖

[@marlenehartley7742]

What year was this and where? Is the entire opera available?

[@cantorbernie]

Breathtaking. When and where was the performance?

[@philipc67]

This sounds like Mexico City 1951.

[@LohengrinO]

nope :p

[@philipc67]

Then is it Rome 1950, Mexico 1950 or Covent Garden 1953?

And the add in the middle of the C......

[@arnoldamaral7406]

Milan Perišić Per usual. 😵 Arnold Bourbon Amaral

[@iaronbehar9762]

Definitely one of the best Aidas... I think that Price is overrated, her italian isn't that good but her singing is still impressive and her recorded performances show a complete comprehension of the role, however, in my opinion, there are other singers with much interesting voices and interpretations than hers, such as Aprile Millo (I would say the best Aida I ever heard), Maria Callas as we just saw, among others... but I don't think Price's Aida should be called as the "ultimate" Aida, she did a really good job, yet there are others that did even a better job than her.

[@arnoldamaral7406]

Iaron Behar You poor dear 😢🙏 Arnold Bourbon Amaral

[@lucaleonetti183]

Peccato la registrazione... Sono sempre due voci a cantare, una voce così ricca di armonici ha del sovrannaturale...

[@delflorida2480]

It is the Surface and the Core...Singers Like Ms. Price,with beautiful voices, show the Surface,and some of the meaning of the music. Others. show the deeper meaning,and express the beauty of the music from the inside outward. Both are good. All are doing their best. We can love and appreciate both approaches. But some,like Callas, is closer to completely fulfilling the composer's intentions. Either/or..right or wrong is called Dualism, and is false,delusional reasoning. Very harmful thinking.

[@davosblack2749]

This is an early Christmas gift 😩

[@LohengrinO]

I wish I had her 1952 Kostanze or her 1955 Fedora to post for you :D

[@davosblack2749]

Lohengrin O I would marry you for a Giordano hahah

[@LohengrinO]

Jack Ricciardi :D... You do know that there is 20 minute dying scene of Fedora at the end of the opera :D Just imagine....!!

[@toy2day1]

2:57

[@rosebud3971]

no SOUND

[@wjanevansandbergen3463]

Sorry maar L , Price doet mij helemaal niets, ondanks haar hoge noten en weet niet wat meer,nee sorry.

[@LohengrinO]

I dont like L Price at all as Aida as well :D

[@mehmetdundar8622]

Callas medea

[@TheAleph74]

Divina, still not as mind blowing as Price’s last O Patria Mia from the Met

[@arnoldamaral7406]

Aaron Alarcon That was a special night at 57 yrs 👑💙. Arnold Bourbon Amaral

[@mbadiapamies4850]

5:45