Maria Callas, von Karajan - Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor - Berlin 1955

180-gram vinyl 3LP box set!

First vinyl edition of the opera Lucia di Lammermoor

Remastered from the original analog tapes

33 1/3 lacquer cuts by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio

Pressed in France by Marciac Workshop Pressings

Limited to 5,000 hand-numbered copies

16-bit album download included

Includes 40-page booklet and a facsimile of the performance program

Celebrating the 100th birthday of acclaimed soprano Maria Callas!

Frédéric D'Oria-Nicolas, founder and director of The Lost Recordings record label, explains how this exceptional 3LP release of Lucia di Lammermoor, recorded September 29, 1955, came to be. Recorded at the Städtische Oper Berlin, the cast featured Di Stefano, Panerai, Karajan and the renowned and influential soprano Maria Callas.

"In May 2022, while we were working in the archives of the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), we came across the original tapes of this mythical recording made in 1955. It was certainly one of the most significant testimonies of the lyric art of the twentieth century.

"Despite the fact that the first forty seconds of the first tape had deteriorated, when we listened to the minutes of the recording that followed, we heard timbres with a richness and a dynamic that bore no comparison to other recordings that have been known until the present. It took four months of painstaking work to restore all the brilliance to the orchestra, to the Scala choir and to the legendary voices of this poignant slice of history and of music.

"We wanted to be able to release our first vinyl edition of the opera in a limited number of 5,000 on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Maria Callas. Kevin Gray made the cutting and the three records were pressed in our very own workshop in the south of France, MWP, to our usual stringent standards.

"We are very grateful to the RBB for their trust in us. We would also like to thank the Callas Foundation, which safeguards and promotes Callas's legacy, and especially Tom Volf, for their help, as well as for the photographs they provided." —  Frédéric D'Oria-Nicolas, founder and director of The Lost Recordings

Tom Volf, president of the Maria Callas Foundation, says there's a personal connection with Callas's Lucia, calling it a "wonderful example of what it felt like to hear Callas on stage, in a performance that became legendary."

"Maria Callas said she "hated" recording for commercial (studio) releases and used to say that only live performances could convey her artistry in its full spectrum. In the later years of her life, she would collect her own pirate recordings and would often listen to performances such as this one. The best account of that comes from Robert Sutherland, her pianist during the last tour of concerts in 1973-74, who recalled the evenings spent at Callas's apartment at Avenue Georges Mandel:

"We listened to a pirate recording of the Berlin Lucia. She remembered how Karajan angered the soloists by repeating the sextet without warning them. As we listened to the encore she said ‘You can hear how angry I was! And I still had the mad scene to sing! I told him afterwards at dinner that he dare not do that again on me or there would be trouble!' We listened to the mad scene, an amazing performance. She was visibly impressed. ‘I don't now how I did it. I just don't know how - and to think that I wept after that performance because I thought I was so far off my aim.' I had difficulty in expressing my reaction. Such a combination of controlled technical brilliance and artistic imagination was astounding. I attempted it with, ‘It's marvellous singing...' ‘Marvellous? Marvellous?' She pulled herself up in the sofa. ‘It isn't marvellous, it's bloody miraculous!'"

"Back at that time, pirate recordings circulated among avid admirers in the form of homemade LP's, such as those released by the BJR label which is probably the one that Callas was listening to that night with Robert Sutherland. Today, however, we have to commend Frédéric D'Oria-Nicolas and The Lost Recordings for retrieving the original tapes in Berlin and meticulously restoring them to a quality of sound which surpasses any previous release, thus providing us with the most authentic rendition of that historical performance. Therefore it was only natural for the Callas Foundation to be associated with this publication, providing texts and images to illustrate the booklet and honour the memory of Maria Callas through this magnificent edition celebrating her 100th anniversary."

Features:
RIAS Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Herbert von Karajan, conductor
Recorded on Sept. 29, 1955 at Städtische Oper Berlin, Germany

Cast:
Maria Callas, Lucia
Giuseppe Di Stefano, Edgardo
Rolando Panerai, Enrico
Nicola Zaccaria, Raimondo
Giuseppe Zampieri, Arturo
Luisa Villa, Alisa
Mario Carlin, Normanno
Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Milan

 

 

 

Disc 1 - Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor: Act I

1. Prelude

2. Percorrete... Percorriamo le spiagge vicine

3. Tu sei turbato!... E n’ho ben d’onde

4. Cruda, funesta smania

5. Il tuo dubbio è omai certezza... Come vinti da stanchezza

6. La pietade in suo favore

7. Ancor non giunse?

8. Regnava nel silenzio alta la notte e bruna

9. Quando rapito in estasi

10. Egli s'avanza... Lucia, perdona se ad ora inusitata

11. Sulla tomba che rinserra il tradito genitore

12. Qui di sposa eterna fede... Ah, soltanto il nostro foco

13. Ah, talor del tuo pensiero venga un foglio messaggero

14. Verranno a te sull'aure i miei sospiri ardenti

Disc 2 - Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor: Act II

15. Lucia fra poco a te verrà... Tremante l’aspetto

16. Appressati, Lucia... Il pallor funesto, orrendo

17. Soffriva nel pianto... Un folle t’accese

18. Che fia?... Suonar di giubilo

19. Se tradirmi tu potrai... Tu che vedi il pianto mio

20. Per te d’immenso giubilo... Per poco fra le tenebre sparì lavos tra stella

21. Dov e Lucia?... Qui giungere or la vedrem

22. Piange la madre estinta

23. Chi mi frena in tal momento

24. T’allontana, sciagurato... Rispettate in me di Dio

25. Sconsigliato! In queste porte chi ti guida?

26. Esci, fuggi, il furor che mi accende

Disc 3 - Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor: Act III

27. D’immenso giubilo s’innalzi un grido

28. Dalle stanze ove Lucia tratta avea col suo consorte

29. Oh! Qual funesto avvenimento!

30. Il dolce suono mi colpì di sua voce!...

31. Ardon gli incensi

32. Spargi d'amaro pianto

33. Tombe degli avi miei

34. Fra poco a me ricovero darà negletto avello

35. Oh, meschina! Oh, fato orrendo!

36. Tu che a Dio spiegasti l’ali

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