Maria Callas - La Callas... Toujours
The career of Maria Callas was just a bit too early and too brief to  receive full and satisfying video documentation like that now being accorded to  such singers as Renée Fleming and Luciano Pavarotti. This black-and-white  televised recital (Callas's Paris debut) took place at the Paris Opera on  December 19, 1958 when television was still in its infancy. We might wish that  it had happened earlier, when her voice was in better condition, or later, when  video recording technology was more advanced--so that, for example, we would not  have to take the narrator's word that Callas is wearing a red dress. But this is  probably the best available Callas video recording, and her fans will welcome it  warmly. Visual elements were as important as the vocal dimensions in her art.The material, carefully chosen to show Callas at her best and most versatile,  includes "Casta Diva" from Bellini'sNorma(a Callas specialty), the  haunting "Miserere" scene from Verdi'sIl trovatore, and the mischievous  "Una voce poco fa" from Rossini'sBarber of Seville, a fine series of  stylistic contrasts in which the essential point is not pure tonal beauty but  characterization and subtle expressive nuances. Others have made this music  sound prettier; nobody has presented it with more impact.But the climax of this program is its second half, a staged performance of Act  II of Puccini'sTosca. This is a study in police brutality, sexual  harassment, and sheer violence, psychological and physical, that has some of  opera's most extreme moments--including the great aria "Vissi d'arte," the  murder of the villain Scarpia, and the contemptuous dismissal flung at his  corpse--"and all Rome trembled before him!" In this segment, Callas goes mano a  mano with Tito Gobbi, her only equal as a singing actor during her career. They  savor this material in a virtuoso performance.--Joe McLellan