Gluck: Alceste

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Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Milano

Carlo Maria Giulini

Alceste, in 1954, was the first of two Gluck operas that Callas sang at La Scala, followed three years later by an Italian version of Iphigénie en Tauride. It was in the 1953–54 season that she rose to become “Queen of La Scala”, also singing Medea. Elisabetta (Don Carlo) and Giulia (La vestale) at the Milanese theatre. Her conductor for Alceste was Carlo Maria Giulini. Describing Callas in the role of the Ancient Greek queen who is prepared to sacrifice herself so that her husband may live, he said: “[She] was opera incarnate – absolute harmony between word, music and action … In all my years in the opera house I have never known an artist like Callas. Hers is no fabricated legend: she truly did have something different.”

Alceste: Maria Callas

Admeto: Renato Gavarini

Il Sommo Sacerdote (d’Apollo) - High Priest of Apollo: Paolo Silveri

Tanato (il dio della morte) - God of Death: Silvio Maionica

L’Araldo - Herald: Enrico Campi

La voce dell’Oracolo - Voice of the Oracle: Nicola Zaccaria