Leoncavallo: Pagliacci

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Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Milano

Tullio Serafin

While Pagliacci’s regular companion piece, Cavalleria rusticana, figured prominently in Callas’s early career, Leoncavallo’s one-acter had no place in her stage repertoire. But as Gramophone wrote of this recording: ‘When Callas [as Nedda] and Gobbi [as Tonio] are on the stage the drama is strikingly unfolded … There has been [no Nedda] more urgently or pressingly feminine than Callas … the only one to create real tension at the idea of Canio reading her thoughts; the only one to give meaning … to her mood as the birds fly overhead; and … the only one to greet her lover with delight.’

Nedda: Maria Callas

Canio: Giuseppe Di Stefano

Tonio: Tito Gobbi

Beppe: Nicola Monti

Silvio: Rolando Panerai