This live recording of Macbeth perpetuates Callas’s interpretation of a role that she only sang in one run of performances, at La Scala in 1952. There were plans for her to repeat it at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1959, but they failed to come to fruition. Her dark, but flexible tone, her on-stage magnetism and her command of dramatic nuance made her unforgettable as Shakespeare’s fatally ambitious Scottish noblewoman. The following year, Callas was to collaborate again with the great conductor Victor de Sabata, when she made her first recording of Tosca, a landmark in the Warner Classics catalogue.
Macbeth: Enzo Mascherini |
Lady Macbeth: Maria Callas |
Banco: Italo Tajo |
Macduff: Gino Penno |
Malcolm: Luciano Della Pergola |
Una dama - A Lady-in-waiting: Angela Vercelli |
Un medico - A Doctor: Dario Caselli |
Un servo - A Servant: Attilio Barbesi |
Un sicario - A Murderer: Mario Tommasini |
Un araldo - A Herald: Ivo Vinco |