Maria Callas — Bellini: Norma, Naxos Historical (3CD Box Set)

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Product Details

• UPC: 6369431325247
• Label: Naxos Historical
• Composer: Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835)
• Performers: Maria Callas (Norma), Mario Filippeschi (Pollione), Ebe Stignani (Adalgisa), Nicola Rossi-Lemeni (Oroveso), Paolo Caroli (Flavio), Rina Cavallari (Clotilde); Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Tullio Serafin, conductor
• Catalogue Number: 8.110325-27
• Original Recording: 23 April–3 May 1954, Cinema Metropol, Milan
• Genre: Classical — Opera (Bel Canto)
• Country of Producing: European Union (EU)

Product Features

• Format: 3CD Box Set, factory sealed
• Recording: ADD (analogue original, digitally remastered)
• Total Playing Time: 3:18:22
• Includes bonus disc of historical highlights performed by other legendary singers (1927–1936 recordings)
• Reissue producer and restoration engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn (complete opera); Ward Marston (highlights)
• Cover Image: Maria Callas (Tully Potter Collection)

Overview

This 1954 studio recording of Norma is one of the recordings people mean when they talk about Callas's Norma being definitive. The Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Disc called it a "classic, irreplaceable recording," and the reasoning holds up on repeat listening: Callas gives one of her most dramatically intense yet delicately nuanced performances on record here, with a range and variety of expression she never quite matched again in her later stereo remake of the role.

Norma is widely considered one of the most technically demanding soprano roles in the repertoire, and the surrounding cast holds its own against that standard — Ebe Stignani's Adalgisa and Mario Filippeschi's Pollione, under Tullio Serafin, a conductor Callas trusted specifically for bel canto repertoire. This Naxos Historical reissue, remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn, restores the 1954 Cinema Metropol sessions to a clarity that lets the vocal detail through without artificially modernizing the sound.

The third disc adds a genuine extra: highlights from Norma performed by other legendary singers in historical recordings dating from 1927 to 1936, restored by Ward Marston — a useful point of comparison for hearing how the role was approached in the generation before Callas.

Interesting Facts

• This 1954 studio recording is frequently cited by critics as Callas's finest committed-to-tape Norma — more dramatically varied than her later 1960 stereo remake of the same role.
• Norma is considered one of opera's most demanding soprano parts, requiring both bel canto agility and the dramatic weight of a tragic lead — a combination few singers have managed convincingly.
• Tullio Serafin, who conducts here, was one of the conductors most responsible for shaping Callas's early career and her approach to the bel canto repertoire.
• The third disc's historical highlights, dating from 1927 to 1936, predate Callas's own recording by decades, offering a rare direct comparison across generations of Norma interpreters.
• The recording sessions ran from 23 April to 3 May 1954 in Milan's Cinema Metropol, a working film theatre repurposed for orchestral recording — a common practice for major Italian opera sessions of the era.

Track Listing

CD1 — 62:34 1–17. Act I, Scene 1

CD2 — 62:06 1–8. Act I, Scene 2 — 27:59 9–18. Act II, Scenes 1 & 2 — 34:07

CD3 — 73:42 1–10. Act II, Scene 3 — 36:32 11–17. Highlights from Norma, performed by legendary singers — historical recordings, 1927–1936 — 37:10

Publishers

Released by Naxos Historical, catalogue 8.110325-27, © & ℗ 2005 Naxos Rights International Ltd. Reissue producer and restoration engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn (complete opera) and Ward Marston (highlights).

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