Maria Callas · Performance Annals 1934
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MARIA CALLAS PERFORMANCE ANNALS AND DISCOGRAPHY INTRODUCTION These annals began in 1988 as a few notes scribbled to a computer in Boulder Colorado when the first pirates of the live performances appeared on compact disc. The inconsistency of performance dates and other details on those early CDs prompted me to do further research that began with John Ardoin’s The Callas Legacy. Later, yearning to know what had been performed between all those recorded performances, I borrowed the book containing Arthur Germond’s performance annals from the University of Colorado Music School Library, and have continued to work on the project to this day. Performance annals allow us to comprehend the scope of an artist’s career, and knowing the programme of all participants in a recital is important. I realize that presenting entire programmes from the student years in Athens seems excessive, but I feel it enhances our understanding of the environment where Maria Callas lived and studied in her youth. This chronology is a compilation of the research of many people. The work of a few has been almost heroic in scope: Arthur Germond was the first to publish detailed annals representing all cast changes; John Ardoin was perhaps the first to compile annals and to comprehensively analyze the recorded performances, indeed these annals began their life as a tabular version of Legacy; Poly´vios Marsán was the first to present programme information from the Greek school days and early career in Athens; Níkos Petsális-Diomídis has published the most comprehensive analysis of any singer’s formative years ever undertaken, indeed one-thousand pages covering a seven year period 1938-1945 with emphasis on early musical experience and training, as well as the politics and the climate of the times. Corrections are appreciated, no matter how trivial, from everyone. I am still searching for information such as completed and corrected casts, production designers, stage directors, etc. Frank Hamilton Frankfurt a/M. September 1996 [email protected] http://FrankHamilton.org MARIA CALLAS PERFORMANCE ANNALS 1934-1977 EDITED BY FRANK HAMILTON © 2010 legend + sources ag hw Arthur Germond’s performance annals form the core of this work, and were published in the Henry Wisneski book, Maria Callas : The Art Behind the Legend, Doubleday & Company, New York, 1975. They hav ebeen merged with information from the following sources: pm Miguel Patrón Marchand (Poly´vios Marsán), María Kállas : Her Hellenic Career, Gnósi, Athens 1983. Marchand’s research discovered programmes and other data that have become the principal source of history for the performances in Greece. The first thirty pages of these annals are based on this. Guillermo Ramírez, New York, 1993, 1998, translated the Greek programmes from the Poly´vios Marsán book. pd Níkos Petsális-Diomídis, H ágnosti Kallas, Kastaniótis Editions, Athens 1998. A com- prehensive biography of her early life in Athens, history of the era, one-thousand pages. Performance data translated from Greek by Christo Misirlóglou, Frankfurt am Main, 1998. Nicholas Petsális-Diomídis, The Unknown Callas : The Greek Years, Amadeus Press, Portland, Oregon 2001. cl John Ardoin, The Callas Legacy, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York 1977, 1982, 1991. The descriptions of interviews, many quotes, and some performance data, are from this book. The dates Ardoin indicates for some interviews appear to be the dates the interviews were broadcast; I have transposed some to the actual date of the interview when known. rr Réal la Rochelle, Callas : l’opéra du disque, Christian Bourgois éditeur, 1997. Provides day by day chronologies of many EMI recording sessions. : was recorded — Lines beginning with a colon are performances that were recorded, albeit sometimes with temporary loss of transmission. ; was partially recorded — Lines beginning with a semicolon are performances that were at least partially recorded. ˜ are performances that are known to have been broadcast although no recording appears to have been preserved — from Réal la Rochelle, Callas : l’opéra du disque. Dates occurring toward the end of a line indicate that the cast or programme of the current performance was the same as on that previous date. fh [ ]s indicate performances where Callas may not have participated or programme items/dates that are suspect. Comments enclosed with [ ]s or prefixed with fh are mine. Artists enclosed in large [ ]s represent alternating casts through a series of performances, or that share common roles in the current performance, logic determines which. Callas’ name Maria Callas is represented here by the name Kalogeropoúlou during the Athens years, and thereafter simply as Maria Callas. Howev er, during the great years of the Italian career she was always programmed as Maria Meneghini Callas. sources • Renzo & Roberto Allegri, Callas by Callas, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., Milano, 1997; Wilhelm Heyne Verlag München, 1998. af John Ardoin / Gerald Fitzgerald, Callas : The Art and the Life — The Great Years, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York/Chicago/San Francisco, 1974; Thames and Hudson, London 1974. The Great Years for names of directors, set and costume designers taken from reproductions of La Scala, Covent Garden, and Opéra bills. • John Ardoin, Maria Callas : The Early Years Opera Quarterly III, 2 (1985). ja John Ardoin, Dallas, Texas, programme information from his collection. • Pablo D. Berruti, Buenos Aires, producer of Divina Records: http://www.divinarecords.com • Jackie Callas, Sisters, St. Martin’s Press, 1989. • Lycia Collins, The Art of Maria Callas • Her Greatest Roles: http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/˜type40/callas • John Hunt, The art of the diva, published by John Hunt, 1997. Printed by Short Run Press, Exeter. Contains discographies of Muzio, Callas, and Olivero from Lp and compact disc, albeit without exact performance dates. Also reproduced here are programmes from London Royal Festival Hall concerts presented by S. A. Gorlinsky. wl Wouter B. Loeve, Breda, Nederland, provides programme information for performances in Athens, and has written about her concerts in the following publications: • Wouter B. Loeve, The Concerts during the Greek Career 1938 - 1945: Maria Callas Magazine—The Maria Callas International Club, No. 16, October 1995. • Wouter B. Loeve, The Concerts during the Great Theatre Years 1947 - 1958: Maria Callas Magazine—The Maria Callas International Club, No. 17, February 1996. • Giorgio Migliavacca, British Virgin Islands: from article of August 3, 1997, posted to the Opera-L electronic mailing list (http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/opera-l.html), based on information from June 1997 issue of Milan based monthly L’Opera. • Pasolini über Pasolini : im Gespräch mit Jon Halliday: Folio Verlag, Wien/Bozen 1995. mp Milan Petkovic, Toronto, Canada: translations from Jacques Lorcey, Maria Callas,PAC editions, Paris 1977; Réal la Rochelle, Callas la diva et le vinyle, Les editions Triptique, Montreal 1987. • Alan Sanders: Walter Legge : A Discography. Greenwood Press, Westport, 1984. ms Michael Scott, Maria Meneghini Callas, Simon & Schuster, Ltd., England 1991; Northeastern University Press, Boston 1992. For much information about plans and performances that never quite happened, and at least the surnames of many stage directors. rs Robert Sutherland, Maria Callas : Diaries of a Friendship, Constable and Company Limited, London 1999. For some details about the Japanese portion of the final tour. sources The following reference books are listed alphabetically by venue: • Il Teatro Donizetti [Bergamo] : Cronologia degli spettacoli 1786 - 1989: Ermanno Comuzio: Lucchetti Editore, Bergamo 1990. • Hundert Jahre Theater des Westens »Berlin« 1996-1996: Propyläen Verlag 1996. • Dall’Accademia all’Istituzione : Settant’anni di musica a Cagliari: Ludovica Romagnino, Franco Masala, Tiziana Scalas: Istituzione dei concerti e del teatro lirico Cagliari 1994. • Musica, musicisti e teatri a Catania (dal mito alla cronaca): Domenico Danzuso, Giovanni Idonea: Publisicula Editrice, Palermo 1985. • Lyric Opera of Chicago: Claudia Cassidy: published by Lyric Opera of Chicago 1979. • La Scala West : The Dallas Opera under Kelly and Rescigno: Ronald L. Davis: Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas 2000. • Il Maggio Musicale Fiorentino: Leonardo Pinzauti: Vallecchi Editore Firenze, 1967. Programmi e manifestazioni 1928 - 1967, a cura di Giorgio Ciarpaglini. • Teatro Comunale di Firenze : Maggio Musicale Fiorentino : Catalogo delle manifestazioni 1928-1997: Casa Editrice Le Lettere: progetto Aloma Bardi; a cura di Almoa Bardi e Mauro Conti; realizzazione Prescott Productions, Firenze: Volume I: Casa Editrice Le Lettere 1998. • II Palcoscenici della Lirica : Cronologia del Falcone al Nuovo Carlo Felice 1645 - 1992: Roberto Iovino, I. Aliprandi, S. Licciardello, K. Tocchi: Sagep Editrice di Genova 1993. • O Teatro de S. Carlos : Dois Séculos de História, Volume II (Espectáculos Líricos 1793 - 1993): Mário Moreau: Hugin Editores, Lda., Lisboa 1999. • Dos Siglos de Ópera en México: José Octavio Sosa; Mónica Escobedo: Secretaría de Educación Pública 1988. • María Callas : Una mujer, una voz, un mito: Aurelio de los Reyes: Cronología de Óperas by Violeta Domínguez: Instituto Nacional, Mexico City 2000. • L’archivio della Scala — LaScalaWeb: Luigi Bianchi: maggio 1996: http://www.lascala.milano.it; http://www.teatroallascala.org • Archives of the Juilliard School, New York: Office of Special Projects: Master Class Records, Box 2, fo. 10. • Archives of the Metropolitan