That recording quality tho. And why is there someone talking over it? x_x
By the way Mumei have you watched her Medea movie? I was interested in it, but then I read it's not the actual opera and she doesn't even sing in it? Why.jpg
Also I'm at a point where I still can't notice any wobble (not even in later recordings) so she always sounds great to me. Maybe it's for the best lol.
There are duplicates here, of course, but I mostly went by going to accounts that I knew had lots of Callas uploads and pulling from them. I'd rather have too much overlap than miss things. I didn't grab everything, though, so I would still recommend checking out those accounts for more.
Also, one of the accounts has a tendency to excitedly announce some high note in the title, which is sometimes a half step higher than what the note actually is. I don't know why, but take those claims with a half a grain of salt.
Awesome thread and extremely informative post, thank you for this. I'm a musician and I have a wealth of information but am sadly lacking in the operatic department so thank you for the knowledge. I have heard the name Maria Callas before and knew a bit about her but this is fascinating stuff to read.
I have tendinitis and carpel tunnel, which I undoubtedly got from improper technique as a youngster. I started playing music when I was around 9 years old but didn't start taking lessons until I was 15. It was around that time I started to learn proper technique which allowed me to play faster, more challenging pieces with ease. But in my 20s I started to feel pains associated with tendinitis. Even though I had corrected my technique, the damage had been done when I was younger from playing incorrectly. I'd wager that was the same thing with Maria Callas. When you damage your tendons/vocal chords, they unfortunately stay damaged permanently. You can take precautions and fix your technique but even still, there can be a nagging pain/issue that keeps you from being able to perform the way you used to perform.
I realized I forgot to respond to this part of your post earlier, and I didn't want to just skip it entirely!
This is more or less exactly what is described in The Unknown Callas: The Greek Years, except that the problem was said to be a weakness in her diaphragm rather than the vocal folds. From the sounds of it, she had a really severe wobble throughout her voice at that time. It was only in the mid/late-1940s that her wobble was basically gone, and when it reappeared it was only ever after above ~A5.
