Le bal masque/1956

Description

Exceptional reissue meticulously restored in 24-bit/96Hz, produced by Abbey Road Studios from the original tapes. The production of Un Bal masqué at La Scala in 1957 marked the first stage appearance of Maria Callas in a work by Verdi. That same year, the Milanese audience could also applaud her in La Somnambule (Bellini) and Anna Bolena (Donizetti). This recording was made a year earlier. She shared the bill with Giuseppe di Stefano, notably in the soprano-tenor duet of Act II - the most spectacular that Verdi composed. It was the last time Callas and di Stefano performed together in an opera. They would reunite in the 70s for Vêpres siciliennes in Turin, as well as a joint concert tour that would take them across Europe, the United States, Canada, South Korea, and Japan. The British magazine Gramophone praised this version of Un Bal Masqué as one of the "most indisputable testimonies of Callas's art."