Early Callas blasts a HUGE D6 in Leonora’s aria

Highlight comments from the listeners below: From philipc67: She sets the standard with her very first Leonora, live in Mexico in the summer of 1950. She was not yet 27 years old and prepared the role alone. This is indeed sublime singing, observe the even placement of the voice all throughout the range, the reining in of her Assoluta instrument to produce those miraculous soft trills and chiaroscuro tones, the total control of diminuendo and pianissimo, the superb phrasing, her trademark “tears in the voice“ like black diamonds, that violent high D-flat which comes out of nowhere. She will do it again six months later at the San Carlo di Napoli under Serafin in a somewhat more refined and restrained interpretation. Other singers (Sutherland, Price, Caballe et al) take their time with this piece, showing off indulgent high notes etc, but Maria invests it with the despair Verdi must have imagined. I listened to this the other evening, having survived a bad day, and she made me WEEP. Not one of all “the others“ can do it. -From Moirbasso I think the thing that is so amazing about this recording, is not just the singing (which is astounding, considering the size of her voice) but the almost cavalier way in which Callas sings the music, EXACTLY as it was written, and then makes it seem effortless on top of it all! Others have written that the tempo here was without any spurious rubati - and they are correct. I love other singers in this role, but the scope of Callas’ instrument going from “D’Amor“ to “Miserere“ is just mind-boggling. Disclaimer - I own nothing