Maria Callas

Based on the plot of Euripides' Medea. Medea centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.

Italy, Europe and America during the 'Dolce Vita' years narrated with unseen and rare footage from NBC Archives in New York.

The career of Maria Callas was just a bit too early and too brief to receive full and satisfying video documentation like that now being accorded to such singers as Renée Fleming and Luciano Pavarotti. This black-and-white televised recital (Callas's Paris debut) took place at the Paris Opera on December 19, 1958 when television was still in its infancy. We might wish that it had happened earlier, when her voice was in better condition, or later, when video recording technology was more advanced--so that, for example, we would not have to take the narrator's word that Callas is wearing a red dress. But this is probably the best available Callas video recording, and her fans will welcome it warmly. Visual elements were as important as the vocal dimensions in her art.

Maria Callas’ legendary live performances from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 1962 and 1964 celebrate her triumphant return to the Covent Garden stage. Repertoire from these performances include Verdi: Tu che le vanità (Don Carlo), Bizet: Habanera & Séguedille (Carmen) and Puccini: Tosca (Act II complete). Her vivid portrayals of the tragic Elisabeth de Valois, the tantalising Carmen, and her vulnerable Tosca (directed by Franco Zeffirelli) captured the hearts of the London audiences. This is Maria Callas as the world remembers her. Renato Cioni, Tito Gobbi, Robert Bowman, Dennis Wicks Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden- Conducted by Georges Prêtre & Carlo Felice Cillario.

Imagine a window into the past. Imagine finally connecting singers' bodies to the voices you have always treasured on record, watching footage of performances from another era. All of singers featured here have something in common (with one exception, Sutherland): they sang and performed on stage before the advent of filmed opera. . And it shows, for the first time, a few tantalizing minutes of recently recovered footage from Callas' legendary Lisbon Traviata, featuring Addio dal Passato and Parigi oh cara with Alfredo Kraus. This DVD will leave you asking for more.

Some of the scenes cut from the final editing of Medea by Pier Paolo Pasolini, fortunately found by L’Officina - a historic Roman film club born in the 1970s - on the initiative of Cinemazero in Pordenone have been preserved and digitized at the Cineteca del Friuli. These materials, with the care of the Pasolini scholar Luciano De Giusti, have been reassembled, accompanied by texts / readings and original music by Paolo Corberi: here are the "Visions of the Medea (traces of a dreamed film)", now a very important document to reconstruct the creative process of production and reliving the poetic / lyrical aura of the film's protagonists and places, including the lagoon of Grado (GO).

At the beginning of 1964, the music world experiences something completely unexpected. Maria Callas returns to the opera stage as the prima donna. Her “Tosca” at the Royal Opera House becomes a sensation. Maria Callas wants to show everyone once again that she deserves the title of “prima donna assoluta.” On the condition that star director Franco Zeffirelli take over the direction, the exceptional singer agrees to sing the role of Tosca. The BBC recorded the 2nd act of the opera for television. It is one of the most dramatic acts in opera history: in order to free the painter Cavaradossi from the hands of torturers, Tosca ends up murdering the police chief Scarpia. The film footage is one of the rare opportunities to see Maria Callas in an opera performance and to experience her highly emotional performance art and vocal abilities...

The documentary shows Maria Callas playing “Tosca”, at the Royal Opera House, London, in 1964. The event gained proportion due to the expectation of her return to the stage.

"To honour the 30th Anniversary of the death of Maria Callas, EMI Classics has put together a compilation of the best moments from its collection of DVD featuring the diva. Thus,there are moments from the television concerts Callas recorded in Hamburg, London and Paris, the interviews she recorded in her home in 1968, and for Paris TV in 1965 & 1969, plus scenes from the 1987 documentary "Life And Art."

The documentary "The Greek Maria Callas", directed by Tassos Psarras, broadcast by ERT1 on Saturday, September 23, 2017, at 13:20, focuses on the Greek period of Callas and the visits to Greece from 1957 until her death .