Alfredo Kraus, Mario Sereni, Laura Zanini, Maria Cristina de Castro, Piero de Palma, Lisbon National Theatre Orchestra & Chorus of San Carlos - Verdi: La Traviata (Complete opera); Maria Callas; Alfredo Kraus

Poor transfer for an excellent performance!

EMI Callas Lisbon 1958 La Traviata? AWFUL!!!
The performance is excellent, of course, but the transfer is one of the poorest that gramophone history has ever saw! This EMI release was made based on the tapes recorded via radio when the performance was broadcasted in 1958 by RDP (Radio Difusao Portuguesa - Portuguese Radio). The EXCELLENT news is that there is a brand new transfer of the EXACTLY same performance based not on those EMI tapes but by the master tapes owned by RDP (the original source, then). The difference is ABSOLUTELY HUGE! This new release made by the label "Pearl" using those tapes, sometimes makes you wonder if the performance was recorded in mono or stereo! I have both releases, the "EMI" and the "Pearl". Despite the excellent booklet included in EMI edition the Pearl Edition is far superior (specially in matters of sound).
All in sum: the EMI sounds like a bad recording broadcasted in 1958. The "Pearl" edition sounds like you're listening the original mono (almost stereo!) master tapes made in 1958!
Finally, I would like to say that this transfer and Re-equalization was not made by Pearl Engineers but by a engineer and opera scholar named Mike Richter. Shamefully, Pearl hasn't credited Mr. Richter on the booklet but apparently he doesn't seem to mind at all.
For more information about the transfer search on Google for "Callas recording update".
Just buy the new Pearl edition! Even if you already have the EMI edition!
I bought the EMI edition for the excellent booklet notes and substituted the CDs for the ones released by Pearl.
For those wanting more details of the Pearl Edition search for "B0009K8L8E" (without the quotes) on Amazon site. This is the product ASIN Number. June 3, 2008

AVOID THIS REMASTERING OF SUBLIME RECORDING

This is the awful 1997 EMI remastering of the 1958 live Lisbon performance. Please avoid this, see Amazon's listing of the rare out-of-print 1987 CD, available from 'other sellers'. The fascinating source, courtesy of Dr Robert Seletsky: The tape was copied from the original, right after the Lisbon perforrmance, and given to the tenor Kraus, who gave it to a record producer, who issued it on LP in the 1970s and later sold it to EMI, who issued it on LPs, Angel and EMI, in 1980 -'transferred nicely by EMI in 1987, but ruined in the dreadful 1997 remastering'. May 31, 2008

Very, very poor technical quality.

This is the poorest technical quality release I have ever heard. You can hear two men murmuring and talking through the first tracks. Until this work is remastered and this objectionable trait is removed, I would steer well clear of it! September 16, 2007

You had to be there...

What strikes me with all the reviews of this recording I've read here is that the reviewers are a bit smitten by hype: this is the FAMOUS Lisbon Traviata, therefore it's necessarily extraordinary. (Except in the case of the reviewer who did not know he was buying a "famous" Traviata, but had never heard Callas in a full opera anyway and thus had no point of reference.) Everyone seems to be forgetting one thing: they're lauding a performance, not the recording; they're praising something that few of them, if any, have seen. The Lisbon Traviata is famous because of what happened on stage, not because of how it translated onto vinyl. No, this is not great singing from Callas. We all know La Divina was unsurpassed as a stage presence, and some of it can be intuited from this recording, but not enough to qualify it as a pure listening pleasure. She hits an excruciating number of high notes flat, shrills around the top edges, and wobbles enough to give us an ominous preview of what was to happen to her voice very soon. I've no doubt she must have been emotionally overwhelming that night in Lisbon, but I did not see her either, and realistically, the value of what I hear here is historical only. Kraus was indeed an elegant and warm partner for her, but given the overall quality of the recording, I'm not sure that's enough to recommend it. Some reviewers have mentioned the 1955 Callas Traviata under Giulini, and while that recording is arguably even worse technically than this one (and Di Stefano sings like he's determined to show who's got the bigger voice on that stage), it is a much finer document of Callas's singing abilities when she was in her all-too-brief prime. September 15, 2007

Maria Callas, the perfect Traviata

For the first time, after listening to the compelling interpretation of Callas, in the rol of Violeta, I have fully understood the reason why Violeta did not refuse Germont's cruel request for her to abandon Alfredo, because of her type of life. Violeta sees in Alfredo's sister what it could had been her own life, having a marriage and a decent life with the man she loves, instead of having to be a mistress of different men, in order to survive, but without love and prestige. Callas uses an impeccable technique and pathos, that is difficult to describe, unless you listen to this wonderful Traviata. Kraus in the rol of Alfredo, is in his prime with a gorgeous voice and elegant interpretation. The sound is unbelievable for a live performance. August 9, 2007

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