ICA Classics News

ICA Classics wins 4th Pizzicato ‘Supersonic’ award

20 Apr 2012 | ICA Classics

A fourth ICA Classics CD has received a ‘Supersonic’ award from Pizzicato magazine, a highly respected classical music magazine in Luxembourg. The winning release is the CD featuring...

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Maria Callas (2CDs)

Verdi: La Traviata
Maria Callas / Cesare Valletti / Mario Zanasi / Marie Collier
Forbes Robinson / Ronald Lewis / David Kelly
Royal Opera House Orchestra & Chorus / Nicola Rescigno, conductor
(Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 20 June 1958)

Peter Heyworth in the Observer commented, 'it was a performance of outstanding distinction and musicality, full of details that illuminated again and again the part as though for the first time'. Opera News said, 'there must have been many Verdi lovers who felt at last that they had come face to face with Violetta herself...’ John Ardoin praised the conductor Nicola Rescigno who ‘brings sanity and song to the performance and was remarkably one with Callas in the ends she sought’. This 1958 recording broadcast live by the BBC’s Home Service has been remastered by Paul Baily using the ICA's Ambient Mastering process, which has enhanced and widened the sound considerably.

Catalogue Number: ICAC 5006

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“...this performance preserves what I believe to be by far the best souvenir we have of Callas as Violetta and for once she is properly supported by a distinguished cast. ”

Music Web International - Mar 2011

“Don’t miss this one: sonics aside, it’s the only Traviata you’ll ever need.”

Classics Today - Mar 2011

“Callas's most devoted admirers find this Covent Garden version, her last recorded Violetta, to be definitive. It is the performance I find myself listening to most frequently — both for pleasure and as an example of the role's possibilities when teaching young singers.”

Opera News - Jun 2011

“The overall clarity of the sound is a pleasure, with the immediacy of Callas's vocal presence proving genuinely startling at first hearing.”

Opera Magazine - Jun 2011

“This performance from Covent Garden is in better sounds than any of he others, and though it has been issued on various labels, this ICA Classics recording is the best I have heard.”

BBC Music Magazine - Apr 2011

“Maria Callas's Violetta was one of the wonders of our age: scarily elemental, supernaturally brilliant. After many unofficial releases, the tape of her 20 June 1958 London performance has now been finely remastered as part of ICA Classics' initial releases. (An odd mistake in the booklet suggests this was a private tape, but it was actually a live BBC Home Service broadcast.) Callas sounds less full-voiced, more restrained, than in her 1958 Lisbon performance, but the combination of vocal depth and fragile, eloquent virtuosity is unbeatable and the emotional collapse across the three acts is heartbreaking. Cesare Valletti's Alfredo can't match Alfredo Kraus in Lisbon, but Nicola Rescigno's conducting lifts the performance to the highest level. A classic indeed.”

The Observer - Mar 2011

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4 ICA Classics releases shortlisted for the 2012 ICMA Awards

23 Nov 2011

The Jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) has nominated 2 ICA Classics CDs and 2 DVDs for the 2012 awards in the Historical and DVD Performance categories.

The releases in...

2 ICA Classics releases voted Critic’s Choice for 2011 by Fanfare Magazine

23 Nov 2011

2 ICA Classics releases have recieved Critic’s Choice awards for 2011 from the American Fanfare Magazine. They are the...

ICA Classics wins fourth Diapason d’Or and Pizzicato ‘Supersonic’ award

31 Mar 2011

A fourth ICA Classics DVD has been awarded a Diapason d’Or in Diapason magazine – the latest for the recording of Rudolf Kempe...

Callas Traviata broadcast live by the BBC

18 Jan 2011

Further research has revealed that the recording of the Callas Traviata from Covent Garden was in fact broadcast live by the BBC’s Home Service on 20th June 1958. This revelation gives further...

International Classical Artists to become first artist management company to launch its own audio and audio-visual label ‘ICA CLASSICS’

22 Nov 2010

- February release of 10 DVDs and 8 CDs

- Recordings dating from 1954 to 2009 present archive legends and major artists of today

With the release of 10 DVDs and 8 CDs on February...

GIUSEPPE VERDI 1813–1901

 

La traviata

Opera in three acts

Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave

 

Violetta Valéry Maria Callas

Flora Bervoix Marie Collier

Annina Lea Roberts

Alfredo Germont Cesare Valletti

Giorgio Germont Mario Zanasi

suo padre · his father · son père · sein Vater

Gastone, Visconte de Letorières Dermot Troy

Barone Douphol Forbes Robinson

Marchese d’Obigny Ronald Lewis

Dottor Grenvil David Kelly

Doctor Grenvil · Le docteur Grenvil · Doktor Grenvil

 

Signori e signore amici di Violetta e Flora, servi di Violetta e Flora, maschere, commissionario

Lady and gentlemen friends of Violetta and Flora, servants of Violetta and Flora, maskers, messenger

Amis et amies de Violetta et Flora, domestiques de Violetta et Flora, masques, commissionnaire

Freunde und Freundinnen von Violetta und Flora, Diener von Violetta und Flora, Masken, Bote

 

The Covent Garden Opera Chorus

Chorus master: John McCarthy

The Covent Garden Orchestra

Nicola Rescigno

 

Audio

MARIA CALLAS: VERDI - La traviata - Act 1 Sempre Libera

Duration: 3:00