Callas as never seen before

A 42-CD set of live Maria Callas recordings, featuring 12 roles she never recorded in the studio, has been released by Warner Classics. Verdi’s Nabucco, I vespri siciliani and Macbeth, Wagner’s Parsifal, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Poliuto, Rossini’s Armida, Bellini’s Il pirata, Gluck’s Alceste and Iphigénie en Tauride, Spontini’s La vestale and Giordano’s Andrea Chénier are all new additions to the Callas discography. The set features eight other operas, and on Blu-ray five complete filmed recitals. All of the recordings have been newly remastered, and a companion 200-page book includes in-depth coverage of each of the roles featured in this set. See ‘The month in box sets’, p101.