Tony Palmer's film about Callas (30th Anniversary Edition)
by Tony Palmer
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Actor: Franco Zeffirelli, Luchino Visconti, Maria Callas, Onassis, SciuttiDirector: Tony Palmer
Brand: Koch International
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); German (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-01-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Tony Palmer Films
Product features:
- CALLAS, MARIA: CALLAS-30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (DVD MOVIE)
DVD Reviews of Tony Palmer's film about Callas (30th Anniversary Edition)
DVD Review: Similar to other films about Callas
Summary: 4 Stars
There are now quite a few films about Maria Callas on the market. This is probably on of the better ones, but nevertheless it still suffers, like the rest of them, by the fact that very little visual material has been released about Callas. Officially, there is the second act of Tosca, both from Paris and London, plus a few recitals. The recitals are interesting to a point but hardly exemplify Callas's strong point, which was her marvellous acting on the stage. Act 2 of Tosca, especially from Covent Garden is electrifying. She may have lost a lot on her high notes (listen to her legendary 1954 recording for EMI, with di Stefano, Gobbi and with de Sabata conducting) but the performance puts any other video portrayals of Tosca that exist today, well below her. There are the usual biographical notes about her birth in New York, her war years in Athens, her marriage to Meneghini, her relationship with Onassis and her final sad years in Paris. But one feels there is something lacking. For example, I know there are short video clips of her Lisbon Traviata and of her Norma at la Scala, which are missing.
One wanders at times how much material actually exists and is not published for some reason or other. I remember watching as a young boy in 1965 a BBC television broadcast in London, of her last Tosca complete, i.e. all three acts, during the gala performance attended by Queen Elisabeth. What happened to that? One also wanders why her great friends and great film directors Visconti and Zeffirelli never produced any films of her operas, but that is a different story.
There is a DVD about the life of Herbert von Karajan by Robert Dornhelm. It is similar to Tony Palmer's film, in having interviews with people he worked with and with performance material, but it is presented in a much more sensitive and in a "musical" way. One fine touch, which to me exemplifies the contrast between the two directors, Palmer and Dornhelm, is the last musical piece presented in each film. Dornhelm ends his film with Wagner's Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde, a musical piece that expands your senses and leaves you in a mythical world. Palmer's film ends with "o mio babbino caro", a beautiful area by Puccini, but nothing of the impact of the Liebestod and not something Callas was renown for. Something like Cast Diva from Norma would have been, in my humble opinion, far more fitting for an ending of a film about Callas, to leave you with thoughts to ponder. Also, we get again and again the music from the tenor's last aria in act 3 of Tosca "e lucevan le stele". A tremendous romantic piece of music, one of Puccini's best, but nonetheless an aria for a tenor not a soprano!
Having said all that, yes I do recommend this film and if you are interested about Callas it is definitely worth buying.
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