Word: traviatas
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Verdi: La Traviata (Deutsche Grammophon, 2 LPs). Conductor Carlos Kleiber gives a fresh, strikingly opinionated reading of an opera that is usually ill-served...
...came out of an unhappy childhood-appallingly fat and resentful and lonely-and clawed her way to success and greatness with a singlehearted ferocity that awed even her enemies. Conductor Tullio Serafin, her indispensable mentor in the crucial early days, was tossed aside temporarily-for daring to record La Traviata with another soprano. Enraged at the Callas ego, La Scala Tenor Giuseppe di Stefano declared, "I'm never going to sing opera with her again." Later he changed his mind about Callas, but then so did a lot of people...
Bing and Callas sparred continually over her roles and her schedules. In 1959, after she refused to sing Traviata and Macbeth in the same week, Bing fired her. Callas snarled publicly about "those lousy Traviatas that he wanted me to do." Bing riposted: "Mme. Callas is constitutionally unable to fit into any organization not tailored to her own personality." By 1965 almost all was forgiven. Bing brought her back for two Toscas. Justly they became the hottest tickets of the season, for Callas' Tosca was revelatory, not so much a posturing, jealous bitch, as a woman unsettled by fear...
...Thanksgiving Day get-together, billed as The Last Waltz, was Rock Impresario Bill Graham. He treated his $25-a-ticket patrons to a truckload of turkey and Alaskan salmon, a 38-piece waltz-playing orchestra, and decor featuring 25-ft. tall columns from the set of La Traviata carted over from the San Francisco Opera. Those folk who tend to sniff at such goings on could adjourn to the Cocteau Room, where the walls were covered with protruding noses...
...began working in the theater while in his early twenties. After World War II he settled in Milan and, at 26, was invited by La Scala to stage La Traviata. Since then he has directed several operas there. Collaborating with Conductor Claudio Abbado has been satisfying, in part because both men thrive on lengthy discussion and painstaking rehearsal. Speaking of their Boccanegra production, Strehler comments: "Directing the opera is like writing an essay on it -an effort to unlock the essence...