Maria Callas - Lucia di Lammermoor (26 June 1957, Rome) [full score]

Gaetano Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
A concert performance in Rome
26 June 1957
Conductor: Tullio Serafin
Orchestra & chorus: RAI Roma
Lucia: Maria Callas
Edgardo: Eugenio Fernandi
Enrico: Rolando Panerai
Raimondo: Giuseppe Modesti
Arturo: Dino Formichini
Alisa: Elvira Galassi
Normanno: Valiano Natali

[@angelheart4366]

Lucia is one of my 5 favorite roles by Callas. And this 1957 performance under Serafin is my favorite Lucia. It is darker than the 1954 Scala performance under Karajan, which finds her in beautiful voice, but for some reason touches me more. In fact 1957 has been often singled out as the pivotal year where her voice changed for the worse… but I do not agree with it - it was the year of some of her best performances. This Lucia, the Cologne Sonnambula, the Scala Anna Bolena and Ballo in Maschera, the Dallas recital rehearsal, all find Calllas at her post-diet best.