The story of Maria Callas' live recordings is nearly as dramatic as that of her own woeful life. At one time, they represented a cottage industry of sorts for opera privateers, and one could hardly swing a dead cat in a classical music store without hitting one of Callas' "bootleg" operas and recital recordings. In the 1990s, EMI and the heirs to Callas' business interests invested a lot of time and expense to reclaiming every inch of tape of her legacy and to evicting the residents of the cottage, with the promise to her ...
Read More
The story of Maria Callas' live recordings is nearly as dramatic as that of her own woeful life. At one time, they represented a cottage industry of sorts for opera privateers, and one could hardly swing a dead cat in a classical music store without hitting one of Callas' "bootleg" operas and recital recordings. In the 1990s, EMI and the heirs to Callas' business interests invested a lot of time and expense to reclaiming every inch of tape of her legacy and to evicting the residents of the cottage, with the promise to her legions of rabid fans that they would be making all of the booty so reclaimed available in legitimate, high-quality packages. This did tend to level things off a bit, but after the turn of the century in 2000, the privateers picked up right where they left off, and some EMI issues began to drop from sight. The difference was that the Callas craze was finally showing some signs of diminishing, as was inevitable -- by the time EMI's 10-disc set Maria Callas: The Live Recitals appeared...
Read Less
Portions of content provided by Rovi Corporation. © 2024 Rovi Corporation.