Maria Callas - Notable Recordings

Notable Recordings

All recordings are in mono unless otherwise indicated. Live performances are typically available on multiple labels.

• Verdi, Nabucco, conducted by Vittorio Gui, live performance, Napoli, 20 December 1949
• Verdi, Il trovatore, conducted by Guido Picco, live performance, Mexico City, June 20, 1950
• Verdi, Aida, conducted by Oliviero De Fabritiis, live performance, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, July 3, 1951
• Ponchielli, La Gioconda, conducted by Antonino Votto, studio recording for Fonit Cetra, September 1952
• Bellini, Norma, conducted by Vittorio Gui, live performance, Covent Garden, London, November 18, 1952
• Verdi, Macbeth, conducted by Victor de Sabata, live performance, La Scala, Milan, December 7, 1952
• Bellini, I puritani, conducted by Tullio Serafin, studio recording for EMI, March–April 1953
• Mascagni, Cavalleria rusticana, conducted by Tullio Serafin, studio recording for EMI, August 1953
• Puccini, Tosca, conducted by Victor de Sabata, studio recording for EMI, August 1953.
• Verdi, La traviata, conducted by Gabriele Santini, studio recording for Fonit Cetra, September 1953
• Cherubini, Medea, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, live performance, La Scala, Milan, December 10, 1953
• Leoncavallo, Pagliacci, conducted by Tullio Serafin, studio recording for EMI, June 1954
• Spontini, La vestale, conducted by Antonino Votto, live performance, La Scala, Milan, December 7, 1954
• Verdi, La traviata, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini, live performance, La Scala, Milan, May 28, 1955
• Puccini, Madama Butterfly, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, studio recording for EMI, August 1955
• Verdi, Aida, conducted by Tullio Serafin, studio recording for EMI, August 1955
• Verdi, Rigoletto, conducted by Tullio Serafin, studio recording for EMI, September 1955
• Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, live performance, Berlin, September 29, 1955
• Bellini, Norma, conducted by Antonino Votto, live performance, La Scala, Milan, December 7, 1955.
• Verdi, Il trovatore, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, studio recording for EMI, August 1956
• Puccini, La bohème, conducted by Antonino Votto, studio recording for EMI, August–September 1956. Like her later recording of Carmen, this was her only performance of the complete opera, as she never appeared onstage in it.
• Verdi, Un ballo in maschera, conducted by Antonino Votto, studio recording for EMI, September 1956
• Rossini, The Barber of Seville, conducted by Alceo Galliera, studio recording for EMI in stereo, February 1957
• Bellini, La sonnambula, conducted by Antonino Votto, studio recording for EMI, March 1957
• Donizetti, Anna Bolena, conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, live performance, La Scala, Milan, April 14, 1957
• Bellini, La sonnambula, conducted by Antonino Votto, live performance, Cologne, July 4, 1957
• Puccini, Turandot, conducted by Tullio Serafin, studio recording for EMI, July 1957
• Cherubini, Medea, conducted by Tullio Serafin, studio recording for Ricordi in stereo, September 1957
• Verdi, Un ballo in maschera, conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, live performance, La Scala, Milan, December 7, 1957
• Verdi, La traviata, conducted by Franco Ghione, live performance, Lisbon, March 27, 1958
• Mad Scenes (excerpts from Anna Bolena, Bellini's Il pirata and Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet), conducted by Nicola Rescigno, studio recording for EMI in stereo, September 1958
• Cherubini, Medea conducted by Nicola Rescigno, live performance at the Dallas Civic Opera in 1958; considered to be Callas's most notable performance of Cherubini's opera.
• Ponchielli, La Gioconda, conducted by Antonino Votto, studio recording for EMI in stereo, September 1959
• Puccini, Tosca, conducted by Carlo Felice Cillario, live performance, London, January 1964
• Bizet, Carmen, conducted by Georges Prêtre, studio recording for EMI in stereo, 1964. It is her only performance of the role, and her only performance of the complete opera; she never appeared in it onstage. The recording used the recitatives added after Bizet's death. Callas's performance caused critic Harold C. Schonberg to speculate in his book The Glorious Ones that Callas perhaps should have sung mezzo roles instead of simply soprano ones.
• Puccini, Tosca, conducted by Georges Prêtre, studio recording for EMI in stereo, December 1964.