IL PIRATA - Maria Callas, New York 1959 ( Complete Opera Bellini)

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Imogene: Maria Callas
Gualtiero: Pier Miranda Ferraro
Ernesto: Costantino Ego
Solitario: Chester Watson

Orchestra and Chorus of the American Opera Society
Conductor: Nicola Rescigno
New York, Carnegie Hall, January 27, 1959 (live)

Carnegie Hall, NYC, January 1959, she had recently been fired by Rudolf Bing and the Met. I have posted the entire live recording: she begins in wobbly, acidic tone and ends the performance in astonishing vocal splendor. The long breath control, exemplary phrasing, chiaroscuro moonlit Bellinian line, red-hot high notes! Really, this is superlative singing, equal to her admirable 1952 Norma under Vittorio Gui in London

As was usually the case at this period, Callas' male support does not come anywhere near her level of performance. (The tenor here does not begin to approach Giuseppe Morino as belcantista:  Nicola Rescigno conducts a rough-and-ready performance which is on the fast side, but it increases the tension.

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Sinfonia - Overture (0:01)

ATTO I
Coro d'introduzione. Ciel! qual procella orribile (07:05)
Scena e cavatina. Nel furor delle tempeste (14:27)
Scena e cavatina. Sorgete... Lo sognai ferito, esangue (23:41)
Coro di pirati. Viva! viva (34:23)
Scena e duetto. Tu sciagurato! Ah! fuggi... (36:46)
Marcia e coro. Più temuto, più splendido nome (52:33)
Aria. Sì, vincemmo, e il pregio io sento (54:30)
Finale I: Quintetto. Parlarti ancor per poco (1:00:41)

ATTO II
Coro d'introduzione. [Che rechi tu?...] Meno agitata (1:07:34)
Scena e duetto. Tu m'apristi in cor ferita (1:11:49)
Scena e duetto. Vieni: cerchiam pe' mari (1:24:54)
Terzetto. Cedo al destin orribile (1:29:49)
Coro. Lasso! Perir così (1:36:18)
Scena ed aria. Tu vedrai la sventurata (1:38:03)
Scena ed aria finale. Col sorriso d'innocenza (1:44:18)

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IL PIRATA (The Pirate) is a bel canto opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani. It premiered at La Scala on October 27, 1827.

Sicily. 13th century. Act I. Crashing, percussive chords... On a stormy sea-shore, fisherfolk watch a shipwreck. Among the survivors is Gualtiero, who tells that he drew strength from his continuing love for Imogene ("Nel furor delle tempeste... Per te di vane lagrime"), although she is now married to Ernesto. Imogene's long entrance scene accounts her dreams and fears: "Lo sognai ferito, esangue" (first - an image of her lover Gualtiero in blood; then - her husband, 23:41). Gualtiero learns that she had married Ernesto only because he had threatened her father's life ("Pietosa al padre, 46:13), and when he sees that she has borne Ernesto's child, he starts to think of revenge ("Bagnato dalle lagrime", 50:47).

Act II. Gualtiero meets Imogene again ("Vieni: cerchiam pe' mari"). Ernesto, arriving, conceals himself and overhears the end of their passionate declarations of love ("Cedo al destin orribile"). He is discovered, and exits with Gualtiero, each determined to fight to the death. It is Ernesto who is killed. Gualtiero gives himself up to justice, and, as he is taken away, he prays that Imogene may forgive him: "Tu vedrai la sventurata... Ma non fia sempre odiata la mia memoria". Final scene. Imogene appears in a state of anguish and sees visions of her dead husband and her son ("Col sorriso d'innocenza ... Oh sole, ti vela di tenebre oscure", 1:44:18). While Callas was definitely wonderful here, I strongly fell that it is in the complete recording of the work where she is truly brilliant. Actually, every minute of this recording where Callas is present is wonderful. She didn't sleepwalk... much.