12 October 2013

Leoncavallo. I Pagliacci - La Scala, Milan / Tullio Serafin - Columbia 1955

Ruggiero Leoncavallo:  "I Pagliacci"
Nedda............. Maria Meneghini CallasSoprano  
Canio.................. Giuseppe di StefanoTenor
Tonio...................... Tito GobbiBaritone
Beppe......................... Nicola MontiTenor
Silvio.............................. Rolando PaneraiBaritone
Side One: Prologue, Act One (part 1)   /  Side Two: Act One (part 2)   /   Side Three: Intermezzo, Act Two   
3 files zip FLAC  Mega Download
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Opera House, Milan  conducted by  Tullio Serafin  
Columbia  33CXS 1211 / 33CX 1212   1963 pressings / pre-1959 matrices: XBX 157 -4N / XBX 158 -4N / XBX 159 -2N  
Recorded: 12-17 June 1954, Teatro alla Scala, Milan       16/44 HD       EMG review >>>
Presumably you would prefer this copied from the stunningly scarce 'original 24bit CD'; as re-recorded in the Balls Pond Road Swimming Baths. 
So you can compare this to Mr P's Sample  (starts @ 8.57", side two)  - and spend your pocket-money THERE !!
http://www.mcelhearn.com/the-new-maria-callas-remasters-good-or-bad   
Robert E. Seletsky  07/24/2015  
Having written at very great length in The Opera Quarterly about Callas’ recordings in articles published between 2000 and 2005........ Mr. Rose has his own agenda, with which I personally take issue. He is marketing from-LP, “ambient stereo” versions of the Callas studio material. That is his right, though I find them neither appealing nor accurate.
Peter 01/31/2016   
However, I feel Andrew’s remasters lack real transparency – it’s as if the music has been a little “smoothed over”, certainly leading edges are slightly rounded, blurred if you prefer. Perhaps most significantly, “ambient stereo” is no replacement for those subtle acoustic cues which exist even on 1950s mono recordings. 

Nelson   Sep 14, 2017
Andrew Rose... has no access to master materials. Quite often he is not forthcoming on what his sources are at all, so they could just be reworked from commercial CD releases OR LP pressings…who knows. If some hear his fake stereo and overprocessed versions as desirable, so be it..