The EMI studio recording of Traviata which Callas should have made in 1955, with Gobbi, Di Stefano and Serafin, was prevented because two years earlier she had made this set for Cetra and her contract forbade her recording the work again for five years. EMI much later compensated for the lack in the catalogue by issuing the live La Scala (Giulini) and Lisbon (Ghione) sets of 1955 and 1958 respectively, whose overriding merits are well known. They, albeit in varying sound, give us the fullest picture of the prima donna assoluta in arguably her best role. This earlier version suffers from a plodding conductor and insensitive male singers, but all is not lost for in Act 3 Callas, relatively uninspired until then, rises above her surroundings to give us a death scene of poignancy, with her letter reading, 'Addio del assato' aria and final moments evincing all her gifts as a singing actress, and in better voice than in either of her later renderings. With this new transfer in excellent sound at mid-price it's worth hearing even if the shattering Violetta of '55 and '58 is not yet present elsewhere.
La Gioconda she recorded twice, here in 1952 and then, for EMI, in 1959. In this case the choice between versions is more finely balanced. What is beyond doubt is that you must hear Callas in this part if you want to understand why she was such a great interpreter. I just suggested that Violetta was her best role, but listening to her as Ponchielli's tragic heroine Gioconda must run Violetta pretty close, even though it wasn't as central to her career on stage; in the final, inspired act of Ponchielli's melodrama, all the tragedy of the wronged woman rising above her jealousy to allow her lover Enzo to escape with Laura, and then commit suicide, is expressed quite indelibly in words and music.
In her EMI recording she refined her interpretation; indeed she declared that anyone who wanted to understand what she was about should listen to the final act. If you take the role as a whole, here she is in stronger, in fact in overwhelming voice throughout, mixing love, fury, pathos, desperation in equal measure as she imprints on our minds the woman at the end of her tether so marvellously described in the score. Above all it is what she does in melding text and notes, and her complete emotional identification with the part that makes Callas's Gioconda the most emotion-laden in the work's history.
Barbieri is a fit antagonist in the famous Act 2 duet and on her own a magnificent Laura. As evil incarnate, Silveri is a powerful if unsubtle Barnaba. Neri, as the forceful Alvise, shows what Italian basses used to sound like, rich and firm in tone, imposing in manner: sad that he died so young. The drawback of the set is the ungainly, raw singing of Poggi, a fine voice ill-used by its owner. Apart from his penchant for cutting the score, Votto - as in the 1959 version - makes the most of the work's many strong points and overlooks its weak ones. The refurbished sound is admirable. Don't miss it.'