February is "Singer of the Day" Month

For the month of February, I've started a series of posts called "Singer of the Day." Each day features a great singer from the past. So stay tuned. It may be someone you are familiar with or someone who has fallen off your radar for some reason. In some cases, these may be artists with whom you are not familiar at all. I hope the choices will interest you.
So far we've had:
Feb. 1- Paul Robeson
Feb. 2- Ninon Vallin
Feb. 3- George Thill
Feb. 4- Irmgard Seefried
Feb. 5- Mark Reizen
Feb. 6- Eula Beal
Feb. 7- Richard Tauber
Feb. 8- Marian Anderson
Feb. 9- Rolando Panerai
Feb. 10- Shirley Verret
Feb. 11- Gundula Janowitz
Feb. 12- Leyla Gencer
Feb. 13- Jussi Bjoerling
Feb. 14- Lauritz Melchior
Feb. 15- Giulietta Simionato
Feb. 16- Franco Corelli
Feb. 17- Sena Jurinac
Feb. 18- Tito Schipa
Feb. 19- Alfred Deller
Feb. 20- Janet Baker
Feb. 21- Kathleen Ferrier
Feb. 22- Luisa Tetrazzini
Feb. 23,24- Teresa Berganza and Hermann Prey
Feb. 25- Carla Gavazzi
Feb. 26- Aksel Schiøtz
Feb. 27- Fritz Wunderlich
Feb. 28- Maria Callas

Now that we've reached the final post, I have to say that the exclusion of many other worthy artists was by no means deliberate. There are so many that didn't make the list and I apologize for that. But I may pick up the theme again another time. So stay tuned.

Singer of the Day: Maria Callas, 1923-1977

Maria Anna Sophie Cecilia Kalogeropoulos was born in New York in 1923 to parents who had emigrated from Greece. Her father changed their family name to Callas in 1929. In 1937, after her parents separated, her mother took her to Greece, where she was admitted to the National Conservatoire of Athens. In 1939, at the age of 17, she made her stage debut in a student production of Cavelleria Rusticana as Santuzza.

For me, Callas was an acquired taste. As a young college student, I was introduced to her later recordings first. Some students I knew liked to play her recordings at half speed to show the wobble she had sadly developed in her later years. So while I knew she was a legend, I didn't at that time understand why. It wasn't until later that I discovered the extraordinary ability she had to convey with voice, timbre, color, phrasing attention to text and acting, the depths of the many operatic characters she portrayed. I am always struck by the rightness of her choices, the amount of time she chooses to hold a fermata, the nuanced nature of her character studies and of course the unsurpassed ability she had with the technical demands of the Bel Canto repertoire. Theatrically, she was brilliant. She changed the face of opera for the future. Her characterizations were always layered, multi-dimensional and complex. Her singing and acting, always interwined so organically that you feel this is the only way it can be performed! She is considered one of the greatest singers of the twentieth century. The acclaim is justly deserved.


Mad Scene from Donizetti, Lucia Di Lammermoor