World Famous Comics: Callas - A Documentary Plus Bonus / John Ardoin, Franco Zeffirelli
Callas - A Documentary Plus Bonus / John Ardoin, Franco Zeffirelli
Starring: Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Renata Scotto, Franco Zeffirelli, Rudolf Bing Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Black & White, Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: Bel Canto Society Number of Discs: 1 Number of Items: 1 Release Date: December 07, 2004 Running Time: 117 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1978
Description: Extensive performance footage including some real rarities.
Newsreel footage: her funeral cortege; the Rome Walkout ("I would spit in the faces of my enemies...and make them go on their knees in front of me! I can! I will! And I must!"); her break with Ghiringhelli, Callas reading Bing's telegram firing her ("I cannot do routine"); Meneghini, Onassis and Churchill; Callas hounded by the press on her private life; Callas dancing with Onassis; her return to New York (1965); press conference about the Medea film (plus clips from the film); Callas as co-stage director with Di Stefano, directing Vespri in Turin; in a bathing suit with Onassis; Onassis's death.
Other topics: Sound vs. the use of sound; her debut at 15; "No agent would give me a job because immediately after my debut I wasn't loved that much. I was something new to listen to and they disliked anything that took them away from tradition"; her history at La Scala; her weight loss; Jackie Onassis; Zeffirelli and Gobbi on the London Toscas, her loneliness, her death.
Remastered DVD This DVD was remastered in March 2006, using some new devices. The quality is significantly improved.
The First Lady Soprano This documentary is to remember a great soprano.When you talk about Maria Callas,it's like talking about a costliest gemstone,a jewel.Maria Callas is widely known throughout the World. The best singing actress ever remembered!!!powerful voice,full of vibrations and passions at the same time.Unique and beyond comparisons.Far from the voice,we must look at her also as a person,an artist,the music and a human being like all of us.This entertainment (dvd) contains interviews with some celebrities such as Monserrat Caballe and Renata Tebaldi. Maria left behind one of the most valuable inheritances to mankind in the world story of music.
Informative DVD The previous reviewer may not realize that this documentary was originally produced in the late 70s for television, after Callas' death. The footage quality is what one would expect from something of that time and no amount of DVD remastering could fix it. The DVD has a wealth of information about Callas. The interviews are particularly fascinating and insightful.
CALLAS technical quality POOR Although the interviews, etc., with and about Callas are excellent and enlightening and very interesting, the technical quality of this DVD is poor, out-of-focus shots, many blurry, and so it is difficult to recommend this dvd. Why didn't the people responsible for the technical quality use the same equipment and techniques as those by Maximillian Schell when he made the technically perfect and beautiful DVD with Marlene Dietrich, in his documentary about her called, "MARLENE"? THIS "CALLAS" NEEDS REMASTERING, both picture and sound!
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
