Warner Classics Releases “La Divina — Maria Callas in all her roles”

The box set comprises 131 CD recordings of the famed Greek-American soprano Maria Callas

An influential figure in modern opera, Maria Callas was born in New York in 1923 as Maria Kalogeropoulou. In 2020, a hologram of Callas went on a worldwide tour accompanied by a live orchestra, and the Greek National Opera recently held a festival dedicated to her.

Remastered at Abbey Road Studios in 2014, “La Divina — Maria Callas in all her roles,” is the first box to unite all of the singer’s studio recordings, presenting her in all 74 roles. 

Involving 131 discs, three Blu-ray videos, and one DVD video featuring the work and life of the opera star, the set also includes masterclasses Callas gave at The Juilliard School, and a bonus CD of world premiere releases, including alternate takes and working sessions from her 1960s studio recordings.

Callas in London (PC: Weston/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Callas made her first studio recordings in 1949; across the next 15 life-changing years, she recorded nearly all her most famous roles, including Norma, Violetta, Lucia, Medea, and Tosca, plus operas that she never performed in the theater, such as La bohème, Pagliacci, Manon Lescaut, and Carmen. 

According to Warner Classics, Callas herself expressed: “

Everything I have to say is in the music. It is all there in my records.”

It was in Italy that her fans started calling her “La Divina,” (the divine).

"She continues to fascinate as a supreme artist, but also as a woman and an icon of style,” Warner Classics writes. “Her interpretations were as compelling for their dramatic truth as for their musical integrity. Her voice, with its extraordinary range, was as distinctive as her infallible sense for a phrase. A magnetic presence, she brought operatic heroines to vivid life, magically shaping and coloring her tone, and making insightful use of the text of the libretto.”

To purchase and listen to the box set, click here.

In conjunction with Warner Classics, The Violin Channel is currently hosting a giveaway of one box set — click here to win. 

Callas made her debut at Milan’s La Scala in 1950 in an acclaimed performance in Verdi’s Aida. In 1952, she debuted at ROH portraying the titular role in Bellini’s Norma. She also appeared in ROH’s productions of Il trovatore, La traviata, Tosca, and Medea throughout the 1950s and 60s.

In the final decade of her life, Callas began suffering health problems, which affected her performance as she would often lose her voice. She died in 1977 at age 53. 

“More than four decades after her death, Maria Callas remains very much alive for opera lovers of all ages,” Warner Classics wrote. “Few artists could match her in capturing the imagination — and the heart — of the listener. Uncompromising in her quest for musical and dramatic truth, she defines the term ‘singing actress.’”

Callas' first concert at London's Royal Festival Hall (PC: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

In 2022, the Greek Ministry of Culture announced that the centennial of Maria Callas’ birth would be celebrated by the UN body in 2023, and titled the UNESCO Maria Callas Anniversary.

To mark the occasion, the Royal Opera House (ROH) recently launched the “Callas at Covent Garden” exhibition showcasing career-defining photographs and stories of Callas, plus rare images and anecdotes related to her relationship with the ROH.

“Maria Callas was a soprano who is today seen as one of the most remarkable opera singers of the 20th century,” read a statement from Greece to UNESCO, according to the Greek City Times. “She was named ‘La Divina’ for her great musical talent and spent most of her life between Greece, the United States of America and Italy.

“Leonard Bernstein even called her ‘the Bible of Opera,’ and the ‘Opera News’ wrote that ‘nearly thirty years after her death…she is still one of classical music’s best-selling vocalists.’”