Sung in Italian

The music of the 18th century did not figure strongly in Callas’s repertoire. The only Mozart role she sang was Konstanze, in an Italian version of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, an opera that contrasts strongly with the roughly contemporary Iphigénie en Tauride (here, at La Scala in 1957, Ifigenia in Tauride). In this taut drama of a priestess called upon to sacrifice her own brother, Gluck favours unadorned vocal lines and discreet intensity of expression. As ever, Callas judges the style with apparently instinctive precision, interpreting with the utmost eloquence. At the last minute, the happy outcome of the opera is determined by Diana, the dea ex machina, sung here by a young mezzo-soprano on her way to a major career, Fiorenza Cossotto.