Callas and hallucinations

Am I hearing voices within the voice? But isn’t it the truth of the voice to be hallucinated? Isn’t the entire space of the voice an infinite one?
Roland Barthes, “The Grain of the Voice”

My voice is mere breath
that will die with the new day.
Adriana Lecouvreur

The Barthes quote is taken from a beautiful article by Michal Grover-Friedlander, “The Afterlife of Maria Callas’s Voice,” Musical Quarterly 88 (1). I commend it to you warmly.

Callas and intelligence

Since Maria Callas is patently more intelligent than anyone who has ever presumed to write anything about her, the definitive book on Callas will be written by herself or not be written.
The Musical Times (1961)

“The definitive book on Callas will… not be written.”

Oh, phew. That really takes the pressure off.

Bon week-end, peeps and tweeps. Listen to Callas singing Cilea. Back at you next week.