Abstract

Music

The much-written-about artist Maria Callas has made her first appearances at the Metropolitan, exhibiting a voice that has lost most of what caused so much to be written about her. The recordings of the last couple of years have documented the deterioration in that remarkable voice; and by now its original bloom and loveliness are gone, it has a bad wobble, and as often as not it produces a climactic high note off pitch. That is what one heard during much of the Metropolitan's third performance of the music album "Norma"; but in an occasional quiet phrase employing its lower range the voice approximated its corner beauty. And all the singing, whether agreeable or not in quality of sound, still exhibited Callas unfailing sense and concern for continuity and shape of the musical phrase, which at times was very exciting.