Bellini: La Sonnambula (complete opera live 1955) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe Modesti, Leonard Bernstein, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan

Maria Callas had worked with Leonard Bernstein at La Scala on Medea in 1953. Here, in '55, they were together again for a very different heroine. While Medea is all vengeance and rage, Amina in Sonnambula is a delicate, sweet, village girl whose sleepwalking confuses the locals into thinking she's unfaithful to her fiancé. Of course, she's exonerated and all ends happily. This role is one of the tests of a great bel canto soprano. There are miles of coloratura, grand leaps, long-breathed melodies, and high notes galore. Callas is at her peak here, singing with delicacy and girlish tone, with fine filigree and sheer loveliness. She makes us care about this character--quite a feat. Tenor Cesare Valletti is her elegant, sweet-toned, and expressive fiancé, and the rest of the cast is fine. Bernstein knows which parts of the score to race through and which to linger over. The remastering of this once-quite-terrible-sounding recording has rendered it acceptable. But even if it weren't (and if you own Callas's other EMI recording of this opera), the wonders of this set--at midprice--are worth hearing. --Robert Levine