July 2020

Medea

Ricordi Reprints

The legendary recording of Maria Callas at Teatro alla Scala, which started the adventure of the label Dischi Ricordi, reissued on vinyl in limited edition.

Medea, a milestone of Italian musical culture

AN INTRODUCTION BY CAMILLO RICORDI (excerpt from the new booklet)

You are holding in your hands a historic piece of Italian music culture: the re-release of Medea by Luigi Cherubini starring Maria Callas in the title role, with Tullio Serafini conducting. It is a legendary record, not only for the quality of the artists and the experts who worked together on its realization, but also because it signified Ricordi’s entry into the world of record publishing, with the new Dischi Ricordi label. A few years later, the label would give rise to the phenomenon of “singer-songwriters.”

Thanks to the cultural patrimony preserved in the Archivio Storico Ricordi, today we are able to reconstruct the genesis of the record from contracts and letters, and thanks to the accounts of other contemporary witnesses. It therefore seemed fitting to include this brief insert summarizing our new knowledge about the genesis of Medea. This re-release, born of a collaboration between the Archivio, Bertelsmann, and Sonopress, also marks the beginning of a new initiative, Ricordi Reprints, which was called into being to bring to light some of the more significant moments in the history of Dischi Ricordi, as well as the recording adventures of the many artists who collaborated with the Milanese publishing house.

Happy listening!

Credits

MEDEA

Tragedy in three acts by François Benoît Hoffmann
Music by Luigi Cherubini

Maria Meneghini Callas, Medea
Miriam Pirazzini, Neris
Renata Scotto, Glauce
Mirto Picchi, Giasone
Giuseppe Modesti, Creonte
Lydia Marimpietri, prima ancella
Elvira Galassi, seconda ancella
Alfredo Giacomotti, capo delle guardie