The broadcast Lucia, which I have in a vibrant reconstruction on the La Divina label, well conveys the alternation of the still-potent combination of those executional and timbral strengths that enabled her to redefine the role, with the downsizing of format, high-note strain, and little moments of risk calculation that had to a noticeable degree eroded the freedom and impact of Callas’ singing since we’d formed our first impressions through recordings. What had happened? To find an answer—insofar as technical analysis can give us one—we must look back to her earlier recorded self, just as I did many years ago, as that self surfaced, bit by bit, in the years after her performances here. That’s where we’ll pick it up next week, in Part Two.

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NEXT TIME: Callas: An Assessment, Part Two. On Saturday, March 9.

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