As René Seghers notes in his essay, at her 1955 début in the role of Amina, Maria Callas "dominated the ensembles and, at certain moments, she showed her vocal power off with hardly concealed pride. By 1957 in Edinburgh, her powers may have diminished a little, but her interpretation had significantly deepened. Her Amina is less girl, less naïve, and less imbued with echoes of her immediate predecessors in the role. The Edinburgh Amina is a living young woman who is rapidly learning to deal with the larger-than-life emotions that come with the libretto. The miracle is that she makes one listen to the words, while at the same time making us look beyond the rather unbelievable and silly plot. Throughout this recording, but especially in the final aria, her singing is full of unexpected shadings, colourings, pianissimi, bravura cadenzas and accents that fill any given word with meaning and truth. When Callas sings, we are looking straight into Amina's heart." The high quality tapes used as source material for this release come from a private recording made for EMI's legendary record producer Walter Legge, and were supplied to Testament by Legge's widow, the soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
