Abernyte.org and Abernyte Community Company

Music

Maria Callas- Masterclass

Guiseppe Di Stefano

A rare and wonderful piece of music for you to enjoy. Donizetti's Una Furtiva Lagrima is the mainstay of many a tenor's repertoire. This recording is special as it was made in Switzerland in 1944. It is Guiseppe Di Stefano, who went on to become a regular partner in singing (and romantically, allegedly) with Maria Callas during the 1950s. This recording was made two years before Di Stefano gave his first main opera performance in 1946 and it was during the 1950s that saw his outstanding voice at its very best before it declined rapidly in the early 1960s.

So, a heart achingly beautiful rendition of Una Furtiva Lagrima by Gaetano Donizetti,  sung by the great Guiseppe Di Stefano with only piano accompaniment. It is not digitally remastered so all the 1944 crackle and hiss is still evident.

Maria Callas (again!)

Continuing the theme of heritage performances that are lost to popular viewing now, here is another Callas masterclass. This time it is her debut recital in Paris on 19th December, 1958  where she is having great fun and barely containing the enthusiastic audience who are keen to join in!

The piece is the cavatina,  Una Voce Poco Fa from Rossini's  opera The Barber of Seville. Here she is singing it in the original E major for the mezzo-soprano range, and it provides a perfect showcase for Callas to demonstrate her astonishing vocal control and agility. Maria Callas being one of only a handful singers who could cover the full range from low mezzo to top soprano notes, properly known as soprano sfogato. A true colouratura soprano performance of the highest quality.
It is difficult not to overstate just how remarkable her talent was.
Her voice was huge. Few singers before or since have approached her power and range in full voice and coupled with her ability to inject such passion into the song. The Maestro at La Scala said " her audience were held in thrall, without being able to analyze what made up the spell. She not only sang the song, she carried it like a feather in the wind"

In 1958, television was in its infancy then, so the filming is clumsy but this rare footage in a re-mastered DVD now changes hands for hundreds of pounds! 

Enjoy this...you will not hear it bettered anywhere!

Another rare heritage performance from Maria Callas. In 1955 with Callas singing at the Teatro La Scala Milano she was at the absolute peak of her abilities and the Milano audience were the most spoilt in the world. Many fine singers were treated to the over ripe tomato from the stalls when their performance was less than perfect. Into this cauldron came Maria Callas who in every performance had to be near perfect or she was accused of her voice failing. During such pressure came a performance of Bellini's La Sonnambula conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
It was a truly remarkable night with Callas inspired and she gave a performance of which the critics said " She hurled notes like thunderbolts and left the audience amazed"
Here is the acoustically recorded aria from that night,  Ah, non guinge. Marvel at the diminuendo on a high E-flat, then she does a flawless two octave descending scale in her trademark "pearls falling off a string"  and then goes back up in a series of turns, all in the same breath. without missing a beat. Callas is so astonishing that the audience start applauding two thirds of the way through the piece. Truly remarkable.

Tutorial-Searching

One of the most useful and exciting features of the new Abernyte website is the ability to quickly and easily search the content of the site for what ever you require. No matter how good the menu system on a website is,  it can never point to all the information.
We can use our search box to do just that.

In the top right of the main page you will see a search box

Click in this box and type what you wish to search for. Here we are searching for woodpecker, then press the return or enter key.

You will see that it returns a page with your search term and all the items that contain the word woodpeckers. Simply click on the yellow coloured link to the document.

Your document is now displayed!

Happy searching.

Tutorial-Forum

We are privileged to live in beautiful countryside and the Nature Watch thread in the community forum is a popular place to record sightings of the birds and animals that we encounter in Abernyte. It is easy to contribute and here I can show you how.

Remember that you have to be logged in post information! Click on the Community Forum link on the menu on the left hand side of the main page.

This will take you to the Forum front page. Click on the Nature Watch link

Here we wish to add a comment to a thread about Peregrine falcons, so we click on the thread name.

We can now click on the quick reply box

You now enter your comments or information and click the Submit button

You will be taken back to the appropiate page and your comment will be displayed.

Tutorial-Registration

Have you registered as a user on www.abernyte.org yet?
If not it is so easy to do and it is also a requirement if you wish to post on the Community Forum.
On the left of the front page of the site you will see a Login area

Just below the Login button there are some useful links.

The first, Forgot your password? will automatically email back your password, providing you can remember your user name!  You can also use this link if you wish to change your password.

The second, Forgot your User name? will do the same as long as you know your password!

The last Create an Account is what we need at the moment and clicking it will open this page..

Simply complete the details asked for and click the Register button. You will then be emailed a link which you can click on to confirm your registration and the process is complete.

When you next visit www.abernyte.org you enter your details in the login form remembering to check the little remember me box

Clicking this enables www.abernyte.org to log you in automatically on subsequent visits.

You now have access to all the content on www.abernyte.org.

Tutorial- Photo Upload

This is a video tutorial and you will need your PC loudspeakers switched on for this!

Now that you have your new bird nesting box from the Nest Box Building event and a family of birds have taken up residence, how do you let every one see a photograph of who is using the nest box?

Well, you can post on the Community Forum in the Nest Box Update section and tell us all who is using your nest box and upload a small photograph for us all to see.

Clicking on this link here will show you a tutorial to demonstrate how you can do that.

Good luck, and as always if you encounter any problems please let the webmaster know.

Strange Icons!

Some strange icons have appeared in the top left corner of the www.abernyte.org home page. Are you curious to know their purpose?

These are quick links to make life easier for users. If you place your mouse pointer over each one there will be a text box pops up to tell you what it does.

From the left:

the yellow coloured star is a favourites button. Clicking this will add www.abernyte.org to your favoutites list.

the little house is a home button and clicking it will make www.abernyte.org your home page.

the green squiggle lets you add www.abernyte.org into a number of different social network sites.

the letter lest you email a link to www.abernyte.org to anyone you wish along with a message.