Callas Went Away

For this evening’s “music night” at The Wild Reed, I share a video (not sure if it’s “official” or not) made to accompany the haunting Enigma song, “Callas Went Away.”

Wikipedia notes that this song is a tribute to opera legend Maria Callas.

Chirps from electronic birds at the beginning, mixed with a slow beat and sounds of a piano, leads to whispers and ends with some samples of Callas singing the aria "Werther! Qui m' aurait dit" from the opera Werther by Jules Massenet.

I’m thinking that the makers of the “Callas Went Away” video were attempting to evoke the exotic look of Medea, the film that Callas did with Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1969. The video certainly looks exotic, despite the fact that it’s shot in India rather than in Turkey, where much of Medea was actually filmed. Also, you’d think they would have at least tried to find a woman for the video who looked like Callas (pictured above and at right in Pasolini’s film)!

Oh, well. “Callas Went Away” remains a beautiful, if rather mournful, song. It’s definitely one of my favorite Enigma tracks. I hope you enjoy, or at least appreciate it, too!

Callas went away
but her voice forever stays.
Callas went away, she went away.

God bless you.

Ah! je les relis sans cesse
Je devais les detruire
Ces lettres! Ces lettres!
(Ah! I read them constantly!
I ought to destroy them;
These letters! These letters!)

See also the previous Wild Reed post:
• Callas Remembered

Recommended Off-site Link:
Callas as Medea - My website dedicated to the “hypnotic cinematic experience” that is Medea.

Musical artists previously featured at The Wild Reed: Yvonne Elliman, Lenny Kravitz, Marty Rhone, Don Henley, Propeller Heads and Shirley Bassey, Stephen Gately, Nat King Cole, Enrique Iglesias, Helen Reddy, Australian Crawl, PJ and Duncan, Cass Elliot, The Church, Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield, Wall of Voodoo, Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy, Pink Floyd, Kate Ceberano, Judith Durham, Wendy Matthews, Buffy Sainte-Marie, 1927, Mavis Staples, Maxwell, Joan Baez, Dave Stewart & Friends, Tee Set, Darren Hayes, Suede, Wet, Wet, Wet, Engelbert Humperdinck, The Cruel Sea, Shirley Bassey, Loretta Lynn & Jack White, Maria Callas, Foo Fighters, Rosanne Cash, Jenny Morris, Scissor Sisters, Kate Bush, Rufus Wainwright, and Dusty Springfield.