John Ardoin analyzes every recording made by Maria Callas, the most influential of twentieth-century opera singers and one of the most prolific recording artists of all time. John Ardoin's expert recommendations in this biography through sound will guide both opera neophyte and opera fanatic to the best of Callas' many recordings, all of which have been reissued on compact disc, including the legendary live performances captured on so-called pirate recordings, and Ardoin also specifies which live versions have the best sound. With a new epilogue, analysis of newly discovered performances discussed in no other book, previously unpublished photographs, as well as an essay on Callas by playwright Terrence McNally written especially for this compact disc edition, the Callas Legacy remains, as Beverly Sills says, the only book on the soprano "completely worthy of her artistry."--Back cover.