This album, "Callas à Paris I," was recorded at Easter 1961, with a second volume following in 1963.
The recording sessions for this album took place in Salle Wagram, Paris, from March 28-31 and April 4-5, 1961.
Maria Callas, born Maria Kalogeropoulou, grew up speaking English in New York and had to improve her Greek after moving to Greece in 1937.
Despite studying French repertoire from the late 1930s, Maria Callas never sang in French on stage, only in the recording studio.
Maria Callas's first studio recording in French was Ophélie's mad scene from Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet, recorded two years before this album.
Maria Callas studied Italian and French with her main teacher, the Spanish soprano Elvira de Hidalgo.
