Maria Callas: Live in Paris 1963 & 1976 combines one rather late Callas recital with a fragment of a very late one. Both were recorded in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the city where Callas spent her last years, but not one in which the singer appeared very frequently in concert. The recital of June 5, 1963, does not show Callas to her best advantage. There are moments where her extraordinary talent shines through, particularly in the two Massenet pieces on the program. But when she's off -- watch out. The Rossini aria from Semiramide that opens the show is particularly rough business, with Callas reaching for notes and not hitting them, swallowing lyrics, and rushing through difficult passagework. It's not pretty. The second Paris appearance is taken from a poor-quality cassette tape recorded March 3, 1976. It is of Beethoven's Ah! Perfido, but consists only of two-thirds of the song. It is an oddly poignant postscript to a once-brilliant but now shattered career. At one point, Callas stops and speaks a few words, presumably to accompanist Jeffrey Tate, in the middle of the song; at other times, she simply overtakes the note and goes flat. These are not recordings that do a great deal of justice to the singer, but to those who are interested in the historical progress of Callas' career (or are just obsessed with her in general) this disc will prove a highly interesting and revelatory experience.