Maria Callas as Tosca, 1953 NYT
“Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore, non feci mai male ad anima viva!” ~ Tosca’s plaint from the self-same opera immortalized by Maria Callas: “I lived for art! I lived for love! I never harmed a living soul!”
Instagram image of Dawn with Art and Olfaction Award for Colorado for The American Perfumer
Award-winning American perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, ever-innovative – embarks upon another aromatic venture and launches a new chapter: the Women Artists Series. Her first foray revolves around opera diva Maria Callas (a mutual favorite of our Editor-in-Chief). Its leitmotif? “Beautifully singing flowers”. When I caught wind of this there was no whiff of hesitation; I immediately purchased a sample. Callas was no linear being in any wise: to fragrantly depict her is a daunting undertaking at best, given her larger-than-life persona and tangled mass of contradictions. When one considers an operatic perfume there are several possible avenues – one of which is the brash trumpet fanfare variety with sillage that blinds and deafens mercilessly (this from an opera singer, mind). Dawn prudently side-stepped the facile approach and opted for a road less taken: a sophisticated profusion of exotic florals with ebullient personalities, effusive and emotive – wed to a panoply of darker, sometimes seething base notes. I found the entire perfume unexpected, complex and challengingly beautiful. More so, in that it possesses a distinctly classical structure and feel in spite of its unique character.
Covent Garden, London. Maria Callas takes a curtain call with her co-stars Tito Gobbi, left, and Renato Cioni. Getty Images
The term bel canto, or beautiful singing – refers to an era and style of Italian-inspired vocal technique which flourished during the 18th and 19th centuries; it experienced a renaissance of sorts during the 1950’s. Famous singers such as Maria Callas, Dame Joan Sutherland and Beverly Sills came to personify this form of seamless singing in which beautifully sustained phrasing and movement throughout vocal registers were emblematic (there are many other characteristics, but I’d prefer that they don’t usurp the review). Many listeners think of such composers as Donizetti, Verdi, Rossini and Bellini when the term comes to mind, but this is only a smattering and there exist as many opinions as voices when it comes to bel canto.
It won’t surprise you if I confess my opinion that flowers are natural born singers. They require no tutelage from anyone in that department. But flowers which sing like Maria Callas are in a category by themselves. They have to be strangely moving, oddly beautiful without overt symmetry because Maria’s features and voice were not considered conventionally attractive. Drama is a must: La Divina didn’t do anything by halves. More than anything, perhaps – they must be Original and inimitable as the diva herself.
Franco Corelli and Maria Callas in Tosca via the Metropolitan Opera Archives
Briefly, beautifully, bergamot and bigarade usher in a formidable array of überflorals. Honeyed, intensely fruity boronia amps up a lascivious orange blossom which is cosied up to showgirl tuberose (with mentholic overtones in tow). Graceful stephanotis (also known as creeping tuberose or Madagascar jasmine) so beloved in bridal bouquets (I carried it along with gardenia, ivy, butter-colored freesia and silver sterling roses) – features prominently, a bittersweet reminder of Callas’ love life. So much sweetness, so much sadness. We anticipate the collaboration of grandiflorum jasmine and her more easygoing sibling sambac, damask rose and orris concrete with their classical bone structure.
Complex cassis bud insinuates itself, accompanied by vernal jonquil and animalic narcissus absolute, a splash of galbanum for biting verdancy. We’re warm, we’re cool, and we’re elegant…what’s next? All manner of leathery, boozy animalics and resins swirl at the base of the pyramid (literally). Dry myrrh meets sweet; ambrette seed mirrors aspects of narcissus, jonquil, orris. Davana shares kinship with sambac, orange blossom, boronia. Deeper, darker elements of implied tragedy whisper amidst civet, castoreum, labdanum; Siam benzoin with rich spice notes, tender beeswax and sandalwood gentle an abiding floral ferocity and elements of surprise. No one voice is vanquished and a sense of calm eventually descends. I fiori bel canto is an aromatic homage, gratitude for a life filled with immense talent and sacrifice lived uncompromisingly. DSH Perfumes i fiori bel canto sings brilliantly in a velvety legato punctuated by the occasional staccato note which holds our attention like Callas’ performance of Vissi d’arte in Puccini’s Tosca.
Notes: bergamot, bitter orange, boronia absolute, damask rose absolute, cassis bud, galbanum, Spanish orange flower absolute, tuberose absolute, tuberose accord, stephanotis, grandiflorum jasmine, jonquil absolute, jasmine sambac, narcissus absolute, orris concrete, davana, ambergris, labdanum, ambrette seed, Siam benzoin, Australian sandalwood, castoreum, civet, myrrh gum, French beeswax, opoponax
Sample and bottle purchased by myself. My nose is my own…
~ Ida Meister, Senior Editor and Natural Perfumery Editor
Composite of DSH Perfumes i fiori bel canto by Dawn
Thanks to the generosity of perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, we are offering a 5 ml Extrait or Voile deExtrait of the Extrait of DSH Perfumes i fiori bel canto for one registered reader reader anywhere in the world. To be eligible, please leave a comment explaining what appeals to you about DSH Perfumes i fiori bel canto based on Ida’s review. Who do think would be a great choice for Dawn’s Women in the Arts series and where do you live? Draw closes 1/18/2020
Editor’s Note: i fiori bel canto is the first in what will be a series of perfumes that honor women artists by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz.
DSH Perfumes i fiori bel canto was one of Ida’s Best of Scent Top Ten of 2019
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