{"id":5486,"date":"2024-12-02T13:06:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T12:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/?p=5486"},"modified":"2024-12-02T13:12:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T12:12:03","slug":"maria-callas-soprano-december-02-1923","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/2024\/12\/maria-callas-soprano-december-02-1923\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Callas, Sopran, 2. Dezember 1923"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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MARIA CALLAS<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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DECEMBER 02, 1923<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Of Greek emigr\u00e9 parentage, Maris Callas was conceived in Greece and born in New York. She was baptised Cecilia Sophia Anna Maria Callas<\/span>[1]<\/span><\/sup><\/a>, her namesake St.Cecilia the patron saint of music serving her in this case particularly well!<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The actual date of birth is disputed, but considering this quote from the book by Stelios Galatopoulos, Maria Callas La Divina<\/i>, Maria will have the final word. \u2018The actual birth is uncertain. Maria Callas<\/span>\u2019<\/span> passport gives the date as the 2nd, and Groves dictionary the 3rd, but Callas\u2019 mother remembers the 4th. Callas herself considers the 4th as her birthday primarily in order to agree, naturally, with her mother and also because St. Barbara is the patron saint of artillery for whom Callas says she has a special devotion.\u2019<\/span>[2]<\/span><\/sup><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Simply said, Maria Callas was an amazing force of nature. Her instrument spanned many voice categories which she used with the greatest artistry and musicality over the diverse operatic repertoire she mastered and from all witness accounts in a most mesmerising way and utterly unforgettable. <\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

If one had to classify her unclassifiable instrument it may have fallen into that of soprano<\/i> dramatico d\u2019agilit\u00e1,<\/i> which is a voice of enormous range, capable of the florid style simultaneously accomplished with dramatic accentuations that gives it a very moving quality of tone. The voice possessed great volume compared with that, that a present-day dramatic soprano would legitimately exhibit as well as the extensive chest voice quality of a true mezzo-soprano.<\/span>[3]<\/span><\/sup><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

When La Scala management eventually could no longer deny her a contract as a prima donna in her own right and not just as\u00a0 a jump-in substitution for their indisposed most popular and loved star at the time Renate Tebaldi, she rose to the dizzying heights of operatic stardom of world-wide fame and adulation.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

La Scala had in Callas a singer capable of reviving the long neglected bel canto operas. So dependent was La Scala on Callas\u2019 skills, that they could find no other living singer to sing the role of Donizetti\u2019s Anna Bolena <\/i>for the planned 1964-1965 visit to Russia which Callas declined to participate in, when she was not offered any other roles at La Scala for that season.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>

Her voice and mystique has resulted in many books, theories and films being made about her.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

To give an idea of the sensation and impact she created we let others recollect who knew her and witnessed her performances.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Giuseppe di Stefano, friend and the other half of the operatic dream team he formed with Callas, when asked in an interview to compare his two leading ladies, replied, \u2019Tebaldi had the most beautiful voice in the world,\u201d he says, <\/span>\u201c<\/span>Maria had four different voices, but she was the most expressive singer I ever experienced. She was a true artist. She attracted news stories but she always only wanted to be treated like <\/span>\u2018<\/span>The Other One<\/span>\u2019 <\/span>(the common term used by the Tebaldi\/Callas camps for the opposing diva).\u2019<\/span>[4]<\/span><\/sup><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Madame Biki<\/span> one of the most famous couturiers in Italy from the 1940s-1960s, designed for Maria Callas and played a part in Callas becoming a style icon of the time. Incidentally, the name Biki,<\/i> was the nickname given her by step-grandfather who was none other than Giacomo Puccini himself. She wrote in the forward of <\/span>Maria Callas La Divina<\/span><\/i>, \u2018<\/span><\/i>Fashion: this is the reason Maria first came to me, and by no means a trifling or irrelevant reason. The elegance of Callas, both on the stage and in life, has been one of her many triumphs. Maria Callas is an outstanding character: a life lived at the summit. She is comparable to such figures of our time as Picasso, Cocteau and Chaplin, for in her art she has the same revolutionary and exciting influence they had and have in theirs. And, like all of them, she never judged art and life by two different standards. In art- as in life- there is no distinction between lesser and greater things. Everything is important.\u2019<\/span>[5]<\/span><\/sup><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

From Michael Scott opera director and Callas biographer, we find the following amazing anecdote, \u2018The great turning point in Callas’ career occurred in <\/span>Venice<\/a><\/span> in 1949. She was engaged to sing the role of Br\u00fcnnhilde in <\/span>Die Walk\u00fcre<\/span><\/a><\/span> at the <\/span>Teatro la Fenice<\/a><\/span>, when <\/span>Margherita Carosio<\/a><\/span>, who was engaged to sing Elvira in <\/span>I puritani<\/span><\/a><\/span> in the same theatre, fell ill. Unable to find a replacement for Carosio, Serafin told Callas that she would be singing Elvira in six days; when Callas protested that she not only did not know the role, but also had three more Br\u00fcnnhildes to sing, he told her “I guarantee that you can.\u201d In <\/span>Michael Scott’s<\/a><\/span> words, “the notion of any one singer embracing music as divergent in its vocal demands as Wagner’s Br\u00fcnnhilde and Bellini’s Elvira in the same career would have been cause enough for surprise; but to attempt to assay them both in the same season seemed like folie de grandeur<\/span>\u201d. Scott asserted that “Of all the many roles Callas undertook, it is doubtful if any had a more far-reaching effect.\u201d This initial foray into the bel canto repertoire changed the course of Callas’ career and set her on a path leading to <\/span>Lucia di Lammermoor<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, <\/span>La traviata<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, <\/span>Armida<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, <\/span>La sonnambula<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, <\/span>Il pirata<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, <\/span>Il turco in Italia<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, <\/span>Medea<\/span><\/a><\/span>, and <\/span>Anna Bolena<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, and reawakened interest in the long-neglected operas of <\/span>Cherubini<\/span><\/a><\/span>, <\/span>Bellini<\/span><\/a><\/span>, <\/span>Donizetti<\/a><\/span> and <\/span>Rossini<\/span><\/a><\/span>.’<\/span>[6]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

It is well known that\u00a0 Callas worked with and admired the film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli. He summed her artistic character up with, \u2018Maria is a common girl behind the wings, but when she goes onstage, or even when she talks about her work or begins to hum a tune, she immediately assumes this additional quality.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

For me, Maria is always a miracle. You cannot understand or explain her. You can explain everything [Laurence] Olivier does because it is all part of a professional genius. But Maria can switch from nothing to everything, from earth to heaven. What is it this woman has? I don’t know, but when that miracle happens, she is a new soul, a new entity.\u2019<\/span>[7]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Sir <\/span>Rudolf Bing<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Metropolitan Opera director expressed similar sentiments, \u2018Once one heard and seen<\/span> Maria Callas<\/span>\u2014one can’t really distinguish it\u2014in a part, it was very hard to enjoy any other artist, no matter how great, afterwards, because she imbued every part she sang and acted with such incredible personality and life. One move of her hand was more than another artist could do in a whole act.\u2019<\/span>[8]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a><\/p>

The conductor Carlo Maria Giulini, recalled, \u2018It is very difficult to speak of the voice of Callas. Her voice was a very special instrument. Something happens sometimes with string instruments\u2014<\/span>violin, viola, cello<\/span>\u2014where the first moment you listen to the sound of this instrument, the first feeling is a bit strange sometimes. But after just a few minutes, when you get used to it, when you become friends with this kind of sound, then the sound becomes a magical quality. This was Callas.\u2019<\/span>[9]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Biographer Stelios Galatopolous who witnessed Callas\u2019 Italian Debut in<\/span><\/span> La Gioconda <\/span><\/i>in Verona in 1947 and her Covent Garden debut as <\/span><\/span>Norma <\/span><\/i>in 1952, as well as over one hundred of her performances, recollected in his book, \u2018On 8th November 1952 Callas made her London debut creating a sensation in Bellini<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span> Norma <\/span><\/i>which was talked about many years after by those who saw the performances as the greatest thing they had ever heard on the operatic stage.\u2019<\/span><\/span>[10]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>

\u2018Still there was one critic who would not surrender unconditionally. The late Ernest Newman, in the Covent Garden foyer after the performance, found himself surrounded by a crowd of people who wanted to hear his opinion. After all, [at that time] he was the eldest music critic in London, and the only one who had heard some of the great Normas of the past. Newman said very little: \u201cShe was wonderful, truly wonderful.\u201d And then raising his umbrella and almost in a high pitched voice: \u201cBut she is not a Ponselle.\u201d\u2019<\/span><\/span>[11]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>

Even at the time of her final operatic performances when it was observed she was longer at her full vocal powers, she could still draw admiration from the highest level. I<\/span>n 1965 <\/span>\u2018<\/span>Clarendon, possibly France<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s most eminent music critic, described the performance an unforgettable theatrical experience. I have seen Puccini<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s <\/span>Tosca<\/span><\/span> many times- hundreds, but last night I was convinced it was really the first time, he wrote.\u2019<\/span>[12]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In 1969, the Italian filmmaker <\/span>Pier Paolo Pasolini<\/span><\/a><\/span> cast Callas in her only non-operatic acting role, as the Greek mythological character of Medea, in his <\/span>film by that name<\/span><\/a><\/span>. The film was not a commercial success, but as Callas’ only film appearance, it documents something of her stage presence.<\/span><\/p>

From October 1971 to March 1972, Callas gave a series of master classes at the <\/span>Juilliard School<\/span><\/a><\/span> in New York. These classes later formed the basis of <\/span>Terrence McNally<\/span><\/a><\/span>‘s 1995 play <\/span>Master Class<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>

Callas staged a series of joint recitals in Europe in 1973 and in the U.S., South Korea, and Japan in 1974 with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano. Critically, this was a musical disaster owing to both performers’ no longer being at their peak<\/span> .<\/span><\/p>

Nevertheless, the tour was an enormous popular success. Audiences thronged to hear the two performers, who had so often appeared together in their prime. Her final public performance was on 11 November 1974, in <\/span>Sapporo<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Japan. Callas and d<\/span>i <\/span>Stefano were to have appeared together in four staged performances of <\/span>Tosca<\/span><\/span> in Japan in late 1975 but Callas cancelled.<\/span>[13]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a><\/p>

Sadly after a relatively early retirement from the stage she died in Paris in 1977 at the age of 53 and her ashes returned to Greece and scattered in the Aegean Sea.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>

In 2007, Callas was posthumously awarded the <\/span>Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award<\/span><\/a><\/span>. In the same year, she was voted the greatest soprano of all time by <\/span>BBC Music Magazine<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span>[14]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

More recently Callas still continues to fascinate the world. In 2017 the film director Tom Volf made the French documentary Maria by Maria<\/span> based on interviews, letters and performances to tell her story and in 2024 the biopic Callas<\/span> played by <\/span>Angelina Jolie<\/span><\/a><\/span> and directed <\/span>by <\/span>Pablo Larra<\/span>\u00edn<\/a><\/span> had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival where Jolie received an eight minute standing ovation reminiscent of \u2018La Divina\u2019s\u2019 at the height of her fame.<\/span>[15]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>

\"Rectangle\"<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

FOOTNOTES<\/b>\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div>

\u00a0<\/sup><\/p>

[1]<\/a><\/span><\/sup> C<\/span>ALLAS <\/span>\u00a0L<\/span>A <\/span>\u00a0D<\/span>IVINA. ART THAT CONCEALS ART. <\/span>\u00a0S<\/span>TELIOS<\/span> G<\/span>ALATOPOULOS, J.M\u00a0 DENT & SONS LTD LONDON, Page 10<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[2]<\/span><\/sup><\/a> IBID. p 8<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[3]<\/span><\/sup><\/a> IBID\u00a0 p 100<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[4]<\/span><\/sup><\/a> LOS ANGELES TIMES, WALTER PRICE, <\/span>\u201c<\/span>MUSIC:<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>DI STEFANO <\/span>\u2014STILL OUTSPOKEN , INDEPENDENT,; LOOKING BACK ON A GREAT AND C CONTROVERSIAL CAREER, SEPTEMBER 25, 1988<\/span>\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[5]<\/span><\/sup><\/a> IBID. p 40<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[6]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a> S<\/span>COTT, MICHAEL<\/span> MARIA MENEGHINI CALLAS 1992 <\/span>B<\/span>OSTON<\/span> N<\/span>ORTH EASTERN UNIVERSITY<\/span> P<\/span>RESS<\/span>. <\/span>ISBN<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>978-1-55553-146-1<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[7]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a> JOHN ARDOIN<\/span> (<\/span>WRITER<\/span>),<\/span>FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI (NARRATOR)<\/span>(1978). <\/span>CALLAS: A DOCUMENTARY<\/span> (P<\/span><\/span>LUS BONUS)<\/span><\/span>(TV ,<\/span>DOCUMENTARY<\/span> DVD). T<\/span>HE BEL CANTO SOCIETY<\/span><\/p><\/div>

<\/a>7 JOHN ARDOIN<\/span> (<\/span>WRITER<\/span>),<\/span>FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI (NARRATOR)<\/span>(1978). <\/span>CALLAS: A DOCUMENTARY<\/span> (P<\/span><\/span>LUS BONUS)<\/span><\/span> (TV ,<\/span>DOCUMENTARY<\/span> DVD). T<\/span>HE BEL CANTO SOCIETY<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[9]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a> JOHN ARDOIN<\/span> (<\/span>WRITER<\/span>),<\/span>FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI (NARRATOR)<\/span>(1978). <\/span>CALLAS: A DOCUMENTARY<\/span> (P<\/span><\/span>LUS BONUS)<\/span><\/span>(TV ,<\/span>DOCUMENTARY<\/span> DVD). T<\/span>HE BEL CANTO SOCIETY<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[10]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a> IBID. p 40<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[11]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a> IBID. p<\/span> 40<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[12]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a> IBID. p 84<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[13]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a> CRORY, NEIL \u2018MARIA CALLAS IN TORONTO – A NIGHT ON THE TOWN (15 OCTOBER 2014) Crory, Neil (October 15, 2014). <\/span>“Maria Callas In Toronto <\/span><\/span>\u2013 <\/span>A Night On The Town (15 October 2014)”<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. <\/span>Ludwig Von Toronto<\/span><\/span>. Museland Media Inc. Retrieved March 31, 2022.<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[14]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a> IMBD\u00a0 MARIA CALLAS AWARDS<\/a><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/div>

[15]<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/a>\u00a0FILM, MARIA, 2024<\/a><\/b>\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of Greek emigr\u00e9 parentage, Maris Callas was conceived in Greece and born in New York. She was baptised Cecilia Sophia Anna Maria Callas, her namesake St.Cecilia the patron saint of music serving her in this case particularly well! <\/p>\n

The actual date of birth is disputed, but considering this quote from the book by Stelios Galatopoulos, Maria Callas La Divina, Maria will have the final word. \u2018The actual birth is uncertain. Maria Callas\u2019 passport gives the date as the 2nd, and Groves dictionary the 3rd, but Callas\u2019 mother remembers the 4th. Callas herself considers the 4th as her birthday primarily in order to agree, naturally, with her mother and also because St. Barbara is the patron saint of artillery for whom Callas says she has a special devotion.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Simply said, Maria Callas was an amazing force of nature. Her instrument spanned many voice categories which she used with the greatest artistry and musicality over the diverse operatic repertoire she mastered and from all witness accounts in a most mesmerising way and utterly unforgettable. <\/p>\n

If one had to classify her unclassifiable instrument it may have fallen into that of soprano dramatico d\u2019agilit\u00e1, which is a voice of enormous range, capable of the florid style simultaneously accomplished with dramatic accentuations that gives it a very moving quality of tone. The voice possessed great volume compared with that, that a present-day dramatic soprano would legitimately exhibit as well as the extensive chest voice quality of a true mezzo-soprano.<\/p>\n

When La Scala management eventually could no longer deny her a contract as a prima donna in her own right and not just as a jump-in substitution for their indisposed most popular and loved star at the time Renate Tebaldi, she rose to the dizzying heights of operatic stardom of world-wide fame and adulation.<\/p>\n

La Scala had in Callas a singer capable of reviving the long neglected bel canto operas. So dependent was La Scala on Callas\u2019 skills, that they could find no other living singer to sing the role of Donizetti\u2019s Anna Bolena for the planned 1964-1965 visit to Russia which Callas declined to participate in, when she was not offered any other roles at La Scala for that season.<\/p>\n

Her voice and mystique has resulted in many books, theories and films being made about her.<\/p>\n

To give an idea of the sensation and impact she created we let others recollect who knew her and witnessed her performances.<\/p>\n

Giuseppe di Stefano, friend and the other half of the operatic dream team he formed with Callas, when asked in an interview to compare his two leading ladies, replied, \u2019Tebaldi had the most beautiful voice in the world,\u201d he says, \u201cMaria had four different voices, but she was the most expressive singer I ever experienced. She was a true artist. She attracted news stories but she always only wanted to be treated like \u2018The Other One\u2019 (the common term used by the Tebaldi\/Callas camps for the opposing diva).\u2019<\/p>\n

Madame Biki one of the most famous couturiers in Italy from the 1940s-1960s, designed for Maria Callas and played a part in Callas becoming a style icon of the time. Incidentally, the name Biki, was the nickname given her by step-grandfather who was none other than Giacomo Puccini himself. She wrote in the forward of Maria Callas La Divina, \u2018Fashion: this is the reason Maria first came to me, and by no means a trifling or irrelevant reason. The elegance of Callas, both on the stage and in life, has been one of her many triumphs. Maria Callas is an outstanding character: a life lived at the summit. She is comparable to such figures of our time as Picasso, Cocteau and Chaplin, for in her art she has the same revolutionary and exciting influence they had and have in theirs. And, like all of them, she never judged art and life by two different standards. In art- as in life- there is no distinction between lesser and greater things. Everything is important.\u2019<\/p>\n

From Michael Scott opera director and Callas biographer, we find the following amazing anecdote, \u2018The great turning point in Callas’ career occurred in Venice in 1949. She was engaged to sing the role of Br\u00fcnnhilde in Die Walk\u00fcre at the Teatro la Fenice, when Margherita Carosio, who was engaged to sing Elvira in I puritani in the same theatre, fell ill. Unable to find a replacement for Carosio, Serafin told Callas that she would be singing Elvira in six days; when Callas protested that she not only did not know the role, but also had three more Br\u00fcnnhildes to sing, he told her “I guarantee that you can.\u201d In Michael Scott’s words, “the notion of any one singer embracing music as divergent in its vocal demands as Wagner’s Br\u00fcnnhilde and Bellini’s Elvira in the same career would have been cause enough for surprise; but to attempt to assay them both in the same season seemed like folie de grandeur\u201d. Scott asserted that “Of all the many roles Callas undertook, it is doubtful if any had a more far-reaching effect.\u201d This initial foray into the bel canto repertoire changed the course of Callas’ career and set her on a path leading to Lucia di Lammermoor, La traviata, Armida, La sonnambula, Il pirata, Il turco in Italia, Medea, and Anna Bolena, and reawakened interest in the long-neglected operas of Cherubini, Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini.’<\/p>\n

It is well known that Callas worked with and admired the film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli. He summed her artistic character up with, \u2018Maria is a common girl behind the wings, but when she goes onstage, or even when she talks about her work or begins to hum a tune, she immediately assumes this additional quality.<\/p>\n

For me, Maria is always a miracle. You cannot understand or explain her. You can explain everything [Laurence] Olivier does because it is all part of a professional genius. But Maria can switch from nothing to everything, from earth to heaven. What is it this woman has? I don’t know, but when that miracle happens, she is a new soul, a new entity.\u2019<\/p>\n

Sir Rudolf Bing, Metropolitan Opera director expressed similar sentiments, \u2018Once one heard and seen Maria Callas\u2014one can’t really distinguish it\u2014in a part, it was very hard to enjoy any other artist, no matter how great, afterwards, because she imbued every part she sang and acted with such incredible personality and life. One move of her hand was more than another artist could do in a whole act.\u2019
\nThe conductor Carlo Maria Giulini, recalled, \u2018It is very difficult to speak of the voice of Callas. Her voice was a very special instrument. Something happens sometimes with string instruments\u2014violin, viola, cello\u2014where the first moment you listen to the sound of this instrument, the first feeling is a bit strange sometimes. But after just a few minutes, when you get used to it, when you become friends with this kind of sound, then the sound becomes a magical quality. This was Callas.\u2019<\/p>\n

Biographer Stelios Galatopolous who witnessed Callas\u2019 Italian Debut in La Gioconda in Verona in 1947 and her Covent Garden debut as Norma in 1952, as well as over one hundred of her performances, recollected in his book, \u2018On 8th November 1952 Callas made her London debut creating a sensation in Bellini\u2019s Norma which was talked about many years after by those who saw the performances as the greatest thing they had ever heard on the operatic stage.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Still there was one critic who would not surrender unconditionally. The late Ernest Newman, in the Covent Garden foyer after the performance, found himself surrounded by a crowd of people who wanted to hear his opinion. After all, [at that time] he was the eldest music critic in London, and the only one who had heard some of the great Normas of the past. Newman said very little: \u201cShe was wonderful, truly wonderful.\u201d And then raising his umbrella and almost in a high pitched voice: \u201cBut she is not a Ponselle.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

Even at the time of her final operatic performances when it was observed she was longer at her full vocal powers, she could still draw admiration from the highest level. In 1965 \u2018Clarendon, possibly France\u2019s most eminent music critic, described the performance an unforgettable theatrical experience. I have seen Puccini\u2019s Tosca many times- hundreds, but last night I was convinced it was really the first time, he wrote.\u2019<\/p>\n

In 1969, the Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini cast Callas in her only non-operatic acting role, as the Greek mythological character of Medea, in his film by that name. The film was not a commercial success, but as Callas’ only film appearance, it documents something of her stage presence.
\nFrom October 1971 to March 1972, Callas gave a series of master classes at the Juilliard School in New York. These classes later formed the basis of Terrence McNally’s 1995 play Master Class.
\nCallas staged a series of joint recitals in Europe in 1973 and in the U.S., South Korea, and Japan in 1974 with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano. Critically, this was a musical disaster owing to both performers’ no longer being at their peak .
\nNevertheless, the tour was an enormous popular success. Audiences thronged to hear the two performers, who had so often appeared together in their prime. Her final public performance was on 11 November 1974, in Sapporo, Japan. Callas and di Stefano were to have appeared together in four staged performances of Tosca in Japan in late 1975 but Callas cancelled.
\nSadly after a relatively early retirement from the stage she died in Paris in 1977 at the age of 53 and her ashes returned to Greece and scattered in the Aegean Sea.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Callas was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In the same year, she was voted the greatest soprano of all time by BBC Music Magazine.<\/p>\n

More recently Callas still continues to fascinate the world. In 2017 the film director Tom Volf made the French documentary Maria by Maria based on interviews, letters and performances to tell her story and in 2024 the biopic Callas played by Angelina Jolie and directed by Pablo Larra\u00edn had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival where Jolie received an eight minute standing ovation reminiscent of \u2018La Divina\u2019s\u2019 at the height of her fame. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-5486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-front-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicedetective.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}