Maria Callas, (born Cecilia Sophia Anna Kalogeropoulou). She was a New York-born Greek soprano, one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini, and to the works of Verdi and Puccini, and early in her career, to the music dramas of Wagner.
Timeline:
Dec 2, 1923. Maria Callas is born in New York, U.S.A.
Sept 28, 1937. She moves back to Greece with her mother, and begins training with Madam Elvira Heldago, National Conservatory.
Sept 28, 1940. Her auditions haven't been going as well until she is asked to audition for the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera. He offers her the leading roles in two productions of the 1946/1947 season. Maria turns down the contract.
November 1, 1940. She makes her professional stage debut in Boccaccio. (age 17)
1941. Makes her debut as Tosca, in Athens.
1947. Earns wide acclaim singing Gioconda at the Verona Arena.
January 19, 1949. I Puritani is performed in Venice shortly
after, starring the Italian soprano Margherita Carosio as Elvira. One
night, Maria begins sight-reading Elvira's music as Carosio falls ill.
Conductor Serafin's wife hears Maria. She is offered the role of Elvira.
April 21, 1949. She marries Giovanni Battista Meneghini, a man almost 30 years her senior.
December 7, 1950. La Scala, the famous Milan theatre offers her a leading role. She opens the 1950/1951 season with I Vespri Siciliani, a success with good reviews.
July 1, 1952. She signs an exclusive recording contract with Walter Legge, EMI director.
1952 & 1956. Her early repertory includes Wagner but soon became identified with bel canto roles, singing Norma at her London (1952) and New York (1956).
December 19, 1958. Maria Callas performs an aria from her signature role, Bellini's druid priestess Norma, with the Orchestre de l'Opera National de Paris and Georges Sebastian. Recorded live at the Palais Garnier on the 19th of December 1958, this concert marked the soprano's debut at the Paris Opera, a major social event for Parisians and for which Callas donned her most elegant couture and a million dollars' worth of jewelry. (Maria Callas sings "Casta Diva" (Bellini: Norma, Act 1). Youtube, uploaded by Warner Classics. Accessed December 19, 2015.)
Maria Callas interpreting Bellini's Norma, "Casta Diva". Act I.
Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala, Milan
Tullio Serafin, Conductor.
Recorded in the Cinema Metropol, Milan, 1954. (Uploaded by Dennis Tschirner. Accessed December 2, 2015.)
January 1, 1942. Nazi Germany invades Greece in April 1941, under
Italian occupation. This day she is asked to perform in Puccini's Tosca at the Athens Opera.
November 17, 1955. Establishes her image as a "tigress." She has just finished performing Madama Butterfly when she is summoned to court - sued by a former manager.
October 28, 1956. She makes her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Norma in Bellini's Norma.
1957 Sonnambula Tour / Opera Scotland. She stars as Amina in La Sonnambula at the Edinburgh International Festival with the La Scala management, a contract for four performances. She tells La Scala officials that she was exhausted, and refused to go to Venice; she was accused of walking out on the festival. La Scala officials did not defend Callas nor inform the press that the additional performance was not approved by her.
January 2, 1958. She is scheduled to sing in a gala performance of Bellini's Norma at the Rome Opera House, with the performance to be attended by Italy's President, Giovanni Gronchi and his wife. Unfortunately, Callas has been drinking champagne and staying up late at a Rome nightclub.
When she woke up, less than a day and a half before curtain time, her voice was gone. There is no understudy and a cancellation would be disastrous. Against the orders of her doctors, Callas goes on stage. Disaster. At the end of the first act, half the audience jeered while the other half in shocked silence. She escaped through to the back door. While the public was furious, Callas was relieved to receive a phone call from Signora Gronchi that she and husband were not offended.
September 3, 1958. She announces that she will e parting from her husband, G.B. Meneghini.
1959. She begins a love affair with Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate.
1965. Retires from the stage.
1968. Onassis ends his relationship with Callas to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of US President John F. Kennedy; they marry on October 20, 1968.
June 1, 1969. She begins work on a film of Medea with Pier Paolo Pasolini. She works very hard but hardly sings. The film is not a success.
May 21, 1970. Freely, Onassis has dinner with Callas in a Paris restaurant. As the news hit headline, it takes Jackie Onassis only a day to find herself in the same restaurant where Onassis was with Callas was with two nights earlier. Callas is admitted to a Paris hospital, as she made a suicide attempt by taking a large amount of sleeping pills. She survives; soon took her place with Onassis.
1971. She was officially divorced from Giovanni Battista Meneghini. Also during this academic year 1971-72 at the Juilliard School, Callas worked with 25 students whom she had selected after listening to some 300 young singers in auditions.
1971-1972. She makes master classes in New York.
October 25, 1973. She begins a comeback tour with Giuseppe di Stefano. For the first time in eight years, she sings in public again.
1973-1974. She makes her final concert tour.
March 15, 1975. Onassis dies, considered one of the major factor's behind her death.
September 16, 1977. Maria Callas passes away in her Paris home from a heart attack, aged 53. Her funeral is held four days later, September 16, 1977.
Added link, December 2, 2018:
Callas (Full Film) - Tony Palmer Films. Uploaded by Gonzo Music TV.
Once again, the La Divina lulls me to a tender slumber with her rendition of Bellini's Norma: "Casta Diva... tempra, O Diva, tempra tu de cori ardenti ..."
Resources:
Maria Callas. en.wikipedia.org.
Maria Callas: The Tigress and the Lamb, by David Bret. Robson Books (1998)
My Wife: Maria Callas, by Giovanni Battista Meneghini and Renzo Allegri. Farrar Straus Giroux; First Edition (1982).
(c) December 2010. Updated December 2, 2021. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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