She enters, and there is a palpable sense of anticipation as the audience knows they are about to witness an extraordinary performance. That’s the diva story of Maria Callas, a legendary soprano known for her commanding voice and captivating presence.
Maria Callas’ voice was both powerful and emotionally charged. Her vocal range allowed her to convey various emotions, from the tenderest moments to the most dramatic peaks. She was also a great actress, with a remarkable ability to embody the characters she portrayed, bringing them to life.
Her performance was riveting and compelling. It was not just an auditory experience, but a visual and emotional journey. However, beyond the famous stage, the diva lay a misunderstood woman who struggled against fame, manipulation, and betrayal from those closest to her.
The legacy of Maria Callas
In her bestselling book Cast a Diva: The Hidden Life of Maria Callas, author Lyndsy Spence says that we focus so much on Maria Callas, the extraordinary “diva,” that we forget Maria, the ordinary woman. Still, to understand Maria’s struggles, we must explore her singing legacy.
Maria Callas was born in America in 1923 to poor Greek immigrants. However, when she was 13, she moved back to Athens, Greece, with her mother, where she began her musical career. She was first trained by Maria Trivella at the Greek National Conservatory, who waived all her tuition fees, saying Callas’ voice “filled the air with melodious reverberations like a carillon.”
In 1940, she moved to the Athens Conservatory to study under the legendary soprano Elvira de Hidalgo. Here, Maria Callas trained in the bel canto (beautiful singing) Italian style of the 19th century, and she credits Hidalgo with helping her master this style.
She had her professional debut in 1941, and in August 1942, she made her operatic debut playing Puccini’s Tosca. Two years later, she played Santuzza in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio — this is Beethoven’s only opera. She considered this period to be the birth of her career, but sadly, the hardships of World War 2 stagnated her musical career.
After the war, Maria Callas moved back to the U.S. at age 21, and by this time, she had given 56 performances from a repertoire of seven operas. Her post-war career flourished, and soon she was in demand all over Italy. She took the world by storm in the 1950s, making triumphant appearances across top opera houses in Italy, England, and the U.S.
The loss of her voice
For Maria Callas, bel canto was the pinnacle of art expression. She brought to life composers long forgotten by the 1950s, such as Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, and Luigi Cherubini. Her presence, voice, and influence in the opera world are only rivaled by Luciano Pavarotti.
Sadly, the magical voice that had captivated audiences worldwide began to falter around the 1950s. Some attribute this to her sudden loss of weight. Others believe that she had taken roles that were too demanding for her voice, while her husband at the time, Battista Meneghini, said the onset of menopause had affected her voice.
However, Maria Callas said she never lost her voice; she had only lost her “courage and boldness” when she began to overstrain her voice. She retired in 1965 at only 41 — when most sopranos are usually at their peak.
Who was Maria, the person
Maria’s endless drama and the intrigues of her personal life also contributed to her fame worldwide. In the 50s, while married to Meneghini, she began an affair with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
This affair received much publicity, but it ended when Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy (the widow of President John F. Kennedy) in 1968. Some say Maria wanted to be married to this rich man to revive her dying career. However, her biographer Lyndsy rubbishes this theory, saying Maria was a famous name even before she met Onasis — and after he left.
Lyndsy believes the public limelight overshadowed Maria’s private life, and few took her suffering seriously. She had struggled with abject poverty, and her mother had abused her throughout her life. Maria said she resented her mother, who forced her to go out with occupying Nazi soldiers (during the World War 2 period) to get money or better food.
“I’ll never forgive her for taking my childhood away.” Maria said, “During all the years I should have been playing and growing up, I was singing or making money.”
Her father had also pretended he was seriously ill to get money from her, but she found out he only had a minor sickness.
Maria’s betrayal by her lovers
Maria Callas’ unpublished letters show her tumultuous relationships with her husband Meneghini and her lover Onassis. She says Onassis was physically abusive, and at one point, his violence nearly took her life.
Her husband Meneghini said he never understood why Maria Callas suddenly left him. However, her letters also reveal that Meneghini had defrauded her. “My husband is still pestering me after having robbed me of more than half my money by putting everything in his name since we were married … I was a fool … to trust him.”
The passing of a legendary soprano
After separating from her husband and ending her relationship with Onassis, Maria moved to Paris, where she lived alone. She passed away in 1977, alone at her home in Paris.
Still, 47 years later, people continue to be fascinated with Maria Callas as an artist and a woman. However, Lyndsy urges people to look beyond her stage glamor and see her as a relatable woman who loved watching soaps, reading horoscopes, and playing with her dogs.
