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| Maria Callas in the Metropolitan Opera in NYC |
Today, The Grandma has been reading about Maria Callas, the Greek-American soprano, and one of the most
renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century, who was born on a day like today in 1923.
Maria Callas, in Greek Μαρία Κάλλας, December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977, was a Greek-American soprano, and one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. 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 further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; and, in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner. Her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina.
Born in New York City and raised by an overbearing mother, she received her musical education in Greece and established her career in Italy. Forced to deal with the exigencies of wartime poverty and with myopia that left her nearly blind onstage, she endured struggles and scandal over the course of her career.
More information: Maria Callas International Archive
She turned herself from a heavy woman into a svelte and glamorous one after a mid-career weight loss, which might have contributed to her vocal decline and the premature end of her career. The press exulted in publicizing Callas's temperamental behavior, her supposed rivalry with Renata Tebaldi and her love affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Although her dramatic life and personal tragedy have often overshadowed Callas the artist in the popular press, her artistic achievements were such that Leonard Bernstein called her the Bible of opera.
Callas made her professional debut in February 1941, in the small role of Beatrice in Franz von Suppé's Boccaccio. Callas plays Tosca, Fidelio, Cavalleria Rusticana, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, Armida, La sonnambula, Il pirata, Il turco in Italia, Medea and Anna Bolena.
Callas spent her last years living largely in isolation in Paris and died of a heart attack at age 53 on September 16, 1977.Heart failure is a possible outcome of dermatomyositis or side effect of the steroids and immunosuppressants which she took for the disease. Another explanation offered is that Callas's death was due to heart failure brought on by, possibly unintentional, overuse of Mandrax, a sleeping aid.
More information: Maria Callas (1923-1977)
A funerary liturgy was held at Agios Stephanos St. Stephen's Greek Orthodox Cathedral on rue Georges-Bizet, Paris, on September 20, 1977. She later was cremated at the Père Lachaise Cemetery and her ashes were placed in the columbarium there. After being stolen and later recovered, in the spring of 1979 they were scattered over the Aegean Sea, off the coast of Greece, according to her wish.
I would like to be Maria, but there is La Callas
who demands that I carry myself with her dignity.
Maria Callas
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