Home > Maria Callas

Callas combined an impeccable bel canto technique with great dramatic gifts, making her the most famous singing actress of the era. An extremely versatile singer, her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria, such as Spontini's La Vestale to late Verdi and the verisimo operas of Puccini.

Born Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos to Greek parents in New York City, she moved back with her mother to AthensAcropolis in central Athens is home to ancient monuments of Athens — a mainstay of its thriving tourism industry Athens ( Greek: Athina is the capital of Greece, and also the capital of the Attica region of Greece. A cosmopolitan modern city, Athens is al, Greece at age 13. There she received her musical education and became a pupil of the well-known soprano Elvira de Hidalgo at the Athens Conservatory. After a few appearances as a student and in secondary roles, she made her true debut at the Athens Opera on 4 July 1941 as Tosca, going on to sing SantuzzaCavalleria Rusticana ("Rustic Chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to a libretto by Targioni-Tozzetti and Menasci, adapted from a short story by Giovanni Verga. It premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. It is often perfo and LeonoraIl Trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with text by Cammerano. Its first production was in Rome on January 19, 1853. Plot :Place, Biscay and Aragon. Time, the fifteenth century. ACT I . The guard room in the castle of Luna (The Palace of during the next three years. In 1947, Callas made her Italian debut at the Verona ArenaThe Verona Arena is a Roman amphitheater in Verona, Italy, which is famous for the opera performances given there. It is one of the best preserved structure of its kind. The building was built in AD 30 on a site which at the time was outside of the city w in La GiocondaLa Gioconda can refer to: A famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, better known as Mona Lisa; An opera by Amilcare Ponchielli. See La Gioconda (opera). A 1953 film by the Italian director Roberto Rossellini. See La Gioconda (film).. under the baton of Tullio Serafin . Together with Serafin, Callas subsequently recorded and performed many bel canto operas, contributing greatly to the bel canto revival of the 1950s.

Throughout the 1950s, Callas made numerous appearances at the world's great houses: La ScalaThe Teatro alla Scala (or La Scala for short), in Milan, Italy, is one of the world's most famous opera houses. The current edifice is the second theater on the site. A fire destroyed the first, the ancient Teatro Ducale, on 25 February 1776, after a carn, Paris, the Metropolitan Opera, Dallas Opera, Covent Garden, Palacio de las Bellas Artes, and the Colón. Every inch the Diva, her temper tantrums and walkouts became as legendary as her singing. Nearsighted, she refused to wear her glasses, and rarely wore her contact lenses. This frustrated many a conductor, who relies on the singer to watch for tempos. By the mid 1950s, strain on her voice started to become apparent; by 1958 it reached a point where she was no longer suitable for many roles. Her later stereo recordings evidence masterly musical interpretations with an increasingly unstable higher register that wobbled uncontrollably at times.

From October 1971 to March 1972, Callas gave a series of master classes to 25 students at The Juilliard School in New York, who auditioned for the opportunity to be critiqued by her. These were the basis of Terrence McNally's semi-factual play Master Class. In 1972, George Moore, president of the Met board, offered her the job of Artistic Director. She turned it down to stage a comeback recital tour. The 1973 tour was a disaster due to Callas's almost-completely destroyed voice.

In 1957, after a performance in Donizetti's Anna Bolena, Maria was introduced to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis at a party given in her honor by Elsa Maxwell . In November 1959, she left Meneghini for Onassis. The love-affair received much publicity. According to Greek Fire: The Story Of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis by Nicholas Gage, their child, a boy, died hours after he was born on March 30, 1960. The affair ended nine years later, when Onassis left Callas for Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of assassinated US president John F. Kennedy.

Heartbroken ("First I lost my voice, then I lost my figure and then I lost Onassis," she once said), Callas spent her last years living largely in isolation in Paris, where she died at age 53. Her ashes were buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery. After being stolen and later recovered, they were scattered into the Aegean Sea, off the coast of Greece.