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THE MYTH OF A GREAT VOICE …
-A modest tribute in the thirtieth anniversary of her tragic disappearance-
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY.
Maria Callas is the professional name of Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos. Born in New York City, on December 2-1923, she moved to Greece in 1937. She studied at the prestigious
Athens Conservatoire, with the well-known soprano, and excellent teacher, Elvira de Hidalgo. She made her professional debut in a major role,
“Tosca”, at the Athens Opera in 1941.After 1949, encouraged at the La Scala opera by her mentor, the Italian conductor Tullio Serafin. Married the Italian Giovanni Meneghini in 1949.
He assumed control of her career until 1959, when the marriage dissolved.
Callas made her American debut in Chicago in 1954 with “Norma”. Her Metropolitan Opera debut in November 1956 was again with Bellini’s opera
“Norma”, a role that became her specialty.
She was a preeminent “prima donna” of her day, and the first modern soprano to revive forgotten operas of the bel canto
repertoire. La Scala mounted many new
productions specially for Callas by directors such as Herbert Von Karajan, Margherita Wallmann, Luchino Visconti
and Franco Zeffirelli. Also she developed a great musical
relation with other singers, mainly with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano and the
baritone Tito Gobbi, appearing frequently in scene and recordings.
In 1957, while still married to Meneghini, Callas was introduced to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. In November 1959, Callas left her husband. She had a brief retirement during this relationship.
In 1965, when she returned again to scene, her voice demonstrated decay
signs. She made her last operatic representation, “Tosca”, in the Covent Garden of London. Three years later,
Onassis left her for Jacqueline Kennedy. In the last years of her life, she lives in
Paris, far from everything. Her death on September 16-1977, brought to an end to
the tragic life of this fascinating artist.
THE GREAT VOICE.
Callas's voice was and remains controversial; it bothered and disturbed as many as it thrilled and inspired. Her voice was incredibly powerful, very crystalline in her youth,
and her timbre had a great range of colors.
Included without problems the registry of soprano and the one of mezzosoprano.
The agility of Callas's voice allowed her to sing difficult ornate music with ease
and technical polish. Even in the most difficult florid music, there were no musical or technical difficulties which she could not
execute with astonishing ease. She had too a great facility for the flowery passages. Very musical and great actress.
Her dramatic talent gave a vibrant shade to her vocal interpretations. Her life was so
showy and controversial as the heroines to which she gave life.
She created molds, archetypes of opera's roles. Since her appearance, she changed the traditional scene with her form to interpret "Carmen",
"Norma", "Tosca", "Medea". As like she extended it, rescuing works like "Ana Bolena" of Donizetti, "The Pirate" of Bellini, "Orfeo and Euridice"
of Haydn, and others.
She said sometime: <To live so that one is tolerated to oneself, it's necessary to work. To work hard. I do not believe in which said Descartes:
“I think, therefore I am”. For me it's “I work, therefore I am”>.
She reigned like absolute "prima donna" and her whims of diva, were reason for constant scandals. She fell in love with Aristotle Onassis. The
Greek magnate and the voice of the century, became the symbol of glamour and objective of the international press.
THE JEWELS.
Some of the jewels that Maria Callas wore in many of her roles.
THE TRAGIC END.
'With Maria Callas is extinguished the great tragic voice of a very grand lady'.
So announced her death a French newspaper, on September 16-1977
in her Parisian house, where she remained shut in with the silent voice and
the devastated heart, interpreting her more
obtained and impressive role:
the one of "The Callas".
That day fell the vital curtain for the more impressive tragic voice of all the times,
ending the last act of the life of a woman marked by a passion as intense as lethal, a passion that elevated her
in her art as “Prima Donna of the Century”,
and embraced her soul until consuming her in the fatal love
for Aristotle Onassis.
She left her recordings, registered when her voice had still that unusual
intensity, that was her touch of distinction.
Through her recordings, endure her matchless art, created with passion and hard work,
by that Greek girl who expected to be a singer and was transformed at the myth of a great voice...,
with the name of Maria Callas.
© September/2007
MUSIC: “O Mio Babbino Caro” by Maria Callas
ENGLISH VERSION
