Profile
Maria Callas
Born + Greek Soprano
Female
Born
Dec 2, 1923
Hometown
New York City
Died
Sep 16, 1977
Death Place
Paris
Maria Callas, Commendatore OMRI was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts. An extremely versatile singer… Read More
Romance
Check out the latest love interests for Maria Callas.
-
Giovanni MeneghiniMarried 1948 - 1959
News + Updates
Browse recent news and stories about Maria Callas.
-
Realising A Vision Gulf Daily NewsGoogle News - Aug 31, 2011
-
Metropolitan Opera's 2011 12 Season Opens With Anna Bolena 9/26 Broadway WorldGoogle News - Aug 30, 2011
-
Tyne Daly And Terrence Mc Nally Talk Master Class On "Charlie Rose" (Video) Playbill.Com (Blog)Google News - Aug 29, 2011
-
Defining The Mystical Gift Of Charisma China DailyGoogle News - Aug 28, 2011
Timeline
Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Maria Callas.
CHILDHOOD
1923
Birth
According to her birth certificate, Maria Callas was born Sophia Cecelia Kalos at Flower Hospital (now the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center), at 1249 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, on December 2, 1923 to Greek parents George Kalogeropoulos and Evangelia "Litsa" (sometimes "Litza") Dimitriadou, though she was christened Anna Maria Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulou – the genitive of the patronymic Kalogeropoulos –.
… Read More
TEENAGE
…
The marriage continued to deteriorate and in 1937 Evangelia decided to return to Athens with her two daughters.
1938
15 Years Old
On April 11, 1938, in her public debut, Callas ended the recital of Trivella's class at the Parnassos music hall with a duet from Tosca.
… Read More
1939
16 Years Old
On April 2, 1939, Callas undertook the part of Santuzza in a student production of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana at the Olympia Theatre, and in the fall of the same year she enrolled at the Athens Conservatoire in Elvira de Hidalgo's class.
… Read More
Callas made her professional debut in February 1942, in the small role of Beatrice in Franz von Suppé's Boccaccio.
… Read More
TWENTIES
Upon her arrival in Verona, Callas met Giovanni Battista Meneghini, an older, wealthy industrialist, who began courting her. They married in 1949, and he assumed control of her career until 1959, when the marriage dissolved.
… Read More
1950
27 Years Old
According to composer Gian-Carlo Menotti, Callas had substituted for Renata Tebaldi in the role of Aida in 1950, and La Scala's general manager, Antonio Ghiringhelli, had taken an immediate dislike to Callas.
… Read More
…
Sir Rudolf Bing, who remembered Callas as being "monstrously fat" in 1951, stated that after the weight loss, Callas was an "astonishing, svelte, striking woman" who "showed none of the signs one usually finds in a fat woman who has lost weight: she looked as though she had been born to that slender and graceful figure, and had always moved with that elegance."
… Read More
In 1952, she made her London debut at the Royal Opera House in Norma with veteran mezzo soprano Ebe Stignani as Adalgisa, a performance which survives on record and also features the young Joan Sutherland in the small role of Clotilde.
THIRTIES
1953
30 Years Old
Callas and the London public had what she herself called "a love affair", and she returned to the Royal Opera House in 1953, 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1964 to 1965.
… Read More
Callas was notably instrumental in arranging Franco Corelli's debut at La Scala in 1954, where he sang Licinio in Spontini's La vestale opposite Callas's Julia.
… Read More
Callas's relationship with Evangelia continued to erode during the years in Greece, and in the prime of her career, it became a matter of great public interest, especially after a 1956 cover story in Time magazine which focused on this relationship and later, by Evangelia's book My Daughter - Maria Callas.
… Read More
In 1957, Callas was starring as Amina in La sonnambula at the Edinburgh International Festival with the forces of La Scala.
… Read More
She further consolidated this company's standing when, in 1958, she gave "a towering performance as Violetta in La Traviata, and that same year, in her only American performances of Medea, gave an interpretation of the title role worthy of Euripides."
… Read More
Despite this, Bing's admiration for Callas never wavered, and in September 1959, he sneaked into La Scala in order to listen to Callas record La Gioconda for EMI.
… Read More
1960
37 Years Old
According to one of her biographers, Nicholas Gage, Callas and Onassis had a child, a boy, who died hours after he was born on March 30, 1960.
… Read More
FORTIES
In her final years as a singer, she sang in Medea, Norma, and Tosca, most notably her Paris, New York, and London Toscas of January–February 1964, and her last performance on stage, on July 5, 1965, at Covent Garden.
1966
43 Years Old
In 1966, Callas renounced her U.S. citizenship at the American Embassy in Paris, to facilitate the end of her marriage to Meneghini.
1968
45 Years Old
The relationship ended two years later in 1968, when Onassis left Callas in favour of Jacqueline Kennedy.
… Read More
1969
46 Years Old
In 1969, the Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini cast Callas in her only non-operatic acting role, as the Greek mythological character of Medea, in his film by that name.
… Read More
FIFTIES
1973
50 Years Old
Callas staged a series of joint recitals in Europe in 1973 and in the U.S., South Korea, and Japan in 1974 with the tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano.
… Read More
1974
51 Years Old
Her final public performance was on November 11, 1974, in Sapporo, Japan.
Callas herself attributed her problems to a loss of confidence brought about by a loss of breath support, even though she does not make the connection between her weight and her breath support. In an April 1977 interview with journalist Philippe Caloni, she stated, "My best recordings were made when I was skinny, and I say skinny, not slim, because I worked a lot and couldn't gain weight back; I became even too skinny...
… Read More
Original Authors of this text are noted on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Callas.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.