Who was Maria Callas, ‘the Bible of opera’, brought to life by Angelina Jolie in a new film?

Callas attracted attention for another reason — back when the belief among the vocal pedagogy was that a larger body could contribute to a richer, more resonant sound, Callas decided to lose around 30 kg in the middle of her very successful career.

Early years and learning music

Callas was born Maria Anna Cecilia Sofia Kalogeropoulos on the Upper East Side in New York in 1923 to Greek immigrant parents. Her father had a small pharmacy in Manhattan, and, to fit in, he changed their surname to Callas.

Since Maria was born after the death of an infant son, her mother, who wanted a boy, rejected her for four days. But her mother was also fond of opera and would play borrowed records, which Maria and her older sister Jackie heard at home. Soon, Maria began to imitate the arias to operas like Tosca and Carmen. So much so that a Swedish neighbour volunteered to teach her for free.

Her father’s business struggled during the Great Depression and the family found it hard to make ends meet. His infidelity added to the troubles and Callas’s mother decided to return to Athens with her two daughters. She had already figured out that her younger daughter could sing and it could help with earning money.

The return to Greece plunged Callas into poverty, which some years later, worsened amid the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II. But her mother, who was determined to turn her daughter into a star, sent her to the National Conservatory at 14, lying about her age as the academy only accepted students when they were 16.

Callas then honed her skills at the Athens Conservatory, walking long distances to learn as there was no transportation.

Maria Callas’s problematic relationship with her mother

Callas’s relationship with her mother was always complex, something that the Jolie film also touches upon. She begrudged her all her life. It began with her mother always calling her ‘fat and ugly’ (Callas was overweight as a teenager with thick glasses and acne). During the war, as people died of starvation around her (30,000 Greeks died due to starvation) Callas’s mother pushed Jackie to become a mistress to a rich man, who helped support the family in dire times. She also tried to get Maria to sleep with Nazi soldiers, as revealed through Maria’s letters later.

Once, Italian fascist soldiers came to her apartment where her mother had hidden two British soldiers for money. The punishment for this was execution. Callas sang Puccini’s famed opera Tosca for the soldiers, thus distracting them from a search. The soldiers came back with food for the family and praise for Callas.

Her mother kept pushing her to sing, often hungry. Many felt that it was the strength she acquired during this period that distinguished Callas from her peers later. “Only when I was singing did I feel loved,” she said in an interview once.

Musical debut and success

Callas’s debut was Greek National Opera’s first staging of Tosca, where she performed during a blackout for the soldiers, not for wages but for food. She kept singing till 1945 when the war ended, and then moved to the US. After struggles and rejection here, she was noticed by Geovanni Zenatello, artistic director and opera singer from Verona.

Maria Callas then moved countries again — this time to Italy, to find fame and success. Here, she met and married the 52-year-old brick manufacturer Giovanni Meneghini, who she felt protected her. Meneghini eventually became her manager. Their relationship soured later as Callas alleged he was taking all her money.

In 1949, when another soprano fell sick, Callas substituted her as Elvira in composer Bellini’s I Puritani (The Puritans), and mastered the part in just a week. Her portrayal of Norma, Violetta and Madea still remains extremely popular. At the famous John F Kennedy pre-birthday party where Marilyn Monroe sang ‘Happy birthday’, Callas had sung two arias from the famed French opera Carmen, to much admiration.

Changing the way opera was sung

Bernstein called Callas a ‘singing actress’ due to her unique theatrical ability to present a score. At a time when technical superiority in singing was imperative, Callas wanted to bring feeling and emotion into opera. She could imbue notes with anxiety and joy and it is the theatrical ability of her voice that is still remembered.

She also brought classic operas by Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi, that had fallen out of standard repertory for being ‘too technical’ and ‘too pretty’, back to life. The 1950s was Callas’s golden period and gave her the title La Divina (The Divine). Her original recordings, especially of Tosca, still top classical musical sales, almost 50 years after her death.

The loss of her voice

Callas said she wanted to lose weight to convincingly portray the ethereal heroines she became on stage. Prodded by Luchino Visconti, one of Italy’s most significant directors of opera and cinema, she lost nearly 30 kg to play Violetta, a glamorous Parisian courtesan, in Verdi’s romantic tragedy La Traviata (The Fallen Woman).

Later, as she started losing the strength of her voice, many believed that her dramatic weight loss had a role to play in this, as her lungs lost power and stamina to sustain the high notes. The stress of her tempestuous personal life, including an abusive and passionate affair with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who left her to marry Jackie Kennedy, was cited as another reason. Many music writers believed that Callas had sung in various registers all her life and probably strained her voice too much.

Callas did try to revive her career by giving masterclasses at New York’s The Juilliard School and a few recitals with Giuseppe di Stefano. But her voice wasn’t able to carry her. After her final recital in 1974, she withdrew herself from public life and died in her apartment of a heart failure in 1977.