"Don't talk to me about rules, dear," the American-born Greek soprano Maria Callas once warned. "Wherever I stay I make the goddamn rules."
Fittingly, this quote features in an anthology entitled Wild Women Talk Back: Audacious Advice for the Bedroom, Boardroom, and Beyond. The operatic icon who made this utterance famous is reverentially referred to as 'La Divina' (the divine one).
Callas died in 1977, yet her legend is very much alive. Angelina Jolie is lined up to play the lead role in a forthcoming biopic of her life directed by Pablo Larraín and scripted by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. If that isn't glamorous enough, Monica Belluci is currently playing her on a world theatre tour of a show entitled Maria Callas: Letters and Memoirs. Her towering stature in modern popular culture confirms Elisabeth Vincentelli's contention: "There are opera stars, and then there is Maria Callas".
Watch: Maria Callas sings Bizet's Carmen, Hamburg 1962
Maria Callas was born at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in Manhattan on December 2, 1923 to Greek parents, who had only just emigrated to New York shortly before her birth. Their marriage was strained when Maria arrived. After spending her early years in Queens, she moved back to Greece with her mother.
Callas's fractious relationship with her mum was famously exposed in a cover story for Time magazine in 1956. "I was the ugly duckling, fat and clumsy and unpopular," Callas claimed, adding that she was forced into singing professionally at very young age against her will. "I'll never forgive her for taking my childhood away," she mourned. "During all the years I should have been playing and growing up, I was singing or making money."
Maria moved back to the United States where she was reunited with her father. Her career took off in during the opera season in Verona, Italy, where she met her first husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini. As her profile grew, so did her unique vocal ability. The English classical producer Walter Legge proclaimed she possessed the most essential ingredient for a truly great singer: an instantly recognisable voice. Sir Rudolf Bing was also effusive in his praise. "Once one heard and saw Maria Callas it was very hard to enjoy any other artist, no matter how great, afterwards, because she imbued every part she sang and acted with such incredible personality and life," he eulogized. The renowned principal conductor at Milan’s La Scala from 1956 to 1965, Antonino Votto, who worked with her on numerous studio recordings, went as far to claim that Maria Callas was "the last great artist".
Watch: Maria Callas sings Casta Diva
2023 is the centenary year of her birth. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra will pay tribute with a programme conducted by Nil Venditti and featuring soprano Sinéad Campbell-Wallace and tenor Noah Stewart.
RTÉ Lyric's Liz Nolan will host this special evening dedicated to the first lady of opera.
Maria Callas - A Centenary Celebration is at the National Concert Hall on Wednesday, February 22nd - find out more here.
