Maria Callas

Maria Callas (actually Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulou, Greek Μαρία Καλογεροπούλου; born December 2, 1923 in New York City; † September 16, 1977 in Paris) was a Greek soprano. She was, despite a relatively short career, one of the most important opera singers in the Italian repertoire.

Life and work

Maria Callas was born on December 2, 1923 in New York's Washington Heights, the daughter of Greek immigrants George Kalogeropoulos and Evangelia Dimitriadis. Hailing from the Peloponnese father changed the family name to Callas in 1929 when he opened a pharmacy in the Greek district of Manhattan. 1937 Maria went to her parents' divorce with his mother and sister Yakynthy (Jackie ) to Athens. Her first public appearance was in November 1938 in Cavalleria Rusticana in Athens, when she was still studying at the Athens Conservatory with Maria Trivella aged still just 14 years. From 1938 she studied singing with Elvira de Hidalgo, also at the Conservatory of Athens. In August 1942 she sang at the National Opera of Athens for the first time the role of Tosca, in April 1944 the first time the role of Marta in the lowlands. In the Greek premiere of Fidelio in the theater of Herod Atticus in August 1944, Callas sang the title role. In 1949 she married the Italian businessman Giovanni Battista Meneghini, and adopted the Italian citizenship.

Callas excelled in many roles. Their repertoire consisted of 43 games, as well as arias from other operas 34. Here, her vocal range from fis handed in Verdi's Sicilian Vespers to f3 in Rossini's Armida. In addition to the range of her voice almost three octaves, her voice possessed great flexibility and ruled over all vocal sound techniques of bel canto singing. In 1951, she was impressed by their appearance as Aida at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. The end of the winning scene in Act 2 she decided to deviate from the score, with a crystal clear es3. "The audience went crazy " described the record company EMI response. The historical picture is obtained, impressed despite poor shooting conditions today and was published in the 1990s as Aida Live 1951 by EMI on CD.

Her most famous interpretations include Luigi Cherubini's Medea, Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata (1951 ff ) and Bellini's Norma (1948 ff.) The Constanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio (1952 ) is the only represented by their Mozart game. After her body weight had reached almost 100 kg, she took over the years 1953/54, about 30 kg from.

Your special merit lies in the rediscovery and revival of the bel canto operas of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. Her performances in Rossini's Il Turco in Italia and Armida, Donizetti's Anna Bolena and Lucia di Lammermoor or Bellini's Norma and Il pirata paved the way for singers like Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballé, were known many years later, in these roles.

Few performances by Callas are documented as a movie, so her debut in Paris in 1958, both concerts in Hamburg (1959 and 1962 ) as well as the concerts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1962 and 1964). The effect of their views can be experienced by numerous studio and live recordings, such as the aria at the end of the first act of La Traviata or the aria of Leonora from the 4th act of Il trovatore. The focus is not primarily technical perfection singing in the foreground, but their extraordinary musicality, their particular word - music treatment, the representation of power and versatility. Georges Prêtre, Nicola Rescigno and Tullio Serafin were those of her most cherished conductors.

Callas had a love affair with the Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis, the divorce of her marriage to Giovanni Battista Meneghini and 1960 for divorce Onassis in 1959 led 'by his then- wife Athina Livanos. Even after Onassis ' marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy, he and seen " Callas " in the 1970s repeated in public together.

In 1969 she played the role of Medea in the eponymous film by Pier Paolo Pasolini. From 1971 to 1972 she taught temporarily selected master classes at the Juilliard School in New York, but what they had too little patience and teaching empathy. A recording of this master classes testified, however, how much they could give dramatic expression to the students. Together with her former musical partner Giuseppe Di Stefano Callas tried a comeback in several recital tours. Even if the voice was no longer able to the high excellence of the 50s, she celebrated more triumphs due to her incomparable stage presence and overall artistic impression.

On 16 September 1977 Callas died at age 53 in Paris, 36 Avenue Georges- Mandel, of a pulmonary embolism. Following your desire, her body was cremated and her ashes scattered off the Greek island of Skorpios in the Ionian Sea. In the columbarium of the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris is a symbolic urn grave.

Reception

Callas has left an important musical heritage. From 1952 until her farewell to the operatic stage with the Tosca performance on 5 July 1965 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, she has, exclusively for EMI, recorded many of their major roles on records. Their recording of Tosca with Giuseppe Di Stefano and Tito Gobbi as partners under Victor de Sabata is still regarded as one of the best recordings. There are over a dozen studio recordings of various operas. Furthermore, there are live recordings of operas and several recitals. Callas is seen as unattainable " Prima Donna assoluta " of the 20th century.

Commemorative stamp, commemorative and advertising

Selected discography

Only listed recordings that have been published on a CD.

Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi, Naples ( Vittorio Gui ) 1949 Live ( Neo membrane (Sony Music) )
Parsifal by Richard Wagner, Rome, 20 and 21 November 1950 ( Italian )
Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, Mexico City 1951 Live (EMI )
I vespri Siciliani by Giuseppe Verdi, Florence 1951 Live ( Sakkaris )
Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi, Milan (Victor de Sabata ) 1952 Live ( Neo membrane (Sony Music) )
La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, Torino 1953 ( Cetra )
Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, Milan, 1953 ( EMI)
Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, Milan, 1953 ( EMI)
I Puritani by Vincenzo Bellini, Milan, 1953 ( EMI)
Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti, Florence, 1953 ( EMI)
La forza del destino by Giuseppe Verdi, Milan, 1954 ( EMI)
La vestale by Gaspare Spontini, Milan 1954
Il turco in Italia by Gioachino Rossini, Milan, 1954 ( EMI)
Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, Milan, 1954 ( EMI)
La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini, 1955 ( Leonard Bernstein)
Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, Milan, 1955 ( EMI)
Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, Milan, 1955 ( EMI)
Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, Milan, 1955 ( EMI)
Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti, Berlin, 1955, Live (EMI )
Il trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi, Milan, 1956 ( EMI)
La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini, Milan, 1956 ( EMI)
Un ballo in maschera by Giuseppe Verdi, Milan, 1956 ( EMI)
Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini, London, 1957 ( EMI)
La sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini, Milan, 1957 ( EMI)
Turandot by Giacomo Puccini, Milan, 1957 ( EMI)
Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini, Milan, 1957 ( EMI)
Medea by Luigi Cherubini, Milan, 1957 ( EMI)
Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti, London, 1959 ( EMI)
La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli, Milan, 1959 ( EMI)
Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, Milan, 1960 ( EMI)
Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo and Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, Milan, 1964 ( EMI)
Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, Paris, 1964 ( EMI)
Carmen by Georges Bizet, Paris 1964 ( EMI)

Appearances and roles

Callas was from 1939 to 1965 a total of 540 times in 42 games on the opera stage (excluding concerts), the first time as Santuzza in a student production of Cavalleria rusticana on April 2, 1939. On a professional stage, she sang for the first time in Athens on 27 August., 1942 Tosca. In this role, she said goodbye also on June 5, 1965 in London of the opera stage.

D' Albert - Lowlands 1944 (6 appearances ), 1945 ( one appearance ) - (7 Total )
Beethoven - Fidelio: 1944 ( 2)
Bellini - Il Pirata: 1958 (6) 1959 ( 2) - ( 8)
Bellini - La Sonnambula: 1955 (10) 1956 ( 6) 1957 ( 6) - (22 )
Bellini - Norma: 1948 (2 ), 1949 (4) 1950 ( 14) 1951 ( 9) 1952 ( 14) 1953 ( 12 ), 1954 ( 2) 1955 ( 7) 1956 ( 9 ), 1957 (2) 1958 ( 1) 1960 ( 2) 1964 ( 8) 1965 ( 5) - ( 91)
Bellini - I Puritani: 1949 (3) 1951 ( 4) 1952 ( 7) 1955 ( 2) - ( 16)
Boito - Mefistofele: 1954 ( 3)
Bizet - Carmen: (studio only )
Cherubini - Medea: 1953 ( 6) 1954 (5) 1955 ( 5) 1958 ( 2) 1959 ( 7 ), 1961 ( 2) 1962 ( 2) - ( 29)
Donizetti - Anna Bolena: 1957 (6) 1958 ( 5) - ( 11)
Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor: 1952 (3) 1953 ( 7 ), 1954 (12) 1955 ( 2) 1956 ( 10) 1957 ( 1) 1958 ( 3) 1959 ( 2) - ( 40)
Donizetti - Poliuto: 1960 ( 5) )
Giordano - Andrea Chenier: 1955 (6 )
Giordano - Fedora: 1956 (6 )
Gluck - Iphigénie en Tauride: 1957 ( 4)
Haydn - Orfeo ed Euridice: 1951 ( 2)
Kalomiris - O Protomasteras: 1943 (2 ), 1944 ( 2) - ( 4)
Leoncavallo - Pagliacci: (studio only )
Mascagni - Cavalleria Rusticana: 1939 (1 ), 1944 (12 ) - (13 )
Mozart - The Abduction from the Seraglio: 1952 ( 4)
Ponchielli - La Gioconda: 1947 (5) 1952 ( 5) 1953 ( 3) - ( 13)
Puccini - Madame Butterfly: 1955 ( 3)
Puccini - La Boheme: (only studio)
Puccini - Manon Lescaut: (only studio)
Puccini - Suor Angelica: 1940 (1 ) 1943 (1 ) - (2 )
Puccini - Tosca: 1942 ( 1) 1950 ( 6) 1951 ( 1) 1952 ( 1) 1954 (3) 1956 ( 2) 1958 ( 2) 1964 ( 4) 1965 ( 12 ) - ( 32)
Puccini - Turandot: 1948 (16 ), 1949 (8 ) - ( 24)
Rossini - Armida: 1952 ( 3)
Rossini - Il Barbiere di Siviglia: 1956 ( 5)
Rossini - Il Turco in Italia: 1950 (4) 1955 ( 5) - ( 9)
Spontini - La vestale: 1954 ( 5)
Suppe - Boccaccio: 1941 ( 2)
Verdi - Aida: 1948 ( 5 ), 1949 (1 ) 1950 ( 13) 1951 ( 4) 1953 ( 3) - ( 26)
Verdi - Don Carlos: 1954 ( 5)
Verdi - I Vespri Siciliani: 1951 (10) 1952 ( 1) - ( 11)
Verdi - Il trovatore: 1950 (3) 1951 ( 3) 1953 ( 13) 1955 ( 2) - ( 21)
Verdi - La forza del destino: 1948 (4 ), 1954 ( 2) - ( 6)
Verdi - La Traviata: 1951 (15) 1952 ( 9) 1953 ( 5 ), 1954 ( 2) 1956 ( 17) 1958 ( 11 ) - ( 57)
Verdi - Macbeth: 1952 ( 5)
Verdi - Nabucco: 1949 ( 3)
Verdi - Rigoletto: 1952 ( 2)
Verdi - Un Ballo in Maschera: 1957 ( 5)
Wagner - Parsifal: 1949 (4) 1950 ( 2) - ( 6)
Wagner - Tristan und Isolde: 1947 (1 ) 1948 ( 6) 1950 ( 5) - ( 12)
Wagner - Die Walküre: 1949 (6 )

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