Maria Callas - Wikipedia. Maria Callas, Commendatore OMRI[1] (Greek: Μαρία Κάλλας; December 2, 1.

September 1. 6, 1. Greek- Americansoprano, and one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 2. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide- ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini and further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; and, in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner.

Her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina. Born in New York City and raised by an overbearing mother, she received her musical education in Greece and established her career in Italy. Forced to deal with the exigencies of wartime poverty and with myopia that left her nearly blind onstage, she endured struggles and scandal over the course of her career. She turned herself from a heavy woman into a svelte and glamorous one after a mid- career weight loss, which might have contributed to her vocal decline and the premature end of her career. The press exulted in publicizing Callas's temperamental behavior, her supposed rivalry with Renata Tebaldi and her love affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Although her dramatic life and personal tragedy have often overshadowed Callas the artist in the popular press, her artistic achievements were such that Leonard Bernstein called her "the Bible of opera"[2] and her influence so enduring that, in 2.

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Opera News wrote of her: "Nearly thirty years after her death, she's still the definition of the diva as artist—and still one of classical music's best- selling vocalists."[3]Early life[edit]Family life, childhood and move to Greece[edit]. The apartment house in Athens where Callas lived from 1. According to her birth certificate, Maria Callas was born Sophia Cecelia Kalos[4] at Flower Hospital (now the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center), at 1. Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, on December 2, 1.

Greek parents George Kalogeropoulos (c. Evangelia "Litsa" (sometimes "Litza") Dimitriadou (c. Anna Maria Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulou (Greek: Άννα Μαρία Σοφία Καικιλία Καλογεροπούλου)—the genitive of the patronymic Kalogeropoulos. Callas's father had shortened the surname Kalogeropoulos first to "Kalos" and subsequently to "Callas" in order to make it more manageable.[4]George and Evangelia were an ill- matched couple from the beginning; he was easy- going and unambitious, with no interest in the arts, while his wife was vivacious and socially ambitious, and had held dreams of a life in the arts for herself,[4] which her middle- class parents had stifled in her childhood and youth.[4] Evangelia's father, Petros Dimitriadis (1. Evangelia introduced George to her family and Petros, distrustful of George, had warned his daughter, "You will never be happy with him. If you marry this man, I will never be able to help you".[4] Evangelia had ignored his warning, but soon realized that her father was right.[4] The situation was aggravated by George's philandering and was improved neither by the birth of a daughter, named Yakinthi (later called Jackie), in 1. Vassilis, in 1. 92.

Vassilis's death from meningitis in the summer of 1. In 1. 92. 3, after realizing that Evangelia was pregnant again, George made the unilateral decision to move his family to America, a decision which Yakinthi recalled was greeted with Evangelia "shouting hysterically" followed by George "slamming doors".[4] The family left for New York in July 1. Astoria, Queens. Evangelia was convinced that her third child would be a boy; her disappointment at the birth of another daughter was so great that she refused to even look at her new baby for four days.[4] Maria was christened three years later at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in 1. When Maria was 4, George Callas opened his own pharmacy, settling the family in Manhattan on 1. Street in Washington Heights where Callas grew up. Around the age of three, Maria's musical talent began to manifest itself, and after Evangelia discovered that her youngest daughter also had a voice, she began pressing "Mary" to sing. Callas later recalled, "I was made to sing when I was only five, and I hated it."[4] George was unhappy with his wife favoring their elder daughter, as well as the pressure put upon young Mary to sing and perform.[7] The marriage continued to deteriorate and in 1.

Evangelia decided to return to Athens with her two daughters.[4]Deteriorating relationship with her mother[edit]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 1. Time magazine which focused on this relationship and later, by Evangelia's book My Daughter – Maria Callas. In public, Callas blamed the strained relationship with Evangelia on her unhappy childhood spent singing and working at her mother's insistence, saying,My sister was slim and beautiful and friendly, and my mother always preferred her. I was the ugly duckling, fat and clumsy and unpopular. It is a cruel thing to make a child feel ugly and unwanted.. I'll never forgive her for taking my childhood away. During all the years I should have been playing and growing up, I was singing or making money.

Everything I did for them was mostly good and everything they did to me was mostly bad.[8]In 1. Norman Ross, "Children should have a wonderful childhood. I have not had it – I wish I had."[9] On the other hand, biographer Petsalis- Diomidis asserts that it was actually Evangelia's hateful treatment of George in front of their young children which led to resentment and dislike on Callas's part.[4] According to both Callas's husband and her close friend Giulietta Simionato, Callas related to them that her mother, who did not work, pressed her to "go out with various men", mainly Italian and German soldiers, to bring home money and food during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II. Simionato was convinced that Callas "managed to remain untouched", but Callas never forgave Evangelia for what she perceived as a kind of prostitution forced on her by her mother.[4] In an attempt to patch things up with her mother, Callas took Evangelia along on her first visit to Mexico in 1.

Mexico, the two never met again.[1. After a series of angry and accusatory letters from Evangelia lambasting Callas's father and husband, Callas ceased communication with her mother altogether.[1. Education[edit]Callas received her musical education in Athens. Initially, her mother tried to enroll her at the prestigious Athens Conservatoire, without success. At the audition, her voice, still untrained, failed to impress, while the conservatoire's director Filoktitis Oikonomidis (el) refused to accept her without her satisfying the theoretic prerequisites (solfege).

In the summer of 1. Watch The World`S End Megavideo. Maria Trivella at the younger Greek National Conservatoire, asking her to take Mary, as she was then called, as a student for a modest fee. In 1. 95. 7, Trivella recalled her impression of "Mary, a very plump young girl, wearing big glasses for her myopia": The tone of the voice was warm, lyrical, intense; it swirled and flared like a flame and filled the air with melodious reverberations like a carillon. It was by any standards an amazing phenomenon, or rather it was a great talent that needed control, technical training and strict discipline in order to shine with all its brilliance.[4]Trivella agreed to tutor Callas completely, waiving her tuition fees, but no sooner had Callas started her formal lessons and vocal exercises than Trivella began to feel that Callas was not a contralto, as she had been told, but a dramatic soprano. Subsequently, they began working on raising the tessitura of her voice and to lighten its timbre.[4] Trivella recalled Callas as: A model student. Fanatical, uncompromising, dedicated to her studies heart and soul.

Her progress was phenomenal.