Maria Callas - September 16, 1977 , Paris ) - Greek and American singer, one of the greatest opera singers of the 20th century. From the very beginning, she acted as a dramatic coloratura, later as a lyrical and dramatic soprano, in the last years of her life she began to play mezzo-soprano parts.
| Maria Callas Maria Callas | |
|---|---|
| basic information | |
| Birth name | |
| Full name | Kekilia Sofia Anna Maria Kalogeropulu |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | |
| Date of death | |
| A place of death | |
| Buried | |
| A country |  USA |
| Professions | Opera singer |
| Singing voice | dramatic soprano |
| Genres | opera |
| Labels | Emi |
| Awards | Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award ( 2007 ) |
Maria Callas was not limited to virtuoso colorings in the operas of Bellini , Rossini and Donizetti , but turned her voice into the main expressive means. She became a versatile singer with a repertoire from classic opera series such as Vestal Spontini to Verdi 's latest operas, Puccini's opera operas and Wagner's musical dramas.
The take-off of Kallas' career in the mid-20th century was accompanied by the appearance of a long-playing record in the recording and friendship with a prominent figure in the EMI record company Walter Legg .
The arrival on the stage of opera houses of a new generation of conductors such as Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein , and directors such as Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli , made every performance with the participation of Maria Callas an event. She turned the opera into a real drama theater, forcing even “trills and scales to express joy, anxiety or longing” [5] .
Inducted into the Gramophone Magazine Hall of Fame [6] .
Content
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Personal life
- 1.2 Pedagogical activity
- 1.3 Work in the cinema
- 1.4 Death
- 2 Opera Parts
- 3 The image in the cinema
- 4 Literature
- 5 notes
- 6 References
Biography
Maria Callas was born in New York to a family of Greek immigrants . Mother wanted to embody her failed talents in her daughter and began to take her to New York Library on Fifth Avenue. Maria began to listen to classical music at the age of three, at the age of five she began to take piano lessons, and at the age of eight she took vocal lessons. In 1936, Mary's mother, the Gospel, returned to Athens to continue her daughter's musical education. At the age of fourteen, Maria began to study at the Athens Conservatory under the direction of the Spanish singer Elvira de Hidalgo .
In July 1941, Maria Kallas made his debut at the Athens Opera in the Tosca party in the Athens occupied by Germans.
In 1945, Maria Callas returned to New York . A series of failures came: she was not introduced to Toscanini , she refused to sing the part of Cio-Cio-San because of her heavy weight, hopes for the revival of the Lyric Opera in Chicago , where she hoped to sing, failed to sing in the Metropolitan Opera .
In 1947, Callas made her debut on the stage of the Arena di Verona amphitheater in the opera Gioconda by Ponchielli directed by Tullio Serafina .
Tullio Serafin introduces Callas into the world of big opera. She sings the first parts in Verdi's Aida and Bellini 's Norma at the end of 1948 . At the beginning of 1949, for one week — the vocal-incompatible parts of Brünnhilde in the “Valkyries” by Wagner and Elvira in the “Puritans” by Bellini created the creative phenomenon of singer Maria Callas. She sang both lyrical, and dramatic, and coloratura parts, which was a singing miracle - “four voices in one throat” . In 1949, Kallas went on tour in South America . In 1950, she first sang in " La Scala " and became the "queen of Italian prima donnas."
In 1953, EMI first released complete opera recordings with Maria Callas.
In 1954 she made her debut in the USA, on the stage of the Chicago Lyric Opera . Slimmed by thirty kilograms, the transformed Callas conquered the audience on opera stages in Europe and America in the operas Lucia di Lammermur by Donizetti , Norma Bellini , Medea Kerubini , Troubadour and Macbeth Verdi , Tosca Puccini .
In 1959, a turning point in a successful career took place. This was facilitated by a loss of voice, a series of scandals, a divorce, a break with the Metropolitan Opera , forced departure from La Scala , and unhappy love for Aristotle Onassis . The attempt to return to the scene in 1964 ends with another failure.
Personal life
In Verona, Maria Callas met the local industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini, twice her age, an avid opera lover. Soon, Giovanni confesses his love to Mary, completely sells his business and devotes himself to Callas.
In 1949, Maria Callas and Giovanni Meneghini got married. He became everything for Maria: a faithful spouse, and a loving father, and a devoted manager, and a generous producer.
In September 1957, Maria Callas first met Aristotle Onassis at a ball in honor of the birthday of journalist Elsa Maxwell. In the spring of 1959, they met again at a ball in Venice. After that, Onassis went to London for a Callas concert. After this concert, he invited her and her husband to his yacht. At the end of November 1959, Onassis's wife Tina filed for divorce, while Callas and Onassis openly appeared in society together at that time. The couple quarreled almost constantly, and in 1968, Maria Callas learned from the newspapers that Aristotle Onassis married the widow of US President Jacqueline Kennedy .
Teaching activities
Maria Callas held famous master classes at the Juilliard School from October 1971 to March 1972 [7] . They formed the basis of the play "Master Class" by playwright Terrence McNelly .
Movie Jobs
In 1968 - “Portrait of Maria Callas” / “Maria Callas Portrat” (1968, Germany, short, experimental)
In 1969, the Italian director Pierre Paolo Pasolini invited Maria Callas to star in the role of Medea in the film of the same name .
Death
The last years of her life, Maria Callas lived in Paris , almost without leaving her apartment, where she died in 1977 . The body was cremated and buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery . After stealing the urn from the ashes, and returning her back, her ashes were scattered over the Aegean Sea . An empty urn remains in the columbarium of the Pere Lachaise cemetery.
“Italian phoniatrists (vocal cord disease specialists) Franco Fussi and Nico Paolillo have identified the most likely cause of death for the opera diva Maria Callas,” writes the Italian newspaper La Stampa (translation of the article into English by Parterre Box). According to the results of their research, Kallas died of dermatomyositis , a rare disease of connective tissue and smooth muscles.
Fussy and Paolillo came to this conclusion by studying Callas's recordings made in different years and analyzing the gradual deterioration of her voice. A spectrographic analysis of studio recordings and concert performances showed that by the end of the 1960s, when the deterioration of her vocal data became apparent, Callas's voice range actually changed from soprano to mezzo-soprano, which explained the change in the sound of high notes in her performance.
In addition, a careful study of the videos of her later concerts revealed that the singer’s muscles were significantly weakened: her chest did not lift when breathing, and when she inhaled, the singer raised her shoulders and strained the deltoid muscles, that is, in fact, made the most common mistake with the support of the vocal muscle.
The cause of death of Maria Callas is not known reliably, but it is believed that the singer died of cardiac arrest. According to Fussi and Paolillo, the results of their work directly indicate that the resulting myocardial infarction was a complication of dermatomyositis . It is noteworthy that this diagnosis (dermatomyositis) Kallas made shortly before his death, her doctor Mario Dzhakovatstso (this became known only in 2002).
At the same time, around the singer’s death, there is a conspiracy theory , expressed, in particular, by film director Franco Zeffirelli , who announced in 2004 that Callas could have been poisoned with the participation of her closest friend in recent years, pianist Vasso Devezzi [8] .
Opera
- "Country Honor" P. Mascagni - Santuzza ( Theater Olympia - Athens, 04/02/1939)
- “Sister Angelica” by J. Puccini - Sister Angelica ( Athens Conservatory , 06.16.1940)
- "Bocaccio" F. Zuppe - Beatrice (Theater Olympia - Athens, 02.15.1941)
- "Valley" by E. D'Alber - Marta (Theater Olympia - Athens, 04/22/1942)
- "Tosca" by J. Puccini - Tosca (Theater Olympia - Athens, 08/27/1942)
- "Senior Master" M. Kalomiris - singer in intermezzo, Smaragda ( Odeon of Herod Attica - Athens, 02/19/1943 / 07/30/1944)
- "Fidelio" L.V. Beethoven - Leonora (Odeon of Herodes Atticus - Athens, 08/14/1944)
- “The Pauper Student” K. Millaker - Laura (Alexandros Avenue Theater - Athens, 09/05/1945)
- "The Mona Lisa" by A. Ponchielli - The Mona Lisa ( Arena di Verona , 08/02/1947)
- "Tristan and Isolde" R. Wagner - Isolde ( Theater "La Fenice" - Venice, 12.30.1947)
- "Turandot" by G. Puccini - Turandot (Theater "La Fenice" - Venice, 01/29/1948)
- "The Force of Fate" by J. Verdi - Leonora (Teatro Stabile - Trieste, 04.17.1948)
- "Aida" by J. Verdi - Aida ( Reggio Theater - Turin, 09/18/1948)
- "Norma" by V. Bellini - Norma ( Teatro Comunale - Florence, 11/30/1948)
- The Valkyrie by R. Wagner - Brünnhilde (La Fenice Theater - Venice, 01/08/1949)
- "Puritans" by V. Bellini - Elvira (Theater "La Fenice" - Venice, 01/19/1949)
- "Parsifal" R. Wagner - Kundri ( Roman Opera , 02.26.1949)
- Nabucco by J. Verdi - Abigail ( San Carlo Theater - Naples, 12/20/1949)
- Troubadour by J. Verdi - Leonora ( Palace of Fine Arts - Mexico City, 06/20/1950)
- "Turk in Italy" by J. Rossini - Fiorilla (Theater "Eliseo" - Rome, 10/19/1950)
- “La Traviata” by J. Verdi - Violetta (Teatro Comunale - Florence, 01/14/1951)
- "Sicilian Vespers" by J. Verdi - Elena (Teatro Comunale - Florence, 05.26.1951)
- "The Soul of the Philosopher, or Orpheus and Eurydice" J. Haydn - Eurydice (Pergola Theater - Florence, 06/09/1951)
- “Abduction from the Seraglio” by V. A. Mozart - Constanta ( La Scala - Milan, 04/02/1952)
- "Armida" by J. Rossini - Armida (Teatro Comunale - Florence, 04.24.1951)
- “Lucia di Lammermoor” G. Donizetti - Lucia (Palace of Fine Arts - Mexico City, 10.06.1952)
- Rigoletto by J. Verdi - Gilda (Palace of Fine Arts - Mexico City, 06/17/1952)
- “Macbeth” by J. Verdi - Lady Macbeth (La Scala - Milan, 12/07/1952)
- "Medea" by L. Cherubini - Medea (Teatro Comunale - Florence, 05/07/1953)
- "Alcesta" C.V. Gluck - Alcesta (La Scala - Milan, 04/04/1954)
- “Don Carlos” by J. Verdi - Elizabeth (La Scala - Milan, 04/12/1954)
- The "Pagliacci" by R. Leoncavallo - Nedda (La Scala - Milan, 06/12/1954)
- Mephistopheles A. Boyto - Margarita (Arena di Verona, July 15, 1954)
- The Vestal of G. Spontini - Julia (La Scala - Milan, 12/07/1954)
- "Andre Chenier" W. Giordano - Maddalena (La Scala - Milan, 01/08/1955)
- The Somnambulist by V. Bellini - Amina (La Scala - Milan, 03/05/1955)
- "Madame Butterfly" by J. Puccini - Cio-Cio-san (City Opera House - Chicago, 11/11/1955)
- The Barber of Seville by J. Rossini - Rosina (La Scala - Milan, 02.16.1956)
- "Fedora" W. Giordano - Fedora (La Scala - Milan, 05/21/1956)
- “Bohemia” by G. Puccini - Mimi (La Scala - Milan, 08.20.1956)
- “Anna Boleyn” G. Donizetti - Anna Boleyn (La Scala - Milan, 04/14/1957)
- “Iphigenia in Tauris” K.V. Gluck - Iphigenia (La Scala - Milan, 06/01/1957)
- "Manon Lesko" by J. Puccini - Manon Lesko (La Scala - Milan, 07/18/1957)
- The "Pirate" by V. Bellini - Imogenne (La Scala - Milan, 05/19/1958)
- "Polievkt" G. Donizetti - Paolina (La Scala - Milan, 12/07/1960)
- "Carmen" by J. Bizet - Carmen (Concert Hall "Wagram" - Paris, 07/05/1964)
Cinema Image
- 1999 - The Devil and Madame D / Der Grosse Bagarozy / The Devil and Ms. D (director Bernd Eichinger , starring Til Schweiger , Corina Harfuh , Thomas Heinz , Christine Neubauer )
- 2002 - Callas Forever / Callas Forever (director Franco Zeffirelli , starring Fanny Ardan )
- 2005 - Callas and Onassis / Callas e Onassis (directed by Giorgio Capitani , starring: Louise Ranieri , Gerard Darmon )
- 2018 - Maria do Callas / Maria by Callas, directed by Tom Wolf, documentary.
Literature
- Ardoin John, THE CALLAS LEGACY. Seribner-New York.
- Remy Pierre-Jean, CALLAS - UNE VIE. Editions Ramsay - Parigi.
- Jellinek George, CALLAS-PORTRAIT OF A PRIMA DONNA. Ziff Davis-New York.
- Jürgen Kesting. Maria Callas. - Moscow, Agraf, 2001.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , etc. Record # 118518461 // General regulatory control (GND) - 2012—2016.
- ↑ 1 2 BNF identifier : Open Data Platform 2011.
- ↑ SNAC - 2010.
- ↑ 1 2 Bauer P. Deux siècles d'histoire au Père Lachaise - Versailles : 2006. - P. 166. - ISBN 978-2-914611-48-0
- ↑ Unknown book of Maria Kallas (Inaccessible link) . Date of treatment April 5, 2011. Archived on May 3, 2011.
- ↑ Gramophone Hall of Fame . Gramophone. Date of treatment January 2, 2016.
- ↑ Hilton Als. Swan Song. Maria Callas haunts the stage in "Master Class". The New Yorker. July 25, 2011.
- ↑ Jeremy Charles. Callas was killed in poison plot, claims director Franco Zeffirelli // The Scotsman , November 19, 2004. - Russian retelling of the Zeffirelli version, in which assumptions are made much more confidently: Sergey Bednov. Who killed Maria Callas? // "Labor", February 10, 2005