Il Divina: Maria Callas redefined the world of opera

By Paul Lambis

Maria Callas has been described as many things; she was much loved and vilified, but the woman who single-handedly redefined the world of opera music as we know it today, can surely be said to define everything that is associated with being a true diva.

For those born after she died, or even too young to realise the immense talent she had, it would be wise to find a recording of any aria or full opera sung by Callas. Opera fans claim that even until today there is no female singer who possesses the sheer talent, skill and physical presence that ‘Il Divina’ embodied every time she stood on a stage and performed.

Despite her rather unsettled and tumultuous upbringing, her fraught and very tempestuous relationship with her mother, her astounding career – beginning unusually for a professional opera singer at the rather young age of 14, and her reputation for being highly strung while working – Maria Callas was arguably the best opera singer ever to have lived.

Apart from her singing and performing though Callas was also famous for her dramatic and ill-fated love affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, who is widely associated with then end of her career. Some sources even suggest that as Callas gave birth to Onassis’ son, who was born prematurely and as a result died from his lungs’ inability to survive, contributed to the decline in her voice, as the caesarean delivery affected her stomach muscles. Onassis himself delivered the ultimate blow to Callas’ demise. After nine years of toying with Callas and dangling the promise of marriage, he publicly humiliated her by announcing his marriage to Jackie Kennedy. A few short years later Callas died alone in her Paris apartment.

Callas was actually born Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulou in December 1923 to Greek immigrant parents in New York. By all accounts, her childhood was far from settled and stable. Firstly, because her father was forced to abandon his own pharmaceutical store to take up a lower paying job with another company, and secondly, her parents’ marriage was an unhappy one. Money and status was an issue for her mother, and her father’s inability to provide the trappings of material success was one of the reasons the couple separated. Things were so intolerable that Callas left for Greece with her mother and sister in 1937; financially, at least, it made more sense as the money her father earned in America was worth a lot more in Greece at the time. Callas’ mother was also able to indulge in her own ambitions through her talented daughter by sending her to music and singing lessons.

Callas’ talent for music was evident from a very young age, and it was clear that she possessed both musical ability and a strong voice. It was at her mother’s insistence that Callas began her young career, and her consistent pushing and striving was one of the reasons that mother and daughter experienced so much friction between them. Callas often said “there must be a law against forcing children to perform at an early age. Children should have a wonderful childhood. They should not be given too much responsibility.”

But it was her mother’s perseverance which led to the acceptance of Callas at the very young age of 14 to the Greek National Conservatory. It could, perhaps be attributed to her first official tutor, Maria Trivella, that Callas finally found the passion that would elevate her to the top of the opera world. A few years after Callas had gone on to bigger and better things, Trivella recalled in an interview that her first impression of Callas was that of a “very plump, young girl, wearing big glasses. However, the tone of her voice was warm, lyrical and 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.”

Two years later, after having dedicated herself completely to her training, Callas auditioned at the Athens Conservatory with legendary teacher and soprano Elvira de Hidalgo, whose impression of the young singer was also of amazement. Callas’ ability to switch singing styles, tone and pitch set her apart from any other female singer. After leaving Greece, she returned to America to see her father, which led to her subsequently returning to Europe where she established herself as the ultimate opera presence. Until today, no other opera singer is able to change and adapt her voice between styles, and, together with her commanding physical presence on stage, where she knew how to act, emphasise words no matter the language, Callas was a force larger than life.

While she may have lost the weight, replaced the glasses with contact lenses, and emerged looking very much like an ancient Egyptian queen, it was not about the way she looked that continues to astound until today. It is the fact that a poor little immigrant girl, blessed with a divine talent, managed to overcome enormous challenges and propel herself onto the world stage. And while her love life may have been disastrous, her career comparatively short lived, and her personal life a little empty, Callas stands alone as possessing perhaps the finest female voice ever to have been heard. That alone earns her the right to be called, Il Divina, for she was divine in the truest sense of the word.