Art and Culture
GREECE
Maria Kallas
by Natalia, Dimitris and Giorgos
Maria Callas (December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was
an American-born Greek soprano. She was one of the most famous and
most controversial opera singers of the 20th century. She had a very
special voice of great range and power and was a singer of great
dramatic intensity. She was dubbed La Divina by her admirers. She was
mainly associated with the Italian repertoire, particularly Bellini’s
Norma, Donizetti’s Lusia di Lammermoon, Verdi’s La traviata
and Puccini’s Tosca.
Life and career:
Born Maria Kalogeroupoulou in New York City,
to Greek parents, she returned to Greece in
1937, with her mother and older sister. There,
she studied singing with Elvira de Hidalgo, and
made her debut while still a teenager with the
Athens Opera in 1939.
During a short return to America to visit her
father in 1945, she auditioned at
the Metropolitan Opera without success. Her
first major
break came
with her
Italian debut
in Verona in
1947, as La
Gioconda.
There, she
met conductor Tullio Serafin who became her mentor
and guided her towards the bel canto repertoire. She
sang her first Norma in Florence in 1948, and the
following year, as a last minute replacement, she
appeared as Elvira in Bellini’s l puritani in Venice,
which was to be her first great success.
In 1949, she married industrialist Giovanni Battista
Meneghini who became her manager. She was
sometimes known as Maria Meneghini Callas after her
marriage.