Maria CallasA Woman, a Voice, a Myth

on view at the Italian Cultural Institute of San FranciscoSeptember 23 - November 12, 2010

Exhibition Installation byTerje Arnesen

Antonio Pio Saracino

Catalogue copy and designJudy Holm

Robin TreasureHsin-Hsien Tsai - Sussman/Prejza & Co.

Carmen Trerotola

Proceeds from this exhibition will support the Italian Cultural Institute’s programming and its mission to promote Italian culture.

Consulate General of Italy, San Francisco Consulate General of Greece, San Francisco

Regione del VenetoCasinò di Venezia

Associazione Nazionale Cantanti - Umanità senza Confini - Onlus

Maria CallasA Woman, a Voice, a Myth

on view at the Italian Cultural Institute of San FranciscoSeptember 23 - November 12, 2010

Exhibition Installation byTerje Arnesen

Antonio Pio Saracino

Catalogue copy and designJudy Holm

Robin TreasureHsin-Hsien Tsai - Sussman/Prejza & Co.

Carmen Trerotola

Proceeds from this exhibition will support the Italian Cultural Institute’s programming and its mission to promote Italian culture.

In thinking about Maria Callas, I have only one regret: being too late to have had the experience of singing with her.

Nel ricordare Maria Callas, ho un unico rimpianto: quello di essere arrivato troppo tardi per provare l’esperienza di cantare con lei.

–Plácido Domingo

MARIA CALLAS - A Woman, a Voice, a MythSeptember 23, 2010 –November 12, 2010

In November 1958, Maria Callas first performed in San Francisco in a concert directed by Nicola Rescigno at the Civic Auditorium; in May 1974, La Divina came back to sing with Giuseppe Di Stefano at the War Memorial Opera House.

I am honored to present to you the third appearance of Maria Callas in San Francisco in collaboration with the Consul General of Italy, Fabrizio Marcelli and the Consul General of Greece, Ioannis Andreades.

With the 22 costumes, memorabilia, rare documents, jewels, books, letters and archival photographs collected with love by Bruno Tosi and displayed together with the photographs of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation, the spirit of Maria Callas is with us again for the next 8 weeks.

This exhibition is an opportunity to commemorate the greatness of La Divina by enjoying these objects and listening to her recordings.

Curated by Terje Arnesen and Antonio Pio Saracino, the exhibition is the opening event of the new location of the Italian Cultural Institute. The completion of work on the new premises is a miracle in itself. Is it a coincidence that the first time the exhibition was presented in 1993 in Venice, the Olivetti showroom that hosted it was designed by Carlo Scarpa, and the first gift for the auditorium of the Italian Cultural Institute was a table designed by Carlo Scarpa?

I wish to thank Bruno Tosi for having made this miracle happen and Francesca Valente for offering me this opportunity. I also wish to thank all the supporters and sponsors who believed in this dream and supported the new location of the Institute with this fabulous exhibition.

Amelia Carpenito AntonucciDirector, IIC San Francisco

Visitors can enjoy the magical thrill of her triumphant stage entrances as well as the appeal of her feminine charm. They can also relive her sad decline and the desperation of her last days when she retreated into solitude to let her life slowly ebb away. The last images of Maria in fact cannot help but fill the heart with dismay and tenderness. Everything is here, from her stage costumes to her own elegant outfits, the jewels she used on and off stage, letters to other celebrities such as her teacher De Hidalgo and the much-loved Pasolini (including his portrait and poems and her passionate letters both during rehearsals for Medea and in the years that followed), and a number of her most precious belongings. There really is nothing missing here. From her birth certificate to her will, this exhibition is a complete photographic portrait of her life and career.

On the day after her tragic and premature loss in 1977 Maestro Riccardo Muti declared that Maria Callas was almost an immortal incarnated through the art of opera. “She has done for singing what Toscanini did for conducting.”

Maria was an artist who truly made her mark in history, an artist who created a legend that will continue to live far into the future. No other singer has been so adored or so abhorred. Maria dominated the opera scene for over twenty years like a nineteenth century diva, revolutionizing the concept of opera performance and restoring the art of bel canto to the stage. Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi would have given her a standing ovation. She had a natural affinity, not for the great voices of her day, but for Maria Malibran, Giuditta Pasta and Giulietta Grisi, the very first Normas, the very first La Sonnambulas. After her debut in Venice in December 1947 with Tristan and Isolde, Maria sang regularly at the “La Fenice” theatre up until 1954, performing some of the most demanding roles in her repertoire, from Norma to La Traviata, and from Lucia di Lammermoor to Medea. But her real triumph came in 1949 with the role of Elvira in I Puritani, just a few days after singing Brünnhilde in Die Walküre. With this performance, Maria invented the figure of the agile dramatic soprano, a novelty for the twentieth century. This exhibition does not focus on Maria’s opera career alone, it also features many of her photos.

Bruno Tosi President, Maria Callas Association

Presenti nella mostra sono non solo il canto della Divina, ma anche numerose sue immagini. I visitatori troveranno con emozione la magica atmosfera dei sui trionfali passaggi sulle scene, il fascino del suo essere donna, e potranno rivivere anche il melanconico tramonto, i disperati giorni in cui scelse la solitudine per lasciarsi lentamente morire. Le sue ultime immagini riempiono il cuore di sgomento e tenerezza. C’è tutto: i costumi di scena, gli elegantissimi abiti personali, i gioielli usati sul palcoscenico e nella vita, i carteggi con i grandi personaggi, con la sua maestra De Hidalgo e l’amato Pasolini (i ritratti e le poesie di lui, le appassionate lettere di lei, durante la lavorazione di Medea, ma anche negli anni successivi), gli oggetti più cari a lei appartenuti. C’è proprio tutto: l’atto di nascita e il testamento, l’intero itinerario fotografico della sua carriera e della sua vita.

“La Callas - dichiarò il Maestro Riccardo Muti all’indomani della sua prematura e tragica scomparsa avvenuta nel 1977 - era quasi una persona immortale incarnata nell’arte lirica. Maria Callas - disse sempre Muti - è stata per il canto quello che Toscanini è stato per la direzione d’orchestra”.Davvero quest’Artista ha segnato la nostra epoca e senza dubbio è un Mito che sopravviverà a lungo nel tempo. Nessuna cantante fu più amata, nessuna più detestata di lei. Dominò per un ventennio le scene come una Diva dell’Ottocento, ma rivoluzionò l’interpretazione nel nostro tempo, riportando il belcanto antico. Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi l’avrebbero applaudita in modo incondizionato: le colleghe di Maria non sono infatti le pur grandi cantanti della sua epoca, ma Maria Malibran, Giuditta Pasta e Giulietta Grisi, le prime Norme e Sonnambule. Dopo il felice debutto a Venezia nel dicembre 1947 con Tristano e Isotta di Wagner, Maria Callas cantò ininterrottamente alla Fenice fino al 1954 nelle opere più impegnative del suo repertorio, da Norma a Traviata, da Lucia di Lammermoor a Medea. Ma va principalmente ricordato il suo trionfo nei Puritani nel 1949, pochi giorni dopo le recite di Walchiria: nacque con lei il soprano drammatico d’agilità, inedito per il Novecento.

Bruno Tosi Presidente, Associazione Maria Callas

The Life of La Divina

E tu, atterrita dal sospetto di non essere più,sai anche questo e ti arrangi a farti da madre.Concedi alla bambina di essere regina di aprire e chiudere le finestre come in un rito rispettato da ospiti, servitù, spettatori lontani. Eppure lei, lei, la bambina,basta che per un solo istante sia trascurata, si sente perduta per sempre.

(La Presenza)

The Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini dedicated these verses to the most famous opera diva of the twentieth century, Maria Callas, one of his closest friends. Maria Callas worked with Pasolini in her only venture in the world of film, acting the role of the Greek mythological character Medea. As Pasolini knows, the “tigress,” the title everybody used to bestow Maria Callas, masked an insecure and tortured soul. What Pasolini saw in Callas was neither the voice nor the star but the human being: divas are fascinating creatures but there is always a woman behind the legend, a woman carrying expectations, judgments, prejudices, comparisons.

Though Maria Callas owed her great successes in Italy, she was born in the United States, in December 1923, and grew up in New York and later Greece. Her childhood does not have many happy memories to recall as she wrote in her memoir “child prodigies never have genuine childhoods.”

Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos was the third child in the family, her parents, Evangelia and George, had emigrated from Greece to Long Island, New York. She had an elder sister named Jackie and a brother named Vassilis, who died of typhus a year before her birth. When Maria’s mother knew she had given birth to a daughter, she refused to see the baby girl for days and during her life, Maria continued to suffer her mother’s highly aggressive attitude, and the mistreatment of her and her father.

Maria was myopic and had to wear thick glasses. She was considered by many to be “plump and unattractive” but she was also gifted with undeniable singing talent. From the time Maria was young, she began a complete dedication to music. When her parents separated and she returned with her mother to Athens in 1937, she got core musical education from two important musical instructors, Maria Trivella of the Greek National Conservatoire and the well-known soprano Elvira De Hidalgo of Athens Conservatoire. Her beautiful captivating voice quickly led her to dramatic roles and after a few appearances as a student and in secondary roles she made her true debut at the Athens Opera on 4 July 1941 as “Tosca.”

After enduring very difficult times during World War II, where she (and so many other Europeans) suffered impoverished conditions, Maria decided to return to New York in 1945 to find her father. Around that time she was engaged for La Gioconda in the Arena at Verona. This successful appearance in Italy was the start of her international career. Maria Callas arrived in Verona at the age of twenty-four, with few belongings and reportedly fifty dollars in her pocket. At this juncture, she developed into “La Divina.” Gradually, under the guidance of the Italian music director, Tullio Serafin, who became her Italian mentor, she was soon in demand for important roles as Aida, Turandot, Isolde, Kundry and Brunnhilde. She performed for Italian audiences with much success- reaching the height of her career in 1949. That year, in Venice Maria performed both the roles of “Brünnhilde” in Die Walküre and “Elvira” in I puritani with such a magnificent presence on stage and intense emotional notes that musicians around the world recognized her as a superstar operatic diva.

The “Maria Callas phenomenon” became part of the musical history of the Opera. During these years, Callas’ transformed figure added another notable impact to her performances: she lost over sixty pounds, becoming a more graceful and confident performer. With her new glamour, mystery and the warm roundness of her voice, Maria Callas became one of the most renowned opera singers in history. Not only her musi-cal genius revived the bel canto form of singing with a personal musical style, Maria’s performances had an exceptional dramatic power: her voice was an impressive instru-ment as well as her eyes, her personal extra weapon, as William Weaver said: “They, too, were Junoesque, ox-like in their breadth and their liquid softness. Even when she was stock-still, her eyes would do her acting for her: warm for one instant, icy with scorn the next”.

Maria Callas made one hundred fifty-seven performances in seven seasons, and only two evenings cancelled at La Scala theatre in Milan. Apart from being a great singer Callas was also an accomplished pianist, she spoke and sang in numerous languages, although with a noticeable American accent, she was fluent in English, Greek, Italian and French. In 1954, her presence in the United States was marked by some of her best performances in Chicago’s Lyric Opera and two years later in New York City’s Met-ropolitan Opera. Reportedly due to continual treatment for her vocal chords during the 1960s, she withdrew from the operatic stage and gave her final performance as “Tosca” again at Covent Garden in 1965.

Maria’s career hid the emotional turmoil of her own private life. Some of the most important relationships of her life were broadly viewed as scandals by the press. She got married in 1949 to Giovanni Battista Meneghini, a wealthy Italian businessman, twenty-eight years her senior. This marriage was often covered by the media, particu-larly as Meneghini had originally been her manager, and due to the wide gap in ages. Throughout the first years of her career, Maria used the name Maria Meneghini Callas and she refused to part from a little portrait in oil of the Holy Family; a gift from her hus-band on the eve of her debut performance in Verona. Their marriage was essentially over in the late 1950s when Maria met the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Their passionate relationship was widely publicized; Maria divorced Meneghini in 1966 to be with Onassis. One of her biographers even stated that in 1960 Callas gave birth to the son of Onassis in Paris but the child died after a few hours. In the 1960s, Callas stopped her career on stage in order to “fulfill her life as a woman”, as she explained.

Their public relationship ended nine years later when Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the former U.S. President John Kennedy. This decision devastated La Divina emotionally. Reportedly, Onassis continued to see Maria in Paris, even during his marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy.

When Onassis died in 1975, she went into total depression. After that, Maria led a very reclusive life away from society, becoming a recluse. She passed away at the age of 53 on September 16, 1977. It is largely believed that her death was a result of a heart attack due to an overdose of sleeping pills.

Although it has been more than three decades since her death, Maria Callas still holds a place of extreme importance in the world of music and culture. Her talents, style and image have not been eclipsed by other Divas. Ostensibly the original diva, “La Divina” remains an icon of beauty and talent for all opera-lovers and music aficionados throughout the world.

Diadem–Norma, V. Bellini

Crown–Film Medea,directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Stage costume (Rosina) –Il Barbiere di Siviglia, G. RossiniLa Scala, Milan, 1956

Stage costume–Tosca, G. PucciniCovent Garden, London,1964;Opéra national de Paris, 1965;Metropolitan Opera House, New York, 1965

Diadem–Tosca, G. PucciniMetropolitan Opera House, New York, 1956

MARIA CALLAS - BIOGRAPHY

1923 December 2: Maria Anna Sophie Cecilia Kalogeropoulos is born in New York. Her parents, George and Evangelia Kalogeropoulos had emigrated from Greece to Long Island, New York in August 1923.

1929 George Kalogeropoulos sets up a pharmacy in a Greek quarter of Manhattan and changes the family name to Callas.

1932 Maria is given her first piano lessons. Later in life she is able to study all her roles at the piano without the help of a “repetiteur”.

1937 The Callas parents separate. Evangelia returns to Greece with her two daughters and changes the family name back to Kalogeropoulos.

1938 Maria Kalogeropoulos is admitted to the National Conservatoire in Athens despite being younger than the minimun age requirement of 16, and begins her studies under Maria Trivella. April 11: Appears with fellow students in first public recital.

1939 April 2: Maria makes her stage debut as Santuzza in a student production of “Cavalleria Rusticana” and wins the Conservatoire’s prize. Elvira de Hidalgo becomes Maria’s teacher at the Conservatoire and concentrates on coloratura training.

1940 October 21: First engagement with the Lyric Theatre company, singing songs in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice at the Royal Theatre in Athens.

1941 January 21: Makes her professional operatic debut as Beatrice in “Boccaccio” at the Palas Cinema with the Lyric Theatre company with whom she will sing in “Tosca”, “Tiefland”, “Cavalleria Rusticana”, “Fidelio”, and “Der Bettelstudent” during the next four years. 1944 The occupying forces lose control over Greece and the British fleet arrives in Piraeus. Maria Kalogeropoulos decides to return to the USA and find her father.

1945 August 3: Gives a “farewell” concert in Athens, her first solo recital, to raise money for her journey to the USA. September: Returns to New York and takes up the name of Callas again. December : Auditions for the Metropolitan Opera, but fails to secure an engagement.

1946 Tries unsuccessfully to find work, but continues strenuous vocal practice to perfect her technique. Meets agent Eddie Bagarozy. Accepts engagement to sing in Turandot in Chicago in January 1947 with a cast of celebrated European singers in a new company to be founded by Bagarozy and Ottavio Scotto, an Italian impresario.

1947 January: The Chicago company goes bankrupt a few days before its scheduled opening performance. Nicola Rossi Lemeni, the Italian bass, is also a member of the company and introduces Callas to Giovanni Zanatello, who is in the U.S. to find singers for the 1947 Verona Opera Festival of which he is the Artistic Director. He engages Callas to sing in “La Gioconda”. June 27: Callas arrives in Naples and goes the next day to Verona to begin rehearsals for “La Gioconda”. A few days later she meets Giovanni Battista Meneghini, a wealthy Italian industrialist and opera lover. August 2: Makes her Italian debut in the Arena at Verona as La Gioconda conducted by Tullio Serafin. The performances are successful enough, but Callas makes no special impression and the expected offers of further work do not materialize. December 30: Sings Isolde in Italian under Serafin at La Fenice in Venice and this leads to further engagements in Italy, mainly in Turandot.

1948 November 30: In Florence, Callas sings “Norma” for the first time- an opera she will eventually perform more than any other during her career.

1949 January 19: Having just sung her first Brunhilde in “Die Walkure” eleven days earlier, Callas, at the insistance of Serafin, replaces the indisposed Margherita Carosio as Elvira in “I Puritani” at La Fenice. This is the turning point in Callas’s career and the start of her involvement in rehabilition of the Italian bel canto repertoire.April 21: Marries Meneghini in Verona and sails that night for Argentina to sing at the “Teatro Colon” in Buenos Aires. Helped by Meneghini as both husband and manager, Callas develops her career in Italy and abroad during the next two years.

1951 December 7: Callas opens the seasons at La Scala, Milan in “I Vespri Siciliani” to great acclaim. During the next seven years La Scala will be the scene of her greatest triumphs in a wide range of roles.

1952 July 29: Callas signs a recording contract with EMI and in August makes a test recording of “Non mi dir” from “Don Giovanni”.

1953 February : First commercial recording for EMI as Lucia di Lammermoor recorded in Florence. Later in the year Callas begins a series of complete opera recordings at La Scala starting with “I Puritani” and “Cavalleria Rusticana” with Serafin, and famous “Tosca” conducted by Victor de Sabata.

1954 In a short space of time Callas loses 30 kilos and her figure changes dramatically. She records a further four complete operas at La Scala and her first two recital discs in London. November : She returns to the USA to sing “”Norma””, “La Traviata” and “Lucia di Lammermoor” in Chicago. December : She opens the season at La Scala in “La Vestale”, working for the first time with theatre and film director Luchino Visconti.

1956 October 29: She sings for the first time at the Metropolitan in New York in “Norma”, followed by “Tosca” and “Lucia”.

1957 Elsa Maxwell, the American society hostess, introduces the Meneghinis to the Greek shipping magnate Aristotile Onassis at a party in Venice.

1958 December 19: She makes a sensational debut in Paris in a gala concert at the Paris Opera. Celebrities in the audience include Onassis who begins to take interest in Callas.

1959 By this time Callas has fewer professional engagements. She and Meneghini are invited for a cruise in July on the Christina, Onassis’s yacht, with several other guests including Churchill. By the end of the cruise Callas and Onassis are lovers.

1960/61 Callas gives up the stage altogether and devotes herself to the international high life with Onassis. By 1962 she is performing at only a few concerts.

1964 January: Zeffirelli persuades Callas to return to opera at Covent Garden in a memorable new production of “Tosca” that is highly praised on all counts. May: Callas appears in Paris in “Norma”, directed by Zeffirelli, in a spectacular staging that is to be her last new production.

Maria Callas with Grace Kelly in Monaco, 1964

1965 February: She sings nine performances of “Tosca” in Paris. March: She makes a triumphant return to the Metropolitan in New York in two performances of “Tosca”. May: She undertakes a series of five performances of “Norma” in Paris. She feels tired but does not want to cancel. On May 29 she finishes Act 2 Scene I practically in a coma. The final scene is cancelled. July: She is scheduled to sing four performances of “Tosca” at Covent Garden. She is advised on medical grounds to withdraw but she decides to sing just one, choosing the Royal Gala on July 5. This is the final operatic performance of her career.

1966 Callas relinquishes her American citizenship and takes Greek nationality. Thereby technically annulling her marriage to Meneghini. She expects Onassis to marry her but he does not.

1968 October 20: Onassis marries Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of assassinated US president John F. Kennedy, after having cooled his relationship with Callas.

1969 June-July: Callas plays “Medea” in non-operatic film of the play by Euripides directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. It is not a commercial success.

1971/72 Callas gives a series of Master Classes at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. 1974 November 11: The final concert of the tour with Di Stefano takes place in Sapporo, Japan. This is Callas’ last public performance. The liaison with Di Stefano finishes.

1975 Onassis dies, following a gall bladder operation. Callas is by now a virtual recluse in Paris.

1977 September 16 Callas, dies in Paris - the cause of her death still remains unclear.

Maria Callas in Vincenzo Bellini’s “Norma” in Paris (1965)

Listening to Maria Callas was like stumbling by accident

into the Sistine Chapel.

Ascoltare Maria Callas è stato come trovarmi per caso

nella Cappella Sistina.

–William Weaver