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PEOPLE IN AMERICA -June 23, 2002: Maria Callas
By Shelley Gollust
VOICE 1:
I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE 2:
And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about one of the
most famous opera singers of this century, Maria Callas.
((MUSIC: March From "Norma" instead of theme))
VOICE 1:
Opera is a play that tells a story in music. The people in the opera sing, instead of
speak, the play's words. Opera is one of the most complex of all art forms. It
combines acting, singing, music, costumes, scenery and, sometimes, dance. Often
there are many colorful crowd scenes.
Opera uses the huge power of music to communicate feelings and to express
emotions. Music can express emotions very forcefully. So most opera composers base their works on very tragic
stories of love and death. An opera often shows anger, cruelty, violence, fear or insanity. Opera has been very
popular in Europe since it spread through it during the seventeenth century. It also has become popular in the
United States.
VOICE 2:
Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the world. During the
nineteen-fifties, she became famous internationally for her beautiful voice and
intense personality. The recordings of her singing the well -known operas remain
very popular today.
Maria Callas was born in New York City in nineteen-twenty-three. Her real name
was Maria Kalogeropoulous [ka-lo-yer-OH-pu-los]. Her parents were Greek. When
she was fourteen, she and her mother returned to Greece. Maria studied singing at
the national conservatory in Athens. The well-known opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo
chose Maria as her student.
VOICE 1:
In nineteen -forty-one, when she was seventeen, Maria Callas was paid to sing in a major opera for the first time.
She sang the leading roles in several operas in Athens during the next three years.
In nineteen -forty-five, Callas was invited to perform in Italy. This was the real beginning of her profession as an
opera singer. She performed major parts in several of the most famous operas. In nineteen-forty-nine, she married
an Italian industrialist, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. He was twenty years older. He became her adviser and
manager.
VOICE 2:
In nineteen -fifty, Maria Callas performed for the first time at the famous La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy.
She sang in the famous opera "Aida" [eye-EE-da] by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. She sang the part of Aida,
an Ethiopian slave in ancient Egypt.
((MUSIC: "Ritorna Vincitor" from "Aida")
)
VOICE 1:
During the nineteen-fifties and nineteen-sixties, Maria Callas sang in about forty major operas in the most famous
opera houses in the world.
In nineteen-fifty-six, she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in
New York. She sang the lead in the opera "Norma" by Italian composer Vincenzo
Bellini. She was a great success. Norma, a religious leader in the ancient city of
gaul, became one of her most famous parts.
((MUSIC: "Casta Diva" from "Norma"))
VOICE 2:
During the years, Maria Callas often had problems with her voice. Critics said some of her performances were
not her best. Sometimes she had to cancel performances. Her relations with the officials of major opera
companies often were tense.
Many harmful stories were written about Callas. The stories suggested that people she worked with thought she
was difficult. However, many people who worked most closely with her denied this.
When she was not singing in operas, Callas was making recordings. She made more recordings than any other
singer of her time.
VOICE 1:
In nineteen -fifty-nine, her marriage to Mr. Meneghini ended. Maria Callas became the lover of a rich Greek
businessman, Aristotle Onassis. Callas suffered more problems with her voice. So she sang less.
In nineteen -sixty-five, she sang in the opera "Tosca" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. She was Floria, an
Italian singer. It was a part she had sung many times. It was the last time she appeared in an opera.
((MUSIC: "Vissi d'Arte" from "Tosca")
)
VOICE 2:
Now that she was no longer singing, Callas wanted to marry Aristotle Onassis and have a child. However, in
nineteen-sixty-eight, Onassis suddenly said that he was leaving her. He had decided to marry Jacqueline
Kennedy, the widow of the murdered American president, John Kennedy.
Three years later, Callas decided to teach young opera singers. In the early nineteen-seventies, she taught twelve
classes at the Juilliard school in New York. Parts of these classes were released as records. Terrence McNally
wrote a play about Maria Callas and her opera students called "master class.
"
VOICE 1:
Maria Callas sang in many cities in Europe, the United States and east Asia in nineteen seventy-three and
seventy-four. She performed with opera singer Giuseppe di Stefano.
Critics said she was not able to sing as well as she had when she was younger. It is not known if Callas's troubles
were caused by a physical problem or because she had not spent enough time training her voice.
Maria Callas died of a heart attack in her home in Paris in nineteen-seventy-seven. She was fifty -three.
VOICE 2:
Many experts say Maria Callas influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century. They say
she had the deepest understanding of the traditional Italian opera. Her beautiful voice and intense feeling
increased the effect of an opera.
One expert said: "Callas sees and hears in the great operas the poetry of music. Others sing notes. She sings
meaning.
"
People who heard Maria Callas sing say they will not forget the experience. Her voice lives on in the many
recordings she made. Some experts say Maria Callas is as popular now as she was when she was performing
around the world.
((MUSIC: March from "Norma")
)
VOICE 1:
This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE 2:
And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.
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