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She was one of the most outstanding opera singers of the 20th century and a great scandalist. She hypnotized with her stage expression and her dramatic soprano through which she conveyed the tragic fate of the greatest operatic heroines, while in fact, she was singing about herself …
On September 16 we have celebrated 43rd anniversary of her death. Although her vocal techniques is still causing many disputes, it cannot be denied that she was one of the few singers with such a wide repertoire, performing parts of dramatic soprano in operas by Verdi or Puccini and fast sequences in Rossini, or Mozart, to lower mezzo-soprano roles, such as Bizet’s Carmen, which Callas recorded for EMI in 1964. She wanted to appear in all possible roles. However, with such a span of the repertoire, it is impossible to maintain impeccable technique. Problems with the voice coincided with problems in the artist’s private life…
Cecilia Sophia Anna Maria Karogelopoulou was born, the daughter of Greek emigrants Evangelia Dimitriadou and Georges Kalogeropoulou (Georges changed his name to Callas upon arrival to New York City) was born on 2nd December 1923. Maria was supposed to fill the void after her three-year-old brother Vassilis had died a year earlier, but this did not happen because her mother was hoping for another son, not a daughter. After many years, she admitted that she felt unwanted and unloved, that her childhood had been taken away and that she always had to compete with her prettier sister Jackie for the love of her parents.
Her mother quickly recognized Maria’s extraordinary talent and began to put pressure on her, forcing her to practice for hours, and at the age of 13 sent her to study at the Greek Conservatory, concealing the age of her daughter, who was still too young to study and looked older than she was.
