A sacred monster during her lifetime, Maria Callas remains forever this diva who imposed on the opera scene a soprano voice with an extended register, unique phrasing and the temperament of a tragedian. Born in 1923 in New York, this daughter of Greek immigrants had a destiny that was as exceptional as it was romantic.
Entering the Athens Conservatory, Maria Callas, gifted with an excellent ear and an infallible memory, eagerly followed the lessons of the Spanish singer Elvira de Hidalgo. But it was in 1949 that the Callas phenomenon came to light. She just turned 25. While singing La Valkyrie at the Fenice in Venice, Maria agrees at short notice to replace the singer who plays the main role in Bellini's The Puritans. Her powerful tone as a dramatic soprano adapts in just a few days of work to the crystalline melodies of bel canto. Never seen ! The whole world falls under the spell of this three-octave voice, capable of interpreting Wagner as well as Bellini.
The publicity given to her love life and her reputation as a capricious diva have fueled the myth, but sometimes blurred her image. A singer freed from conventions, with solid artistic intuition, Maria placed herself above all at the service of the music and the composer's intention, even if she knew like no one else how to take advantage of her plasticity and, which was rarely practiced until -there in her discipline, to promote her gifts as an actress. She embodied certain roles so truthfully – like that of Bellini’s Norma, which she left her mark forever – that we almost confused her with the character.
To preserve the immense artistic legacy of this global icon, who died in 1977, the Maria Callas Endowment Fund was created in 2017 by those close to the artist. Faithful to the woman and the artist that she was, he made it his mission to protect her memory and perpetuate her work.
