Maria Callas

Do you know Maria Callas, the most renowned and influential opera singer of the 20th century?  Maria Callas was born Cecilia Sophia Anna Maria Kalogeropoulos on December 2, 1923, in New York. She was the Greek-American soprano.

 Maria's parents, George and Evangelia, were Greek immigrants. By the time of Marias's christening, they shortened their last name to Callas. Maria started taking piano lessons when she was 7 years old. She proved adept at singing music with dramatic flair and mother was encouraging her to pursue a vocal career. In 1937, as a teenager, Callas moved with her mother and sister to Greece. In Athens, she studied voice under Elvira de Hidalgo at a famed conservatory.


Maria Callas had her professional debut with the Royal Opera in Athens in Boccaccio in 1941. In the mid-1940s she moved back to New York to live with her father and look for a job. She eventually moved to Verona, where she garnered international acclaim in her Italian debut at the Verona Arena in 1947. She also met there the rich industrialist Giovanni Meneghini, who became her manager and husband. During the years of career, she developed a reputation as a temperamental demanding diva and had a nickname "The Tigress".


She formally retired from the stage in the early '60s, but she had brief returns to perform with Metropolitan Opera. In 1971-72, she conducted master classes at Juilliard in New York. Maria Callas died at the age of 55 on September 16, 1977, of a heart attack.
Maybe not everybody likes opera singing but the figure and voice of Maria Callas are definitely worth to know.

 

 

 

 

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