Maria Anna Sophia Kaillia Kalogeropoulou or Maria Callas, honors Google today with a doodle devoted to it. OR Maria Callas (Maria Anna Sophia Kikilias Kalogeropoulou) was born in New York on 2 December 1923 and died in Paris on 16 September 1977. Maria Callas has been a top speaker and is now known worldwide as diva of the opera.
Shortly after the liberation of Greece from the Axis powers, Callas, due to her degradation at the Lyric Stage and in the midst of the polemics of her colleagues who accused her of cooperation with the conquerors, decides to return to the US. In order to secure her tickets she gives a farewell performance in Athens. In September 1945, he is in New York and starts trying to find a job initially at the Metropolitan Opera, but fails to sign a contract.
However, her audition by Edward Johnson, director of the Opera, brings the offer of two roles in the works "Fidelio" by Beethoven and Madame Butterfly by Puccini. Callas rejects the roles. He doesn't want to sing "Fidelio" in English, while feeling too stout to perform the ethereal “Butterfly”.
On December 7, 1951, Callas opens the season at La Scala in Milan with the "Sicilian Vespers", a show that offers her great recognition. Over the next seven years, Skala will be the scene of her greatest triumphs in a wide range of roles. In 1955 he staged the historical performance of Verdi's "Traviata" directed by Lucino Visconti.
On October 27, 1956, he first appeared at the New York Metropolitan Opera as "Norma" in Bellini's play of the same name. On August 5, 1957 he returned to Athens and appeared at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus as part of the Athens Festival. Two months ago he had met the shipowner Aristotle Onassis at a reception of the cosmographer Elsa Maxwell. Their acquaintance will develop into one of the most discussed relationships in history.
In 1960 she sang "Norma" at the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus and the following year "Medea" directed by Alexis Minoti. In 1962, she returns to La Scala in Milan and is deified as Medea, directed by Alexis Minotis and costumes by Yiannis Tsarouhis. In January 1964, he was persuaded by Franco Zeffirelli to participate in a new production of "Tosca" on the stage of Covent Garden Garden). The performance is praised by the critics, while a new artistic triumph follows in the same year at the Paris Opera with "Norma". Despite the vocal problems that the Parisian public has begun to face, she is warmly received.
On July 5, 1965, he appeared for the last time in an opera performance at Covent Garden with "Tosca" directed by Franco Zeffirelli. In 1966 he renounced his American citizenship and received the Greek one. With this one energy her marriage to Meneghini is formally dissolved. Now she hopes that Aristotle Onassis will ask her to marry him, which ultimately does not happen, since on July 8, 1968 the Greek tycoon marries the widow of American President Kennedy, Jackie. This act of his plunges the top tweeter into depression.
Last scenes before the end
In 1969 he directed the film "Medea" by Euripides directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film has no luck in theaters. On May 25, 1970, he was taken to hospital and reportedly attempted suicide by taking a large dose of barbiturates.
In 1973 he directed in Turin together with Giuseppe di Stefano the play "Sicilian Vespers" (I Vespri Siciliani) and in the same year he started a worldwide calltechnique tour. On December 8, Callas sang at the Paris Opera, where the audience called her on stage 10 times and gave her a standing ovation. Her last appearance was in Sapporo, Japan on December 11, 1974.
Maria Callas spent the eternity at 16 September 1977 in Paris. Her funeral took place on September 20 and, after her body was cremated as she wished, in the spring of 1979 her ashes scattered in the Aegean Sea.
2010, a new light in the mystery surrounding the death of Maria Callas, is throwing up Italian research, which overturns the belief that the popular soprano died of a high dose of barbiturates (because of her painful relationship with Aristotle Onassis).
According to Italian phonologists Franco Fucci and Nico Paolillo, who presented the results of their study at the University of Bologna, the singer suffered from dermatomyositis, a degenerative disease that wears away muscles and tissues, including the larynx. Thus, it seems to explain the continuous decline in the greatness of her voice, which had begun to be felt since the early 60s.[citation needed]
According to the official medical report, Callas' death on September 16, 1977 was due to cardiac arrest. As the two Italian scientists explain, the treatment for dermatomyositis is based on cortisone and immunosuppressive preparations, which are likely to gradually cause heart failure. Therefore, Fucci and Paolillo agree with the official medical report, only clarifying that the stoppage was not a random event, but the result of myasthenia gravis. The starting point for the Italian research was the recordings of the famous soprano, both from the studio and from her live performances. With the method of spectrographic analysis, the scientists examined the recordings of the same pieces from different time periods and found the changes in the voice of the artist, who reached the end of the 70s to become a mezzo-soprano. The two audiologists also analyzed the last videos of Callas, in which the muscle relaxation she had suffered was also evident, since her chest did not expand during breaths. This study comes to shed new and possibly decisive light on the diagnosis of dermatomyositis, which had been made by the doctor Mario Dzakovatso, who had visited the singer in 1975, but had kept his diagnosis a secret until 2002.
Information from wikipedia.org
