MARIA by Callas
****
Director: Tom Volf
Screenwriter: Tom Volf
Principal cast:
Maria Callas
David Frost
Country: France
Classification: PG
Runtime: 119 mins.
Australian release date: 7 February 2019
Previewed at: Sony Pictures theatrette, Sydney, on 30 January 2019.
Tom Volf’s documentary, Maria By Callas, details the life of one of the finest opera singers of the 20th century, ‘La Divina’, Maria Callas, and it is indeed divine. Lovers of opera will be flocking to see this wonderful portrait of a woman who was supremely talented but also very lonely, despite her megastar status. She maintained that there were two of her - Maria, the woman who longed for a normal life, and Callas, the public figure and icon. In the limelight for most of her life, she exuded beauty, style and grace - attributes that she worked hard to achieve (it is said she modelled herself on Audrey Hepburn), struggling with her weight and suffering from extreme myopia. Volf came to opera by chance but was soon entranced, particularly by the Italian operas, and when he came across a clip of la Callas on the internet he was instantly enchanted. An extended period of research into her life and career left him frustrated though. He explains, “There are so many people who wrote about her, and so many people who did documentaries about her, but in the end, none of them satisfied my thirst to get to know her and understand her. And that’s what drove my decision to make a film myself. I wanted to make the film that I wanted to watch.”
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek parents, Callas suffered at the hands of a controlling mother who uprooted her and her sister and returned to Greece after the failure of her marriage to the girls' father. Once Callas’s career began to take off, she came under the control of various managers, particularly her first husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, who she eventually left, spending many years waiting for their divorce to be finalised. In the meantime, she had a long love affair with the Greek shipping tycoon, Aristotle Onassis, although they never wed. Their glamourous life included fraternising with the international ‘jet-set' and the likes of Omar Sharif, Grace Kelly, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica and Pier Paolo Pasolini. At least it did until the day Onassis upped and married Jacqueline Kennedy, which came as a complete shock to Callas, and she subsequently spent a long time in semi-isolation getting over her lover’s snub. The pair did, however, eventually resume their affair and she always claimed he was the love of her life.
In 1958 Callas was pilloried for cancelling a performance of Tosca at the Teatro dell’ Opera in Rome, citing a problem with her voice. At the time, it was thought that she was being difficult and had insulted the Italian president who was in the audience. The event compounded an already established reputation for the prima donna as being difficult and temperamental, whereas, in fact, she was a perfectionist who wouldn't perform if she felt she couldn’t deliver her best.
Volf’s documentary is a tribute to this extraordinary performer and there is no doubt that the director is a doting fan. However, he doesn’t portray a completely sycophantic version of this most remarkable life although he always lets her have the last word. He uses remarkable original footage (complete with visible sprocket holes and sound stripes on the edges of the frames) and interviews that are simply amazing. One particularly frank interview with David Frost in 1970 is used extensively throughout the film, plus there are many letters and diary entries voiced by the great American mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato. Callas looked like a super model, always perfectly groomed and her eyes were framed by the heavy eye-liner that was so fashionable at the time. In later life she toned it down, but never lost her ability to look as if she had just spent hours with a stylist.
Maria By Callas is an absolute gem and should not be missed by anyone interested in music and opera. The soprano had a wide-ranging vocal ability and moved on from classical operatic singing to the bel canto technique required for the works of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini and she was even able to perform Wagnerian operas. She was a sensation and her life was described by the woman herself as emulating Puccini’s famous aria from Tosca, Vissi d’arte, stating, “I lived for art, I lived for love…” Callas may have died in 1977 at the tender age of 53 but her fame deservedly lives on - for those who never saw her perform, this is a wonderful opportunity to spend a couple of hours in the great prima donna’s company.
Screenwriter: Tom Volf
Principal cast:
Maria Callas
David Frost
Country: France
Classification: PG
Runtime: 119 mins.
Australian release date: 7 February 2019
Previewed at: Sony Pictures theatrette, Sydney, on 30 January 2019.
Tom Volf’s documentary, Maria By Callas, details the life of one of the finest opera singers of the 20th century, ‘La Divina’, Maria Callas, and it is indeed divine. Lovers of opera will be flocking to see this wonderful portrait of a woman who was supremely talented but also very lonely, despite her megastar status. She maintained that there were two of her - Maria, the woman who longed for a normal life, and Callas, the public figure and icon. In the limelight for most of her life, she exuded beauty, style and grace - attributes that she worked hard to achieve (it is said she modelled herself on Audrey Hepburn), struggling with her weight and suffering from extreme myopia. Volf came to opera by chance but was soon entranced, particularly by the Italian operas, and when he came across a clip of la Callas on the internet he was instantly enchanted. An extended period of research into her life and career left him frustrated though. He explains, “There are so many people who wrote about her, and so many people who did documentaries about her, but in the end, none of them satisfied my thirst to get to know her and understand her. And that’s what drove my decision to make a film myself. I wanted to make the film that I wanted to watch.”
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek parents, Callas suffered at the hands of a controlling mother who uprooted her and her sister and returned to Greece after the failure of her marriage to the girls' father. Once Callas’s career began to take off, she came under the control of various managers, particularly her first husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, who she eventually left, spending many years waiting for their divorce to be finalised. In the meantime, she had a long love affair with the Greek shipping tycoon, Aristotle Onassis, although they never wed. Their glamourous life included fraternising with the international ‘jet-set' and the likes of Omar Sharif, Grace Kelly, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica and Pier Paolo Pasolini. At least it did until the day Onassis upped and married Jacqueline Kennedy, which came as a complete shock to Callas, and she subsequently spent a long time in semi-isolation getting over her lover’s snub. The pair did, however, eventually resume their affair and she always claimed he was the love of her life.
In 1958 Callas was pilloried for cancelling a performance of Tosca at the Teatro dell’ Opera in Rome, citing a problem with her voice. At the time, it was thought that she was being difficult and had insulted the Italian president who was in the audience. The event compounded an already established reputation for the prima donna as being difficult and temperamental, whereas, in fact, she was a perfectionist who wouldn't perform if she felt she couldn’t deliver her best.
Volf’s documentary is a tribute to this extraordinary performer and there is no doubt that the director is a doting fan. However, he doesn’t portray a completely sycophantic version of this most remarkable life although he always lets her have the last word. He uses remarkable original footage (complete with visible sprocket holes and sound stripes on the edges of the frames) and interviews that are simply amazing. One particularly frank interview with David Frost in 1970 is used extensively throughout the film, plus there are many letters and diary entries voiced by the great American mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato. Callas looked like a super model, always perfectly groomed and her eyes were framed by the heavy eye-liner that was so fashionable at the time. In later life she toned it down, but never lost her ability to look as if she had just spent hours with a stylist.
Maria By Callas is an absolute gem and should not be missed by anyone interested in music and opera. The soprano had a wide-ranging vocal ability and moved on from classical operatic singing to the bel canto technique required for the works of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini and she was even able to perform Wagnerian operas. She was a sensation and her life was described by the woman herself as emulating Puccini’s famous aria from Tosca, Vissi d’arte, stating, “I lived for art, I lived for love…” Callas may have died in 1977 at the tender age of 53 but her fame deservedly lives on - for those who never saw her perform, this is a wonderful opportunity to spend a couple of hours in the great prima donna’s company.