Maria Callas Estate

Welcome to the Maria Callas Estate official website,
legitimately running by the only heirs and administrators
of her estate.

Michael Ochs Archives, getty images

Maria Callas - Arrigo! ah parli a un core (I Vespri Siciliani)
1951 - Florence - Callas Live Remastered - Warner Classics

THE BIOGRAPHY

MARIA CALLAS

1923, December 2.

Sofia Kaikilia Anna Maria Kalogeropoulou is born in New York, where her parents, Georgios Kalogeropoulos and Evagelia Dimitriadis, have emigrated.
1931-1937

In New York she starts taking music lessons and she participates in children’s competitions and performances.
1937-1938

After her parents’ divorce, she returns to Athens with her mother. She attends singing classes at the National Conservatory in Maria Trivella’s class.
1939, April 2

In a school performance she appears in the role of Santuzza, in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and wins the Conservatory’s prize. At the same time she becomes a disciple of the famous Spanish soprano Elvira de Hidalgo at the Athens Conservatory (1939-1943).
1940-1945

In the exams of the Athens Conservatory she performs the role of the eponymous character in Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica). With the help of de Hidalgo she is hired by the Greek National Opera, which, at the time, was a part of the Royal Theater, where she remains until 1945 performing the main roles in François von Suppé’s Boccaccio, Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, Eugen D’Albert’s Tiefland, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fidelio, and Manolis Kalomiris’ The Master Builder.
1945

She returns to New York, where her father lives permanently. Her negotiations concerning her appearances at the Metropolitan Opera fail.
1947 - 1948

She studies the role of Turandot in Puccini’s Opera for a performance in Chicago, which is canceled. On August 3, she makes her first impressive appearance as the titular character in Amilcare Ponchielli’s Gioconda at the great Roman arena of Verona. The orchestra is conducted by Tullio Serafin, who gradually becomes her artistic mentor. Among other roles, she appears as Isolde in Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde in Venice and Florence, while she takes on the role of Norma in Vincenzo Bellini’s Opera for the first time, a role which will she will perform most frequently throughout her career.

On Non.30 Callas sings her first «Norma» at the Municipal Theatre of Florence under the baton of Tullio Serafin, one of her emblematic roles throughout her entire stage career.
1949

She marries the Italian industrialist and impresario Giovanni Battista Meneghini (April 21st). In May and June, she appears at the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires with Bellini’s Norma and Puccini’s Turandot. She records her first albums (78 rpm) for the Italian company CETRA, with which she remains in contractual obligation until 1953.
1950

Inauguration of her appearances in Mexico City, which will continue until 1952 in roles such as Bellini’s Norma and I Puritani, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Puccini’s Tosca, Traviata, Aida, Rigoletto and Verdi’s Trovatore. In Rome, she demonstrates her comic talent in Gioacchino Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia.
1951

Callas inaugurates the 1951/52 artistic period at La Scala in Milan, with Giuseppe Verdi’s Les Vêpres Siciliennes (The Sicilian Vespers) which was a tour de force (December 7). Up until 1958, La Scala will be the stage of her great triumphs
1952

She actively contributes to the rediscovery of Rossin’s opera seria when she triumphs in one of his most demanding operas, Armida. Callas signs a recording contract with EMI.
1953

February: First commercial recording for EMI is Lucia di Lammermoor, recorded in Florence. Later in the year Callas begins a series of complete opera recordings at La Scala, starting with I Puritani and Cavalleria Rusticana conducted by Serafin, followed by Tosca conducted by Victor de Sabata.
1954

Callas reduces her weight by 30 kilos and her appearance changes dramatically. She records a further four complete operas at La Scala and her first two recital discs in London.
November: She returns to the USA to sing Norma, La traviata and Lucia di Lammermoor in Chicago.
December: She opens the season at La Scala in La vestale, working for the first time with theatre and film director Luchino Visconti.
1955

She stars in the productions of Bellini’s La Sonnambula and Verdi’s La Traviata, directed by Luchino Visconti.
1956 October 27

Her first appearance as Norma at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Unique collaboration with the major conductor and composer Dimitris Mitropoulos in her appearance as Tosca.
1957

She returns to Athens and appears at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus during the Athens Festival. (August 5th)
1958

2 January: Pleading illness, Callas cancels after the first act of a gala performance of Norma in Rome, attended by the President of Italy and all of Rome society; she is harshly criticised in the media.
May: At La Scala during performances of Il pirata she quarrels with the general director, Antonio Ghiringhelli, and decides not to appear again at La Scala while he remains in charge.
6 November: Rudolf Bing, director of the Metropolitan Opera, fires Callas after failing to reach agreement with her on performances for the next season.
19 December: She makes a sensational debut in Paris in a gala concert at the Paris Opéra; celebrities in thebaudience include Onassis, who begins to take a closer interest in Callas.
1959

By this time Callas has fewer professional engagements. She and Meneghini are invited for a cruise in July on Onassis’s yacht, the Christina, with several other guests including the Churchills; by the end of the cruise Callas and Onassis are lovers and the Meneghini marriage is over.
1960

For the last time she opens the season at La Scala with Donizetti’s Poliuto
She sings Norma at the Theatre of Epidaurus, directed by Alexis Minotis.
1961

She appears in Epidaurus in Luigi Cherubini’s Medea, directed by Alexis Minotis. The costumes are designed by Yannis Tsarouchis. With this role, she bids farewell to La Scala.
1964 January

Franco Zeffirelli talks her into participating in a new production of Tosca at Covent Garden Royal Opera House in London. To this production we owe the only footage of her exceptional acting on stage. Callas records the last completed operas of her career.

May: Callas appears in Paris in Norma, directed by Zeffirelli, in a spectacular staging that is to be her last new production; despite some vocal problems, the performances are successful overall.
1965

She returns to Met with Tosca. Despite the vocal fatigue she is experiencing the audience receives her enthusiastically. A new production of Norma by Franco Zeffirelli at the Paris Opera. The visually magical Callas succumbs to the vocal demands of the role. Her appearance, as Tosca, on July 5, at the Covent Garden Royal Opera in London, before the British Royal Family, puts an unexpected end to her career on stage.
1969

June–July: Callas plays Medea in a non-operatic film of the play by Euripides, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini: it is not a commercial success.
1971 - 1972

She delivers lessons at the Julliard School of Music at the Lincoln Center in New York. She records a duet record with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano for Philips. This album remains unreleased.
1973 - 1974

Her last world tour with Giuseppe Di Stefano, which is completed in Sapporo, Japan.
The audience’s love and enthusiasm cannot compensate for the deterioration of her vocal abilities.
1977, September 16

She dies at her home in Paris (September 16), where she has retired after the death of Aristotle Onassis.