Greek opera singer Maria Callas in 1958. Public DomainA recent book on Maria Callas reveals shocking details about the tragic private life of one of the greatest opera sopranos of the 20th century.
“Cast A Diva: The Unknown Life of Maria Callas” by Lyndsy Spence, includes unknown details about Callas’ legendary marriage with Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
Through the personal letters of Callas, the book reveals shocking tidbits about the diva’s tempestuous relationship with Onassis, who broke her heart when he left her for the widow of Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of assassinated American President John F. Kennedy.
It also includes disturbing anecdotes about Callas’ early life with her verbally abusive mother who forced her to leave Greece to have an international singing career — and the sad end of her life, in near-complete solitude.
Maria Callas’ hatred for her mother
In the letters Callas wrote to her close friends, the soprano spoke about the despicable behavior of her mother during the War.
Maria Callas and husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini in Venice. Credit: Vanilafeel/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
Her marriage was no better
The newly found details from the turbulent life of the great soprano reveal her traumatic relationship with her husband, entrepreneur Giovanni Battista Meneghini.
“My husband continues to fool me, after he stole half of my property, putting all the money in his name since the day we got married. I was a fool to trust him,” Callas wrote, noting that her husband “acts as a millionaire without a penny of his own.”
Most of Callas’ other relationships were equally troublesome, according to Spence. In another letter, the diva describes her relationship with the president of the Juilliard School of Music in New York.
Peter Mennin was married, and when Callas rejected his sexual advances, he turned his entire educational organization against her.
In a letter to her godfather, Callas wrote: “Peter Mennin fell in love with me. So, of course, as I did not feel the same way, he turned against me.”
Vendetta with Italian Soprano Renata Tebaldi
Callas and Renata Tibaldi, both opera divas of the time, had a legendary rivalry between them — despite the fact that they sang different repertoires.
Callas concentrated on the heavy dramatic soprano roles and later in her career on the bel canto repertoire, whereas Tebaldi concentrated on late Verdi and verismo roles.
Urban legend has it that comparing their voices, Callas described hers as expensive champagne and her rival’s as plain Coca-Cola. Of course, the soprano herself claimed that she never said such a thing and instead likened Tempaldi’s voice to a good brandy.
The two artists had denied that there was a rivalry between them, but in the new book Callas is portrayed as being annoyed by Tebaldi’s obsession with her.
A letter dating back to 1957 reveals that there was an enormous dislike shown by the Greek-American community for the Greek soprano, which Callas attributed to a scheme perpetrated by her rival in order to advance her own career.
Serious health problems
The book also sheds light on the health problems that afflicted Callas until her death in 1977, at the young age of 53. Speaking to The Guardian, Spence says:
“I found a neurologist who was treating her before she died. Callas suffered from a neuromuscular disorder, with symptoms first appearing in the 1950s, but doctors then described her as simply ‘crazy.’
“This also explains how she lost her voice, which effectively ended her career,” Spence explains in a sad denouement of the story of one of the world’s greatest operatic legends.