“I am not a singer but an actress who sings. Singing, for me, is not an act of pride but an effort to elevate towards those heavens where everything is harmony.” Maria Callas
The exceptional gifts of Maria Callas were inseparable from her real life. People watched her every move; they were jealous of her and made comments on the slightest things she did. Her life resembled a fairy tale that slowly turned into a melodrama, leaving the
heroine alone and dying of her wounds. Her vocal artistry swept away traditions that were wrong, and she adapted her style to suit each piece she performed. She would create psychological incarnations of her roles by giving the characters a true moral, dramatic density. The entire soul of mankind came to light in her singing.
Illustration by Cristiano Crescenzi