It is a cruel thing to make a child feel ugly and unwanted. I was the ugly duckling, fat and clumsy and unpopular. My sister was slim and beautiful and friendly, and my mother always preferred her. In public, Callas blamed the strained relationship with Evangelia on her unhappy childhood spent singing and working at her mother's insistence, saying, Deteriorating relationship with motherĬallas's relationship with Evangelia continued to erode during the years in Greece, and in the prime of her career, it became a matter of great public interest, especially after a 1956 cover story in Time magazine which focused on this relationship and later, by Evangelia's book My Daughter-Maria Callas. The marriage continued to deteriorate and in 1937 Evangelia decided to return to Athens with her two daughters. Callas would later recall, 'I was made to sing when I was only five, and I hated it.' George was unhappy with his wife favoring their elder daughter as well as the pressure put upon young Mary to sing and perform. Around age three, Maria's musical talents began to manifest themselves, and after Evangelia discovered that her youngest daughter also had a voice, she began pressuring 'Mary' to sing. The family left for America in July 1923 and settled in the Astoria neighborhood in the borough of Queens.Įvangelia was convinced that her third child would be a boy she was so disappointed by the birth of another daughter that she refused to even look at her new baby for four days. In 1923, after realizing that Evangelia was pregnant again, George made the unilateral decision to move his family to America, a decision which Yakinthi recalled was greeted with Evangelia 'shouting hysterically' followed by George 'slamming doors'. Vassilis's death from meningitis in Summer 1922 dealt another blow to the marriage. The situation was aggravated by George's philandering and was improved neither by the birth of a daughter named Yakinthi (later called Jackie) in 1917 nor the birth of a son named Vassilis in 1920. George and Evangelia were an ill-matched couple from the beginning he was easy-going and unambitious, with no interest in the arts, while his wife was vivacious, socially ambitious, and had held dreams of a life in the arts for herself.

Family life, childhood, and move to Greece Callas's father shortened the surname Kalogeropoulos first to 'Kalos' and subsequently to 'Callas' in order to make it more manageable.

1.2 Deteriorating relationship with motherĪccording to her birth certificate, Maria Callas was born Sophia Cecelia Kalos at Flower Hospital in Manhattan on Decem to Greek parents George Kalogeropoulos and Evangelia 'Litsa' (sometimes 'Litza') Dimitriadou, though she was christened Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulou – the genitive of the patronymic Kalogeropoulos – ( Greek: Μαρία Άννα Σοφία Καικιλία Καλογεροπούλου).

1.1 Family life, childhood, and move to Greece.

Her artistic achievements, however, were such that Leonard Bernstein called her 'The Bible of opera', and her influence so enduring that, in 2006, Opera News wrote of her, 'Nearly thirty years after her death, she's still the definition of the diva as artist-and still one of classical music's best-selling vocalists.' Her dramatic life and personal tragedy have often overshadowed Callas the artist in the popular press.

The press exulted in publicizing Callas's allegedly temperamental behavior, her supposed rivalry with Renata Tebaldi, and her love affair with Aristotle Onassis. She turned herself from a heavy woman into a svelte and glamorous one after a mid-career weight loss, which might have contributed to her vocal decline and the premature end of her career. Forced to deal with the exigencies of wartime poverty and with myopia that left her nearly blind on stage, she endured struggles and scandal over the course of her career. Her remarkable musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina.īorn in New York City and raised by an overbearing mother, she received her musical education in Greece and established her career in Italy. An extremely versatile singer, her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini, and Rossini further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini and, in her early career, the music dramas of Wagner. She combined an impressive bel canto technique with great dramatic gifts. Maria Callas ( Greek: Μαρία Κάλλας) (Decem– September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the twentieth century.

Maria callas