SEE ALSO: https://tweedlandthegentlemansclub.blogspot.com/2018/10/maria-by-callas-video-official-us.html
Drugged, sexually abused, swindled… Maria
Callas’s tormented life revealed
Unpublished letters detail famed soprano’s painful
relationships with husband, mother and Aristotle Onassis
Sun 11 Apr
2021 07.45 BST
Her mother
blackmailed her, her husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini stole from her, and
shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis was violent and abandoned her for Jackie
Kennedy. Soprano Maria Callas was adored by audiences worldwide but she never
knew real love offstage, and her life was even more tragic than previously
realised, according to research.
In writing
a new biography, Lyndsy Spence was given access to Callas’s previously
unpublished correspondence and other material, which casts light on the torment
of her marriage, the abuse to which Onassis subjected her and sexual harassment
by the director of one of the world’s foremost conservatoires.
Spence said
that the letters relating to Onassis reveal the terrifying ordeal she suffered,
especially when, in 1966, his physical violence threatened her life: “There is
also disturbing information from the diary of one of her close friends
detailing how Onassis drugged her, mostly for sexual reasons – today we would
class that as date rape.”
Writing to
her secretary, Callas confided: “I wouldn’t want him [Onassis] to phone me and
start again torturing me.”
On the pain
of her marriage to Meneghini, Callas despaired: “My husband is still pestering
me after having robbed me of more than half my money by putting everything in
his name since we were married … I was a fool … to trust him.” She described
him as “a louse”, lamenting that he “passes for a millionaire when he hasn’t
got a dime”.
One letter
refers to the then president of the Juilliard School of music in New York, a
married man, turning the faculty against her and stopping her coming back for
another term after she rejected his advances. She wrote to her godfather:
“Peter Mennin fell in love with me. So, naturally, as I did not feel so towards
him, he is against me.”
Callas, who
was born in New York to impoverished Greek immigrants in 1923, was one of
opera’s most revered singers. Her performances of Tosca at Covent Garden have
been described as among the greatest opera experiences of all time.
Spence
said: “I was given access to three enormous collections which were bequeathed
to various archives in 2019 and, until now, have never been published. Among
the papers were Callas’s letters revealing her innermost thoughts.”
The new
revelations include the truth about Callas’s harrowing childhood in Europe.
“Callas resented her mother, who worked as a prostitute during the war, for
trying to pimp her out to Nazi soldiers,” said Spence.
Later,
Callas’s mother sold stories to the press and blackmailed her to keep her mouth
shut, writing to her daughter: “You know what cinema artists of humble origins
do as soon as they become rich? In the first month they spend their first money
to make a home for their parents and spoil them with luxuries… What have you
got to say, Maria?”
Callas
confided: “If she was a real mother to me a long while ago, I would [have]
cherished her.”
Nor was her
father better, Spence said: “He wrote her a letter, pretending he was dying in
a pauper’s hospital in an attempt to get money from her. In fact, he had a
minor ailment.”
Callas
wrote: “I am fed up with my parents’ egoism and indifference toward me … I want
no more relationship. I hope the newspapers don’t catch on. Then I’ll really
curse the moment I had any parents at all.”
The
material also casts light on her great soprano rival, Renata Tebaldi, whom she
had denigrated in likening their respective voices to champagne and Coca-Cola,
while Tebaldi had accused Callas of lacking a heart. But they each dismissed
their prima donna duel of the 1950s as a myth made up by the media. Callas
insisted that she had actually said cognac not Coca-Cola, telling one
interviewer that she wished she had Tebaldi’s voice, and Tebaldi described
Callas’s voice as “the best”.
Now denials
of their feud are contradicted by a previously unpublished letter in which
Callas wrote of Tebaldi: “She’s as nasty and as sly as they come.”
That same
letter, dated 1957, reveals that the American-Greek’s loathing for the Italian
singer led to Callas accusing her of finding fame through “being my rival” and
of using Tebaldi’s mother’s reported heart attack to further her career in
cancelling her appearance at the Metropolitan Opera. Callas wrote: “Her mother
had nothing special wrong with her. Not even a heart attack … Do you think it’s
publicity or maybe Renata did not feel well and [maybe] her mother had the flu
and that was a perfect excuse for her not singing… and to have a triumphant
poor Renata on her first performance.”
She
continued: “I’m surely fed up with all this nauseating poor Renata business …
God does not like such methods for publicity and weapons against me.”
Callas died
in 1977 aged 53. The unpublished material also gives new insights into her
health problems, which affected her performances in the 1960s, and her dependence
on drugs. She lost her voice several times.
Spence
said: “I tracked down the neurologist who treated her before her death. Callas
suffered from a neuromuscular disorder whose symptoms began in the 1950s, but
she was dismissed by doctors as ‘crazy’. It also explains the loss of her
singing voice, which cut her career short.
“The death
of Callas is a harrowing tale. Alone in her Parisian apartment, she relied on
her estranged sister, Jackie, and companion, Vasso Devetzi, to supply her with
[a sedative]. Her life was full of tragedy, but I wanted to give her her
voice.”
Cast a
Diva: The Hidden Life of Maria Callas by Lyndsy Spence is published by The
History Press on 1 June
Maria
Callas (1923-1977) was the greatest opera diva of all time with a career that
remains unmatched by any prima donna. Much of her life was overshadowed by her
fiery relationship with Aristotle Onassis, who broke her heart when he left her
for Jacqueline Kennedy, and her reputation was marred by legendary tantrums on
and off the stage. However, little is known about Callas the woman; a girl who
was brought up between New York and Greece, and who was forced to sing by her
emotionally abusive mother. She left her family behind in Greece for an
International career and was feted by royalty and Hollywood stars. A self-made
woman, she fought sexism to rise to the top, but there was one thing she wanted
but could not have: a happy private life. Fame provided celebrity and riches,
but her last days were spent as a recluse in her Paris apartment, listening to
her old recordings and addicted to prescription drugs. In Cast a Diva,
bestselling author Lyndsy Spence reveals the incredible story of a woman who
was a true feminist icon.
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