Maria Callas.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
The musical world, and not only the musical world, celebrates these days the centenary of the birth of María Callas on the best stages in the world.
We talked about Maria’s anniversary with music producer and author of the video channel “Art Gardens”, published on the VK Video video platform, Pavel Tokarev.
Looking at the portraits of this incredible woman and listening to her notes, it is obvious that Maria Callas’ art is timeless. Her anniversary is an event of exceptional importance in the history of art. María Callas is a rare example of the absolute triumph and greatness of an opera singer, a diva, a person with a surprising and tragic destiny.
– From the late forties to the mid-fifties of the last century, Callas was a phenomenon of vocal art. And not just vocal. She managed to make the audience empathize with her not only as an opera singer with unique vocal abilities, but also as the best actress,” Pavel Tokarev tells KP.RU. – Not in vain, Maria is on a par with the great dramatic actresses of different eras, for example, Sarah Bernhardt and Eleanor Duse. In this fusion of different types of art, as opera should be, she had no equal. Callas is the only one. Only María Callas received the title “La Divina” by millions of fans and critics.
No other singer of the 20th century received this status. Although there were many great singers: Caballe, Sutherland, Tebaldi and Sills. But there is only one “La Divina”: Callas! Increased attention was constantly paid to her and her personal life. There were many rumors, gossip and speculation.
“At a certain stage of her life, Callas wanted to become not only the queen of the opera stage, but also the queen of social life, the queen of the establishment,” says musicologist Tokarev. “Her incredibly beautiful romance with Onassis could not help but become a source of gossip. Furthermore, this was the time of the unconditional reign of the paparazzi, who really became the “shadow” of Callas and her lover. Unfortunately, this relationship ended in tragedy. It was this novel that was largely the cause of the singer’s death. There were many rumors about his murder. I heard that Onassis had previously planned his marriage to the widow of assassinated US President John Kennedy, Jacqueline. He couldn’t help but understand what he was doing, not understand how all this could end for Maria: he destroyed her. Undoubtedly. Callas faced confinement, illness and premature death.
On the centenary of the diva’s birth, within the framework of the “Art Gardens” project, a creative meeting dedicated to the anniversary of the opera diva was held. The full recording of our discussion meeting will be posted on the Art Gardens video channel.
– We talked about the Callas phenomenon with such famous music critics and musicologists as Sergei Bulanov, Ada Ainbinder, artistic director of the Youth Opera Program of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, Dmitry Vdovin, Alexander Perepelkin. Dinara Aliyeva and Igor Golovatenko, Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Vasilisa Berzhanskaya sent their greetings by video. I also managed to talk with the legendary actress of the Yevgeny Vakhtangov Theater, Lyudmila Maksakova. Last year I attended the premiere of “Master Class”, where the actress plays Callas, I think the audience will be interested in seeing the queen of drama in the queen of the opera stage,” Tokarev shared.
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