Killing Callas
OperaThere is a tribute show at English National Opera, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas.
Angelina Jolie is filming a biopic Maria.
The centennial of her birth is being trumpeted in Greece.
The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography contains unpublished correspondence with just about everyone she ever worked with.
There are box-sets in abundance from Warner (ex-EMI) Classics, where she is still the top-selling classical artist.
And that’s the truly chilling statistic.
In almost half a century since her death, the classical music industry has failed to develop a single star who comes anywhere near capturing the public imagination as Callas did. Not one.
That’s the eighth death of Maria Callas.
And the final reckoning for the music industry which has nothing more to exploit.
Surely Pavarotti did.
Pavarotti?
In fact, as far as sales are concerned (an indicator of public imagination, surely) I have to defer to, er, Norman in an article from 2007:
“Karajan comes in at 200 million, followed by Pavarotti (100m), Solti and Boston Pops’ Arthur Fiedler (50m) and a 30-million cluster that includes Callas, Leonard Bernstein, Placido Domingo and James Galway.”
“In almost half a century since her death, the classical music industry has failed to develop a single star who comes anywhere near capturing the public imagination as Callas did. Not one.”
This would be the stupidest quote ever written, If only a portly Italian fellow came along who packed Central Park, sold out arenas and opera houses on his own…If only….
There are many well-known diva sopranos who would beg to differ with this!
Well well… as the recording label that owns Callas’ recordings is only focusing on dead Callas, this is the result. Callas story attracts also because of her many years of misery, her romantic relationships and her early death, and this always sells. The classic music industry in the past years made all the wrong decisions, today they only talk about the stupid Regietheater directors and don’t focus on any singers.
One of the very few sopranos from this age that people will long listen to and long talk about is La Gheorghiu. Because of her very distinctive voice, recognizable in one second, and because of her diva stories, be those true or fabricated by the press. It could have been Netrebko too, but she was and still is promoted by Russian oligarchs and sponsors with Russian money, whereas Gheorghiu did it by herself and with no financial support. As for the newer generation of singers: a bunch of kids that think they can sing and give masterclasses at 30, but they are pretty much clueless of what an opera singer really means
I’ve read many biographies of Callas but one that really struck me was her painist who went with her on her last tour. She was brought down mainly by pills and then a couple that took advantage of her financially. They promised to start a foundation after her death and instead stole the money.
In her earlier professional years she had been a pretty sharp judge of character (except possibly Onassis’) but as pills took over her jugment clouded as well as her energy and perhaps even her love of music. Her life could be a tragic opera.