2004-5-8
(THEME)
ANNCR:
Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. I'm Faith
Lapidus. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about one of
the most famous opera singers of the twentieth century, Maria
Callas.
(March From "Norma" instead of theme)
VOICE ONE:
Opera is a play that tells a story in music. The people in the
opera sing, instead of speak, the play's words. Opera is one of the
most complex of all art forms. It combines acting, singing, music,
costumes, scenery and, sometimes, dance. Often there are many
colorful crowd scenes.
Opera uses the huge power of music to communicate feelings and to
express emotions. Music can express emotions very forcefully. So
most opera composers base their works on very tragic stories of love
and death. An opera often shows anger, cruelty, violence, fear or
insanity. Opera has been very popular in Europe since it spread
through it during the seventeenth century. It also has become
popular in the United States.
VOICE TWO:
Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the
world. During the nineteen-fifties, she became famous
internationally for her beautiful voice and intense personality. The
recordings of her singing the well known operas remain very popular
today.
Maria Callas was born in New York
City in nineteen-twenty-three. Her real name was Maria
kalogeropoulous [ka-lo-yer-OH-pu-los. Her parents were Greek. When
she was fourteen, she and her mother returned to Greece. Maria
studied singing at the national conservatory in Athens. The
well-known opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo chose Maria as her
student.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-forty-one, when she was seventeen, Maria Callas was
paid to sing in a major opera for the first time. She sang the
leading roles in several operas in Athens during the next three
years.
In nineteen-forty-five, Callas was invited to perform in Italy.
This was the real beginning of her profession as an opera singer.
She performed major parts in several of the most famous operas. In
nineteen-forty-nine, she married an Italian industrialist, Giovanni
Battista Meneghini. He was twenty years older. He became her adviser
and manager.
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen-fifty, Maria Callas performed for the first time at
the famous La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. She sang in the
famous opera "Eida" [eye-EE-da] by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi.
She sang the part of Aida, an Ethiopian slave in ancient Egypt.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
During the nineteen-fifties and nineteen-sixties, Maria Callas
sang in about forty major operas in the most famous opera houses in
the world.
In nineteen-fifty-six, she appeared for the first time at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the lead in the opera
"Norma" by Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini. She was a great
success. Norma, a religious leader in the ancient city of Gaul,
became one of her most famous parts.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
During the years, Maria Callas often had problems with her voice.
Critics said some of her performances were not her best. Sometimes
she had to cancel performances. Her relations with the officials of
major opera companies often were tense. Many harmful stories were
written about Callas. The stories suggested that people she worked
with thought she was difficult. However, many people who worked most
closely with her denied this.
When she was not singing in operas, Callas was making recordings.
She made more recordings than any other singer of her time.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-fifty-nine, her marriage to Mister Meneghini ended.
Maria Callas became the lover of a rich Greek businessman, Aristotle
Onassis. Callas suffered more problems with her voice. So she sang
less. In nineteen-sixty-five, she sang in the opera "Tosca" by
Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. She was Floria, an Italian singer.
It was a part she had sung many times. It was the last time she
appeared in an opera.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Now that she was no longer singing, Callas wanted to marry
Aristotle Onassis and have a child. However, in
nineteen-sixty-eight, Onassis suddenly said that he was leaving her.
He had decided to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the
murdered American president, John Kennedy.
Three years later, Callas decided to teach young opera singers.
In the early nineteen-seventies, she taught twelve classes at the
Juilliard School in New York. Parts of these classes were released
as records. Terrence McNally wrote a play about Maria Callas and her
opera students called "Master Class."
VOICE ONE:
Maria Callas sang in many cities in Europe, the United States and
East Asia in nineteen seventy-three and seventy-four. She performed
with opera singer Giuseppe di Stefano. Critics said she was not able
to sing as well as she had when she was younger. It is not known if
Callas's troubles were caused by a physical problem or because she
had not spent enough time training her voice.
Maria Callas died of a heart attack in her home in Paris in
nineteen-seventy-seven. She was fifty-three.
VOICE TWO:
Many experts say Maria Callas influenced opera more than any
other singer of the twentieth century. They say she had the deepest
understanding of the traditional Italian opera. Her beautiful voice
and intense feeling increased the effect of an opera. One expert
said: "Callas sees and hears in the great operas the poetry of
music. Others sing notes. She sings meaning."
People who heard Maria Callas sing say they will not forget the
experience. Her voice lives on in the many recordings she made. Some
experts say Maria Callas is as popular now as she was when she was
performing around the world.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and
produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People
in America program on the Voice of America.