What really happened to Maria Callas’ voice?

All great divas deserve to have their stories told. This is certainly one insight from Pablo Larraín’s new biopic about Maria Callas: Mary.

Mary The lead role is played by Angelina Jolie, the famous Greek-American opera singer who rose to fame in a flash and burned out just as spectacularly. It is the final part of Larraín’s unofficial trilogy about powerful and misunderstood women in history.

Previously he directed the psychological biographies Jackie (2016), about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Natalie Portman); And Spencer (2021) with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana. Both films received Oscar nominations for Best Actress, and Jolie may be ready to follow in their footsteps.

Although Mary eschews some of the more baroque elements of Jackie And SpencerIt chronicles Callas’ final years in a similarly ethereal and haunting way. The film begins years after the singer’s peak and shows her living in seclusion in Paris and making a series of hopeful comeback performances despite her increasingly declining singing skills.

“It is Jolie’s ability to portray a woman who owns everything she is that makes her performance truly sing.” Weekly entertainmentThe review was enthusiastic. “After enduring her mother’s cruelty and controlling men, Maria finally speaks her own thoughts out loud at the end of her life. It’s a remarkable portrait of a woman who reckons with herself, even when her body lets her down.”

But who was the real woman behind the biopic? Here is the true story of Maria Callas’ life.

Related: Mary Star Angelina Jolie hopes there won’t be a biopic about her life: “It gets the prize for the craziest question”

Who was Maria Callas and how did she start acting?

Callas was one of the most famous opera singers of all time.

She was born on December 2, 1923 in New York City to Greek immigrants Evangelia “Litsa” Dimitriadou and George Kalogeropoulos. By all accounts, her mother was cold as she had wanted a son instead of a daughter. In 1937, at the age of 13, Callas fled to Athens with her mother and sister Jackie after her parents separated.

Soon after, Callas was mentored by Elvira de Hidalgo, a celebrated soprano at the Athens Conservatory. In 1941, at the age of 18, Callas played her first leading role – the title character in Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca.

During this time, she appeared in several other acclaimed productions and earned widespread praise for her unique voice. By the time she returned to New York in 1945 to visit her father and expand her career, Callas had already played 56 individual roles in seven operas.

What did Maria Callas do after she left Greece?

Callas may have lived in America, but she didn’t spend much time there. She returned to New York as one of the most famous and sought-after opera singers in the world, earning particular praise for her performances of bel canto operas, which are said to highlight the singer’s vocal dexterity.

She continued to perform around the world at some of the most famous and prestigious opera halls: La Scala in Milan; Covent Garden in London; the Lyric Theater in Chicago; Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires; and Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. But their success couldn’t last forever.

How did Maria Callas lose her voice?

At the height of her fame in the 1960s, Callas began to have problems with her voice. She was no longer able to easily hit the wide range of notes she used to master, and fans were quick to take notice.

There is no consensus as to why Callas’ voice faltered, but there are several theories that historians and opera experts believe may have contributed to her decline.

It’s possible that their sophisticated technology was to blame. “Some types of singing were better received on records than others, and her search for more nuances that would show well on the recordings,” opera critic Conrad L. Osborne told History, “was counterproductive.”

Others say that the overuse of her abilities likely impaired Callas’ range. Author Lyndsy Spence, who wrote the biography Casting a Diva: The Hidden Life of Maria CallasShe told History that, in her opinion, Callas “sang too much, too soon – like an athlete or engine who worked too hard.” Osborne explained NPR in 2010 that “it is very unusual to combine these two types of singing and extend the range over such a wide area. And if your structural engineering…isn’t right over this very wide range, then you’re causing a lot of trouble.

One tangible explanation for Callas losing her voice was a diagnosis in 1975 of dermatomyositis, a fairly rare disease that causes muscle inflammation, difficulty swallowing, shortness of breath, weight loss and more. “That explains the loss of her singing voice and the end of her career,” Spence told History.

What happened in the later stages of Maria Callas’ singing career?

Callas increasingly canceled her engagements and refused to perform unless she could give her best to the fans. Nonetheless, she recorded some of her most iconic music and gave some of her most memorable stage performances during this time. This included an acclaimed repetition of Vincenzo Bellini’s work Normawhich she performed with the Greek National Opera in the ancient theater of Epidaurus in 1960.

After what The New Yorker Described as having “a spate of problematic performances in 1964–65”, Callas starred in her last full opera production at the age of 41, performing a reprise Tosca at Convent Garden on July 5, 1965.

Was Maria Callas really in a love triangle with Jackie Kennedy?

During this time, Callas was romantically involved with wealthy Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, a union that ended Callas’ marriage to Giovanni Batista Meneghini, whom she married in 1949.

Although Callas was now single, Onassis was not. He married Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968, who was later the subject of Larraín’s 2016 film Jackie. They exchanged vows five years after the former first lady’s husband, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

But Callas and Onassis continued to see each other even after his marriage to Jackie O. According to Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos, Onassis’ personal secretary who coordinated the couples’ meetings, the two were deeply in love until his death in 1975 at the age of 69. “Maria was a piece of his soul, his body, his brain,” Moutsatsos told PEOPLE in 2024. “That’s why they never believed they could be separate.”

What did Maria Callas do after she stopped performing opera?

After their separation, Callas began leading opera master classes at the Juilliard School in Manhattan.

In 1973 and 1974, Callas gave a series of concerts with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano that were to be her last. Since Callas and Stefano had long since passed their vocal peak, the performances were marred by difficulties. But audiences flocked to see the legends and every performance was sold out. Despite it, The New Yorker called the duo’s tour “disastrous.”

Related: How Angelina Jolie Moved Mary Director Moved to Tears as She ‘Burns’ With Emotion (Exclusive)

How did Maria Callas spend the last years of her life?

After her and Stefano’s final performance in November 1974, Callas never appeared in public again. She retreated to Paris, “a city she never knew in its heyday.” The New Yorker lamented where she lived alone in a modest apartment that she rarely left. Despite several efforts to revive her career, Callas “failed to rehabilitate herself as a performer” and became “an over-medicated recluse.”

Callas died in Paris in 1977 at the age of 53. The official cause of death was a heart attack, but there are other theories. Accordingly The New Yorker, Some of Callas’ close circle believed she committed suicide, while others believe her death was caused by a drug overdose. She was quickly cremated and no autopsy was performed. “When she died there” The New Yorker explains: “Her career had long since faded into troubled and largely unfulfilling comeback projects.”

Nevertheless, Callas enjoys an excellent reputation not only among opera singers, but among artists of all kinds. Her immense dedication to perfecting her craft has inspired countless creatives across all art disciplines. She is considered one of the most talented opera singers of all time and an icon of glamor and grace.

Mary is now streaming on Netflix.

Related: Mary is an exquisitely crafted tone poem in which Angelina Jolie depicts the final days of Maria Callas

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