Maria Soundtrack: Which operas does Angelina Jolie sing in Maria?

In Mary, The life of Maria Callas is an opera. Director Pablo Larraín’s new film follows the famous singer through her final days in Paris, filtering the sad end of her career through the music she loved so much. Played by Angelina Jolie, Maria is a tragic character straight out of one of her operas. “This is a film about someone who becomes part of the tragedies that she played on stage,” Larraín told Netflix.

Fittingly, these stage-related tragedies also found their way into the film in large and small ways. “There is a kind of hidden map in the film where the piece of music we use – be it just orchestrated or with vocals – relates to the moment in the film,” Larraín said. “They’re not just there because they worked where they are (musically) – they’re there because they have a dramatic purpose. Opera is a form of transcendence and a form of expressing feelings that cannot be expressed (only) with words.”

Callas had some of these feelings. Read on for a full list of opera excerpts in Mary.

Otello: Act IV: “Ave Maria” – Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: In the film’s intro, Maria sings this aria into the camera and memories of her illustrious life flash by. We hear the musical theme several times throughout the film.

Opera description: “Ave Maria” is Verdi’s musical setting of the traditional Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary. It doesn’t move the plot so much as it serves as a meditative and reverent invocation to the mother of Jesus. Callas was a deeply religious woman.

Norma: Act I: “Casta Diva” – Vincenzo Bellini

Scene: Maria sings the aria in the kitchen for her housekeeper Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher), interrupted by appearances from Maria in Norma when she was younger.

Opera description: “Casta Diva” is played by the title character Norma, a druid priestess and daughter of the king. As she prays to the moon goddess for peace, she reveals her inner conflict, torn between her duties and her forbidden love for the Roman general Pollione.

Callas loved singing this role – she sang it more than 90 times in eight different countries. It is also the first opera that her partner Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer) heard her sing.

Il Trovatore: Act II: “Vedi! “Le Fosche Notturne Spoglie” – Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: Maria imagines a choir singing the Anvil Chorus at the Trocadéro in Paris.

Opera description: The scene shows the vibrant and powerful lives of the Roma as they sing about the joys of hard work, love and wine. This rollicking refrain contrasts with the opera’s darker themes of revenge and tragedy.

Gianni Schicchi: “O Mio Babbino Caro” – Giacomo Puccini

Scene: Maria sings for the first time in the theater with conductor Jeffrey Tate (Stephen Ashfield).

Opera description: The aria is sung by Lauretta, Schicchi’s daughter. She begs her father to allow her to marry the man she loves, threatening to throw herself into the river if she can’t. It expresses sweet love and contrasts with the comic atmosphere of jealous feuds in the one-act opera’s medieval Florence.

La Traviata: Act III: “Intermezzo” – Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: When Maria sees Onassis on the street, she remembers meeting him at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

Opera description: La Traviata is about a courtesan, Violetta, who leads a life of luxury and carefreeness in order to forget about her consumption. She falls in love with a man, Alfredo, but his father secretly prevents her marriage. The prelude to the third act is a short orchestral work that conveys a deep feeling of reflection and excitement the tragic core of the story and suggests her death.

One of the few pictures of Callas in her own apartment in Paris shows her as Violetta.

La Wally: Act I: “Ebb? Ne Andrò Lontana” – Alfredo Catalani

Scene: A waiter at a café plays a recording of Maria singing the aria, but she doesn’t want to hear it.

Opera description: Young Wally is in love, but her father forbids the connection. The aria is sung by Wally as she decides to leave her home forever and expresses her deep sadness, expressed through a haunting, lyrical melody.

Medea: Act III: “E Che? “Io Son Medea” – Luigi Cherubini

Scene: When Maria returns home from the café, she listens to a recording of a parade role alone at home and feels transported back to a performance of Medea on stage.

Opera description: In In ancient Greece, Medea is a sorceress who helped Giasone (Jason) steal the Golden Fleece. They married and had two children before he fell in love with Princess Glauce and left Medea, taking her children with him. Medea appears at Giasone’s wedding to Glauce; Giasone refuses to return to her, and Medea kills Glauce with a poisoned dress and then her own children. Medea struggles with the terrible choices she has made, and the music reflects her emotional turmoil.

Callas entered Medea in 1958, just moments after Rudolf Bing, general director of the Metropolitan Opera, fired her. It was one of her most impressive performances.

Carmen: Act I: “L’Amour Est un Oiseau Rebelle (Habanera)” – Georges Bizet

Scene: The young Maria sings for a German soldier.

Opera description: Carmen is a Roma woman who falls in love with a Spanish soldier but is torn between her feelings and her freedom. The aria is about love being like a bird that cannot be tamed.

In 1962 Callas performed two arias from Carmen at Madison Square Garden, in front of President Kennedy.

Madama Butterfly: Act II: “Coro a Bocca Chiusa” – Giacomo Puccini

Scene: Maria has just told her interviewer Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee) about her mother. In Maria’s fantasy, a choir and an orchestra perform the Humming Chorus in front of a theater in the rain.

Opera description: Cio-Cio-San and her child await the return of Pinkerton, the child’s American father, as the choir hums gently to bridge the second and third acts. The delicate melody reflects Butterfly’s hope before impending tragedy.

I Puritani: Act II: “Qui la Voce Sua Soave” – Vincenzo Bellini

Scene: The aria is part of a memory of Maria singing in Venice in 1949. She learned the role within a week when the lead actress fell ill, and it became her breakthrough role.

Opera description: It is a deeply emotional aria sung by the Puritan character Elvira, who is driven mad by the belief that her lover Arturo has abandoned her. She thinks about the memory of his sweet voice and her lost love. Elvira’s delicate yet intense vocal lines convey her fragile state of mind and the deep sadness that consumes her.

Parsifal: Act I: “Prelude” – Richard Wagner

Scene: This enigmatic orchestral work sets a memory of Maria and Onassis on the yacht Christina.

Opera description: Parsifal is about the title character’s quest to save the Knights of the Holy Grail by returning the Holy Spear and finding the Holy Grail. The “Prelude” creates a mood of contemplation and religious fervor with musical themes for the Grail and Communion.

Just as Parsifal prepares for his quest, Maria prepares for her own journey: her relationship with Onassis.

La Traviata: Act I: “Semper Libera” – Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: Maria listens to her recordings at high volume; Her butler Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino) tells her that the neighbors have complained.

Opera description: Violetta sings the aria after Alfredo confesses his love. She is torn, wants to live her life freely, but wonders if Alfredo is her true love.

La Traviata: Act III: “Addio del Passato” – Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: Maria meets Kennedy in New York.

Opera description: Violetta sings this aria in the final act. Her rival lovers have survived their duel, but it is too late because her illness has worsened and she does not have long to live.

Anna Bolena: Act II: “Piangete Voi?” — Gaetano Donizetti

Scene: After meeting her sister, Maria sings with Jeffrey in the theater and is transported back to the time when she performed the opera at La Scala. She doesn’t know that she is being secretly recorded.

Opera description: This is a mournful aria that Queen Anne Boleyn sings before her execution. Anne reflects on her tragic fate and expresses a mixture of resignation and despair. She questions the people around her, asking if they cry for her, but ultimately accepts her downfall.

Tosca: Act III: “E Lucevan le Stelle” – Giacomo Puccini

Scene: After her confrontation with a journalist, Maria goes outside with Mandrax. She tells him about visiting Onassis in the hospital. Afterwards she cries at home.

Opera description: This aria is sung by the painter Cavaradossi as he awaits execution for helping a political prisoner escape. As Cavaradossi reflects on bittersweet memories, he is overwhelmed by the thought of never seeing the diva Tosca, the love of his life, again. The aria combines nostalgia, love and despair into a powerful expression of longing.

Tosca: Act II: “Vissi d’Arte” – Giacomo Puccini

Scene: Maria sings alone in her apartment while people on the street hear her voice.

Opera description: Tosca asks Scarpia, the head of the secret police, to release Cavaradossi, and Scarpia offers to do so in exchange for sex. In this aria she pauses to reflect on her life and wonders why she, who lived for art and love, is now being punished with so much suffering. The aria is a prayer full of sorrow and confusion, asking for understanding.

Tosca was one of the few operas that Callas later performed. In 1965 she failed to complete four scheduled performances and it was the last time she appeared in an opera.

Nabucco: Act III: “Va, Pensiero, Sull’ali Dorate” – Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: The “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” plays over the end credits.

Opera description: In this poignant refrain, enslaved Hebrews reflect on their lost homeland and express their deep grief and longing for freedom. The scene has a feeling of bittersweet melancholy, highlighting her resilience and hope for liberation.

Mary is now streaming on Netflix.

The trailer for “Maria”