Word: callases
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Shrieking Leap. The woman Milan critics now call Goddess Callas was born Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos at dawn on Dec. 3, 1923 in Manhattan's Flower Hospital, four months after her parents arrived from Athens. In Greece her father had been a successful pharmacist. But in the U.S...
Meneghini sold out his business, invested the proceeds in real estate, and became Maria's private impresario and only agent. "Why should I give those damned agencies 10% or 20% of what I make?" she asked. Meneghini coaxed old Conductor Tullio Serafin, now 77, to coach her, and the...
First-Night Vespers. For the next four years, Serafin whipped her through one role after another, and Maria Callas began to find her niche. She blanketed Italy with her performances, made two tours to Latin America, getting wilder receptions at every appearance. In Genoa cheering fans carried her on their...
But when Meneghini suggested that she give up singing, her demon drove her on. Success was in sight. La Scala asked her to do a guest performance of Aida. She accepted, but professed to scoff at the honor: "Sure, it's a magnificent theater. But me, I'm...
Her performance was a fair success, and La Scala offered her another guest appearance. But Callas had the scent of triumph in her nostrils. Haughtily, she refused. They would hire her as a full-fledged member of the company, or they would not get her at all. "They expected me...