One of the moments that we now confirm is part of the film Maria, the biopic about the last days of Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie) that is confirmed to premiere at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, will be the presentation of La Divina in London, in 1973.

“An Evening of Songs, Arias and Duets” was the farewell and comeback tour of the soprano, who had been away from the stage for 8 years and who, after traveling through the United States, Japan and Europe with his partner, Giuseppe Di Stefano, stopped to sing completely.

Between October 25, 1973, and November 11, 1974, Maria and Di Stefano gave forty recitals with their greatest hits accompanied only by a piano, something intimate and unexpectedly simple for the great Opera star, one of the greatest of all time.

The tour opened in London, with the public’s affection, even though the first night was canceled (due to Maria’s nervousness). This time, few blamed her for “stardom”, something that previously generated harsh headlines toward her. The psychological pressure was undeniable and EVERYONE knew the deep sadness in the star’s personal life, who practically retired to live as a mistress to a married man only to lose him when he was widowed and chose another (younger and more famous) wife. In the midst of all this, go back to singing? Nobody wanted to lose.

Biographers remember that she was particularly anxious about her return, alternately self-confident and intense fear, as her letters from that year attest. “Of course, I’m not what I was at 35 – let’s hope for the best,” she wrote.

The tour began in Hamburg, not London, a few weeks later than the expected date and the presence of Elizabeth Taylor in the audience caught more attention from photographers and journalists than the soprano, but when it arrived in the British capital, on November 26, 1973, History was certainly being written.

The show was broadcast live by the BBC and recorded by EMI, so we have a record of Maria’s anxiety during her performances, even with her warm smiles. She had sent audiences wild when she made her last appearance in a production of Tosca in 1965, but when she began to sing, it was clear that she sounded like someone else. The fans didn’t care, Maria Callas was always technical, but, above all, heart, and here she was, without characters and just being her, at 48 years old, alone and dressed in “a simple long white silk dress with a blue cape floor-length cobalt attached to her left shoulder, crossing the front of her neck and floating behind her as she moved.” In one word? Divine.

Throughout the night she relaxed, but the range or volume was no longer there. “A shadow of its former glory,” some described it. And Maria was aware of this, as she reportedly said days later that “They love me more than I deserve… They love what I was, not what I am.”

The atmosphere of the show, which is the poster for the film Maria, with Angelina Jolie‘s back, receiving the applause, was one of pure affection and adoration, something extremely important to her at that moment. All recitals were sold out, even with the “artistic flaws”, because it was a unique opportunity for a whole new generation to experience the magic of Maria Callas live. After the tour, in November 1974, she withdrew from public life definitively, living alone in her apartment in Paris, seeing practically no one, until September 1977, when she died of a cardiac arrest.

Do you know what we are also sure of? Which we will have, Oh Mio Babbino Caro at this moment. Will we hold back the tears?

Pesquisar

Pesquisar