A Marriage of Mutual Convenience

This chapter, “A Marriage of Mutual Convenience,” traces Callas’s marriage to Battista Meneghini, an affluent industrialist whom she met after arriving in Verona in 1947 to sing at the Arena amphitheater. During the twelve years they spent together, the couple became inseparable, with Battista fulfilling Maria’s dependency needs and Callas providing Meneghini, who became her manager, with a highly lucrative source of income and power. Throughout their marriage, Maria was grateful to Battista for launching her singing career. She found him a source of comfort and care. While projecting an image of a dutiful wife, Callas expected Meneghini to obey her wishes and desires, treating him as an extension of herself. Signs of disobedience were met with outbursts of anger and rage. Callas’s vocal problems disturbed the marital equilibrium. Meneghini’s insistence that she continued her career revived in Maria feelings that she was loved for her voice rather than for herself.