An Athenian Interlude

This chapter, “An Athenian Interlude,” analyzes a major turning point in Callas’s life associated with her move, at age thirteen, from New York City to Athens. In Athens, she experienced poverty, personal humiliation, and, during the World War II years, threats to her life. But her singing benefited from the strong mentorship she received from Elvira de Hidalgo, which helped launch her operatic career. Callas’s success as a singer with the Greek National Opera fueled resentment among her older and more established colleagues who envied her talent and resented being dethroned by a mere teenager who spoke Greek with an American accent. Poverty and conflicted relations at home with her mother and sister failed to compensate Callas for hostility at work. A significant gain in weight further undermined her self-confidence. Her experiences during the seven years spent in Athens exacerbated the split between Callas, the self-assured artist, and Maria, the vulnerable young woman.

From Olive Groves to Hell’s Kitchen

This chapter, “From Olive Groves to Hell’s Kitchen,” examines Callas’s experiences during early childhood in New York City that left her with permanent psychological vulnerabilities. Having been deprived of adequate parental input during a critical developmental stage and growing up in a family beset by conflict exacerbated by a move from a provincial town in Greece to New York City, Maria found it hard to compensate later in life for her egocentrism and her lack of empathy. Callas’s adult life can be construed as an unrelenting pursuit of the psychological bounties she was deprived of in childhood. It is not accidental that Callas’s strength as an opera performer lay largely in her insatiable need for adulation from the audience (mirroring) and that her relationships with the significant men in her life were characterized by idealization.

Introduction

The “Introduction” traces the author’s interest in Maria Callas to his initial forays into the world of opera as a psychology graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. It describes his research credentials as an expert in the fields of adult development and narcissism. A summary of major turning points in Callas’s life is used to show how the interplay between healthy (creativity) and less healthy (a split between an unintegrated sense of grandiosity and vulnerability) aspects of narcissism shed light on the magic of her artistry and the tragic ending to her life.

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.

A Matter of the Heart

This chapter, “A Matter of the Heart,” focuses on the relationship between Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis that began in 1959. The liaison with Aristo offered Maria a first chance to enact her passion in real life rather than fulfilling it in operatic roles. It also provided her with an escape from a career undermined by her vocal problems. The nine-year relationship exuded emotional and physical passion combined with Onassis’s controlling and demeaning attitude toward Callas. Although hurt by Aristo’s humiliating comments centering on her physical appearance, Callas remained passionately in love with a man who, in her mind, was the first person to truly understand and accept her “warts and all.” An inveterate “collector” of beautiful women, Onassis abandoned Maria and married Jackie Kennedy in 1969, only to realize belatedly that it was Callas who was the true love of his life.

Nothing Left to Give

This chapter, “Nothing Left to Give,” focuses on Callas’s life after the breakup with Onassis. Never a quitter, Callas showed resolve in dealing with the abandonment but was ultimately unable to find meaning in life nor derive satisfaction from her past accomplishments. She accepted the leading role in Pasolini’s film Medea that, despite critical acclaim, was a box office failure. Her master classes at New York’s Juilliard School exposed Callas’s limitation in conveying to others her idiosyncratic artistic skills. Reviving their singing partnership, Callas embarked in 1973 on a year-long concert tour with Giuseppe Di Stefano, the success of which was undermined by her visibly deteriorated voice. Following the tour and the death of Onassis, who continued to be the love of her life, Maria died at age fifty-three, secluded in a Paris apartment. She spent the last decade of her life battling feelings of emptiness, envy, and despair.

Prima Donna Assoluta

This chapter “Prima Donna Assoluta: Psychological Mysteries,” uses two performances of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena to illustrate how, within the space of one year (1957–1958), Callas went from being the darling of Milan’s La Scala audiences to its utmost villain. This shift in attitude resulted from a series of cancelled appearances, including the infamous Roman fiasco. Callas’s polarization of public opinion reflects her own tendency to view the world in black or white terms. This dichotomy is a hallmark of a narcissistic self that oscillates between grandiosity and vulnerability without allowing for shades of gray in self-evaluation. These two faces of narcissism capture the disjunction between the self-assured and imperial la Callas, the operatic diva, and the vulnerable and insecure Maria, the woman. It is not Callas’s grandiosity and entitlement but her consciously experienced vulnerability, along with the sheer brilliance of her artistry, that distinguishes her personality from her operatic peers.

I Gave You Everything

This chapter, “I Gave You Everything,” analyzes Callas’s magic as a stage performer and the revolutionary nature of her short career that continues to resonate today. Her dark and penetrating voice was very different from the light voices of the coloratura sopranos who dominated bel canto roles in the first half of the twentieth century. The power of Callas’s artistry was the product not only of her voice and her musicianship, but also of her acting ability, her enormous capacity to render emotional truth and merge with her audiences. Her vision of opera as combining singing and acting in the joint pursuit of emotional truth meant an emphasis on the cohesion and integrity of the entire performance. Callas’s perfectionism drove her dynamic success but it also prevented her from dealing effectively with escalating vocal difficulties resulting from a precipitous loss of weight and undertaking overly taxing roles early in her career.

Product of Her Mother’s Imagination

This chapter, “Product of Her Mother’s Imagination,” probes the origins of Callas’s life-long conviction that she was celebrated not for her intrinsic worth but for her exceptional talent. Callas developed early in life an ambition to become a celebrated artist, one that she pursued with fierce dedication and commitment. Yet throughout her life she maintained that her career had been imposed upon her, that her mother compelled her to sing professionally, and this lingering view led to an ambivalent relationship with the world of opera. Callas’s sense of superiority derived from being celebrated by her mother as a gifted child but coincided with feelings of vulnerability and inferiority reflecting her perception that she was loved only because of her voice. Her feelings of being unloved and inferior were further exacerbated by her mother’s favoring of Maria’s older sister Jackie and the emphasis placed on physical appearance in the Callas household.