Maria Callas on screen – and why the legend will never die

If there was ever a star crying out to be immortalized on screen, it was certainly the glamorous and dashing Maria Callas. The centenary of the 20th century’s most celebrated operatic soprano fell in 2023, but it has taken until now for two films to appear. One of them is a cinema biopic starring Angelina Jolie. The other is an old-fashioned TV documentary.

It’s a mystery that they’re late to the party. Last year’s centenary brought a global outpouring of memories of Callas’ short but dazzling career: biographies, box sets of recordings, even a staged event in which performance artist Marina Abramović took on Callas’ persona.

Callas’ story features not only inspiring artistry, but also a rise from humble beginnings in a Greek immigrant family in New York, a cast list that included some of the most famous celebrities of her time including John F Kennedy and Winston Churchill, and a high-profile love triangle between Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis and former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Here was the Marilyn Monroe or Diana, Princess of Wales of the opera stage, a media icon within reach.

The biopic is Marya $20 million-plus production with Oscar aspirations. It is the third in a series of similar films directed by Pablo Larraín, following his previous successes with Jackiea post-assassination profile of Kennedy, and Spencerwhich introduced Diana, Princess of Wales’s first Christmas with the Windsors.

The documentary is Maria Callas: The Final Actdirected by Clare Beavan for the BBC. It follows in a long line of Callas documentaries, although this one promises a new perspective and argues that Callas’ life may have been a tragedy, but not for the reasons usually given.

It’s been almost 50 years since Callas’ death, and while there isn’t much new in terms of documentary material, each film presents its own look at the life of “La Divina,” as she was known to fans. For a singer whose career was disappointingly short, peaking only a decade or so, her enduring reputation is extraordinary. As soprano Beverly Sills once said, “I would rather have ten sensational years like Callas than twenty years like the others.”

Through a combination of training, operatic instincts and an unmistakable voice that smolders with emotional heat, Callas set new standards in expressing drama through music. She was lucky with her timing, as her career coincided with the rise of the LP era in the 1950s, which allowed singers to record entire operas, not just individual arias. This played to her strengths and her recordings sold in large quantities.

The missed opportunity is that so little of her was filmed in the opera house – just one, official, 45-minute live TV relay of the second act of Tosca at the Royal Opera House in 1964. How we would like to see more of this famous opera actress, who worked tirelessly with some of the most celebrated film and stage directors of her time, such as Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli.

Most reviews of Marywhich premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August, have focused on Jolie’s portrayal of the prima donna, which is arguably honest. She manages to capture the glamor and dignity of her subject without turning the biopic into an operatic melodrama. What’s missing is the spirited spirit that set Callas on fire both on and off stage. Just look at the searing anger in the photos of her as Cherubini’s Medea. “Imagine if I were on stage if I wasn’t temperamental,” she once told an interviewer.

This may have to do with the way Larraín frames the story. The film is about the last week of Callas’ life, during which she wandered through her opulent Parisian flat on Avenue Georges Mandel. Outside the door, the legend still performs as fans stop on the street to pay their respects (“Book a table for me in a restaurant where the waiters know who I am,” she tells her staff). Inside, she must order her faithful servant to move the wing daily and secretly plunder her stash of tranquilizers. The curtain has already fallen behind her eyes.

To soften the approaching gloom, highlights from Callas’ life are interspersed as flashbacks, a technique familiar in biopics (think of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady). The spotlights dazzle in these skillful recreations, but no matter how well Jolie reincarnates these scenes, it’s hard not to miss Callas himself – that unique voice, the stage charisma, the smoldering passion. As Zeffirelli said: ‘The magic of a Callas is a quality that few artists possess. . . It’s something that lifts them off the ground; they become like demigods.”

All this is vividly present in the short archival fragments chosen for illustration Maria Callas: The Final Act. Most are known, although we do get to see some photos and handwritten notes from Callas’ private collection.

The story of Callas’ life and career is told in a simple manner, but the real purpose of this documentary is to put forward a theory as to why she shortened her performances so dramatically from 1959 onwards. There are talking heads everywhere, led by expert witnesses. Will Crutchfield, American conductor and musicologist.

Many hypotheses have been put forward in the past, most of which have been plausible. A dramatic weight loss to look slimmer on stage caused her voice to drop (similar cases can be cited). Or she tried too wide a variety of roles (again there are similar cases). Or she fell in love with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, joined high society and lost interest in performing (less likely, given her dedication to her art).

Crutchfield states that the vocal weaknesses that were so prominent in Callas’ later performances had been simmering since the beginning, and she actually lost her voice. This point is well made and extensively researched, right down to the comparisons of wavelengths, but the most likely reason is undoubtedly a combination of all of the above. Callas had become so famous that the pressure on her from all sides had increased.

No one since has matched her in opera, and these films add to the legend. If the subject appeals to you, you may want to look up more of Callas as she would like to be remembered: as an all-round opera artist with exceptional gifts.

That lonely live film of Tosca remains a treasure. Also try some of the live concerts, such as Paris in 1958 or Hamburg in 1959 or 1962 (just read her face in Eboli’s “O don fatale”), easily found on YouTube. The 2017 documentary Mary of Callasdirected by Tom Volf, is a treasure trove of never-before-seen footage, both public and private, and a must-see, currently available on streaming services. At this rate the legend will never die.

‘Maria Callas: The Final Act’, BBC2, December 29, 9pm and BBC iPlayer; ‘Maria’ is now on Netflix in the US and in UK cinemas from January 10