Maria Callas was shortsighted and couldn't see the conductor! She was not only the greatest female singer the world has ever known but also a great actress. She modernised opera and revived lost operas. She gave Master classes at Juliard. 53 years after her death her popularity hasn't waned. RIP Ultimate Diva.
Interesting. I think her nearsightedness was actually a benefit, because she couldn't really see the conductor. You can hear in many live recordings when she makes her entrance in her tempo and the conductor has no choice but to follow. This is the way it should be, by the way. I firmly believe that Tulio Serafin and several other conductors that she worked with understood this. Of course they must have mapped out the tempi in rehearsal, but during the performance the conductor must follow the singer(s)! Otherwise the singers and orchestra are not going to be together. I've witnessed this many times watching YT videos. There is an excerpt from the Magic Flute with Lucia Popp, where she makes an entrance and when she begins her first phrase, the conductor seems oblivious to the tempo she begins with. Ms. Popp, who was a gigantic talent, manages to follow him, but guess what? The singer and orchestra were not together. I've also seen conductors who take tempi unnecessarily fast, oblivious to whether or not it's a reasonable tempo for the vocalist(s).
Dame Judi Dench, one of the greatest actresses in the world, praising La Divina Maria Callas, calling her the greatest singing actress in the world. A wonderful tribute.
Maria Callas brought opera into the 20th century. She modernized it. She made it natural and believable. She was a multi talented. Multi lingual, highly intelligent person.
Judi Dench GETS it: Maria Callas was one of the great stage actresses. She had a beautiful voice that her fragile health eventually destroyed, along with her body (it simply wore out), but there was a power in her performances that transcended the physical weakness she fought against. I get the feeling that without her strength of character and her self-discipline, she would not have lasted as long as she did, and the world would be the poorer.
She took tons of diet pills and sleeping pills. She was a chronic dieter and went to extreme measures to keep her weight down. That along with millions of hours of rehearsal and touring took it's toll. Her personal life was quite tragic as well. Onassis dumped her for Jackie and broke her heart. She never had a husband and family she desired. She died at age 52.
@@rlabarbera I believe she was treated shabby from the moment she was born. Her mother, her audience very often, the press, Mr. Onassis. That is what made her fragile, that is what killed her.
I met this woman over 40 years ago. I never knew at that time I was in the presence of such greatness. Today I feel honored to have spoken with her. She was real,truly a star🥀🌟
Callas was forgotten in her last years unfortunately, that loneliness killed her Time or News week, weekly magazines, announced her death as that of Aristotele Onassis ex lover!!! It took years to rediscover her greatness in the media and in the public
One of the greatest actresses of our time now talking about THE GREATEST opera singer/actress of all time. When she said she was totally supreme I had chills up my spine. Brava!
Her life was glorious yet tragic and yet the tragedies of her life seem to form the Amazingly inteligent gifted person she was and became . A perfectionist and in some sense trying to achieve an approval all her life because of rejection she faced as a child but also as an adult. She quoted once "i am caught up in a fame that i cannot escape from" She also said she would have gladly given up her career to have family and children. Its Ironic that she brought so much Joy to so many through her singing and yet she herself couldnt find what she wanted most of all.
I would like to know who clicked "unlike" to this declaration of one of the greatest actress in the world about one of the greatest singers of the world
Bravo Judi, it's exactly that. I am a great fan of yours and since age 9 I fell in love with Callas' voice. I am now 69 and still am. I am also a great fan of yours.
Perfectionists tend to set their goals very high. They are apt to jump over the bar as high as possible, only to sacrifice themselves. Maria Callas was obviously a perfectionist. If only she had been easier on herself, then she could have enjoyed her career as a diva much longer. I wonder if she ever realized her own sacrifice to pursue perfection.
Oh yes when as i have found how much I love Maria Callas her singing gives me chills we lost a beauty in Maria, at least we can see the recordings on film and hear her on CDs or what ever
Ive always loved she style,class,poise. I wish I understood opera, foreign language and the plots of all her operas so I could appreciate her artistry in singing.
@@mcalos2814 No, it's "Mario." She is calling "Mario," the first name of her lover, the artist Mario Cavaradossi. I agree with you though, it really is a wonderful moment when you're about to meet the "angel," Floria Tosca.
I never knew Maria Callas but my ex, Yulia in Athens, so I write now of that friendship a little in an Autobio so watching documentaries and Operas I now understand Yulia's reactions at her death her disgust at the Athens elite.
@@rlabarbera He married Jackie for prestige but soon regretted it.. and would call out to Callas from the street outside her apartment window in Paris. Wretched man!
If Dench had been a singer, she would have given Maria a run for her . . . money? nah . . . Callas quipped once: "I don't do this for the money dear, I do it for art!" She would have done things quite the same though.
Only someone who knows nothing about opera would say Callas "sang like an angel". She didn't. Tebaldi sang like an angel. Freni sang like an angel. Caballé sang like an angel. De los Angeles sang like an angel. Callas sang like a demon. And that's why Callas is supreme.
Just found this clip. AWSOME! But Hellenism is FULL of tragedy. Hers, Onassis’, all the way back to Socrates and the Trojan War. Documented Hellenism is 9K years all and if you start counting the tragedies you’ll grow old and still not finished...
DAME JUDY DENCH: my respects to you ! ... You are a Wonderful actress. BUT about Maria Callas, I agree totally with you when you say tha MADAME CALLAS WAS A ACTRESS with an AMAZING, OVERWHELMING VOICE specially in tOSCA with TITO GOBBI as Scarpia...(As you can see I am Completly "NUTS" about MARIA); But I can't agree whith you because IF SHE DIED AFTER HER 53 years she will be not OUR MARIA CALLAS; She lost HER DIVINE TALENT AND,ABOVE ALL, HER VOICE!... I think; metaphisically speeking, that are "SOME PEOPLE that , as Madame Meryl Streep once said " ARE IN TUNE WITH SOMETHING DIVINE"...MARIA CALLAS WAS ONE OF THEM... But I remember some others and all they die very soon (as if their time in our space-time is counted) --MOZART...BELLINI...PERGOLESI... And my divine painter: MICHELANGELO MERISI DA CARAVAGGIO...and so on...and so on... My COMPLIMENTS, MY LADY AND STAY WELL:
u could say Sutherland the best voice and still I would doubt you... but Flagstad? second class voice, no top notes, no low notes, no agility, no colors.. dont get past-struck.. not every voice that comes from the deep past is good... in fact most of them were quite horrible and faulty, it is just that the "Aura of the past" makes you think they were great... Callas and Sutherland lie one Light Year above them all :D
Lohengrin sometimes go to far to prevail the Callas Sutherland concept .. there is no need to call Flastag second class . Because she earned her spot in opera history never as second class singer and Lohengrin knows that .. but I get him when he try to lecture us about the greatness of Callas
what Dame Judi would have said if she had actually seen Maria Callas in her prime as Norma, Lucia and Traviata :) Through Dame Judi's eyes Callas would look as an alien from outer space in her prime
