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The True Story Of Maria Callas: From Famous Opera Career To Link With Jackie Kennedy

December 10, 2024

Topline

Audiences will be able to watch the performance that has already earned Angelina Jolie a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of legendary opera singer Maria Callas on Netflix Wednesday when the streamer debuts “Maria,” a dramatic biopic of the 20th-Century star that will see Jolie sing on film for the first time in her decades-long career.

Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in “Maria.”

Key Facts

Jolie was nominated for a Golden Globe for best actress Monday morning alongside Pamela Anderson, Nicole Kidman, Tilda Swington, Frenanda Torres and Kate Winslet.

The nomination comes after what Jolie described as intensive training to bring Callas’ life to screen that included almost seven months of lessons to prepare her to sing in public for the very first time and a mixed—but generally warm—critical reception that one reviewer called a “career-best performance” for the actress.

Callas, who has been described as the world’s “greatest diva,” was one of the most famous and renowned opera singers of all time, and her life was defined by her talent and the media scrutiny that surrounded her status as a fashion icon, rumors she was difficult to work with and personal life, particularly her lengthy affair with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

Callas died in 1977 at the age of 53 but her life and legacy have continued to live on—she was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 and remains the best-selling classical singer of all time.

A biographical museum dedicated to the musician opened last year in Athens, where she received her musical education; Callas was featured in an exhibit called “Diva” at London’s V&A Museum through the spring; and a controversial 1.8-meter-tall statue of the woman was unveiled at the base of the Acropolis in Athens in 2021.

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Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in “Maria.”

Key Background

Callas, who was born in New York City in 1923, began her career at the Greek National Opera before making her Italian debut in “La Gioconda” in 1947. She went on to perform in Buenos Aires, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the Royal Opera House in London, among other venues around the world. She was categorized by her instantly recognizable voice that divided critics, and vocal range that reached nearly three octaves. Despite her extensively successful career, Callas lived what many have described as a tragic life marred with dysfunctional relationships and exploitation. She accused her first husband, industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini, of stealing more than half her money over the course of their 10-year marriage. She claimed in letters later seen by a biographer that the then-president of the Juilliard School of music in New York stopped her from continuing to teach after she rejected his advances, and accused her mother of blackmailing her after attempting to sell her as a prostitute to Nazi soldiers. In the late 1950s, she began a much-publicized affair with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis that biographer Lyndsy Spence claimed was violent and saw Callas “drugged… mostly for sexual reasons.” Onassis ultimately left Callas to marry the widowed Jacqueline Kennedy, but his longtime personal secretary Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos later claimed he and Callas “never stopped seeing each other.”

Crucial Quote

“The media scrutiny, the fashion and the tragedy were really on a whole other level with Callas,” museum curator Kate Bailey told the BBC last year. “People would queue for miles to see Callas, and hear her unamplified vocals. Today, we do the same with Beyoncé, because of her stage presence – but it’s Callas’s power of music and empathy that really takes it to an emotional level.”

Maria Callas on in Rome, Italy in 1969.

Getty Images

What To Watch For

“Maria” will premiere on Netflix on Wednesday, Dec. 11, shortly after what would have been Callas’ 101st birthday. The film is set during Callas’ final years in the 1970s.

Tangent

“Maria” premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in August and was released for a limited theatrical run on Nov. 27 before it debuts on Netflix. Reviews of the film have been generally positive—it has a 75% critics score and 78% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes—but individual critics have had mixed reactions. Most have praised Jolie’s performance—the Chicago Sun Times called her “breathtaking“ and the Arizona Sun Times said Jolie is “an undeniable actress of our time”—but others were critical of director Pablo Larraín’s vision. ABC News critic Peter Travers called his a “muffled film take” on Callas’ life that leaves viewers “on the outside looking in” and Kyle Turner of Slant Magazine said Larraín took “a female icon of the 20th century and, in an attempt to hold a mirror up to her multitudes, flattened her into the equivalent of a kitschy postage stamp.”

Surprising Fact

“Maria” is the third biographical film of a 20th century female icon from Larraín in the last decade. He also directed the 2016 film “Jackie,” which starred Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy, and the 2021 biopic “Spencer” about Princess Diana. Actress Kristen Stewart was nominated for a best actress Academy Award and Golden Globe for “Spencer” and “Jackie” received three Oscar nominations for best actress, best original score and best costume design.

Big Number

3. That’s how many Golden Globe awards Jolie has won, and she’s been nominated for nine others. She won twice for best supporting actress for “Girl, Interrupted” (2000) and “George Wallace” (1998) and once for best actress in a made-for-TV-movie for “Gia” (1999).