# New Very Very Tragic Sounding Callas Biography Out.



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I really don't want to read all of this sad sad stuff about Maria. How awful her life was offstage! Worse than we knew. No wonder she could bring so much pathos to the stage:https://www.theguardian.com/music/2...windled-maria-callass-tormented-life-revealed


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

*DON'T* waste any cent/penny on this. Such trashy sensational gossip tells *NOTHING AT ALL* about what truly makes Callas great - her musicianship. What we really need is a deeper analysis of her musical skills and performance practices.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Andante Cantabile said:


> *DON'T* waste any cent/penny on this. Such trashy sensational gossip tells *NOTHING AT ALL* about what truly makes Callas great - her musicianship. What we really need is a deeper analysis of her musical skills and performance practices.


That sounds like a great book, but not the biographical work this one is intended to be. Two different purposes.


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

amfortas said:


> That sounds like a great book, but not the biographical work this one is intended to be. Two different purposes.


There is no lack of biographies of Callas if you search on Amazon, eBay or public or university libraries catalogues. As for her *musical skills* *and* *performance practices*, a number of journal articles and chapters-in-book touch on these topics, but so far I can't remember having seen any *full book-length* analysis focusing on them, yet this is what is needed to gain a really complete understanding of her.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Andante Cantabile said:


> There is no lack of biographies of Callas if you search on Amazon, eBay or public or university libraries catalogues. As for her *musical skills* *and* *performance practices*, a number of journal articles and chapters-in-book touch on these topics, but so far I can't remember having seen any *full book-length* analysis focusing on them, yet this is what is needed to gain a really complete understanding of her.


This biography is said to draw on newly accessed, previously unpublished material, including Callas's own correspondence. Whether that makes it a worthwhile addition to the existing literature, I couldn't tell you.

I agree a full-length musical analysis would be welcome. Hopefully someone will write one.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

A troubled *life* is what the general public wants - tabloid fodder.

For the ones that are interested in the Callas *artistry*, her enduring legacy, try *Processo alla Callas* elsewhere in this forum.

The Callas Debate (Processo alla Callas)

For articles on Callas's *recordings*, try the articles below.

https://divinarecords.com/articles/


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

amfortas said:


> This biography is said to draw on newly accessed, previously unpublished material, including Callas's own correspondence. Whether that makes it a worthwhile addition to the existing literature, I couldn't tell you.


The author claims that she has been given access to 'previously unpublished correspondences' scattered among various archives. Such is the kind of claim that can all too easily be made for a writer to 'sell' his or her stuff but it doesn't tell us anything at all about the veracity of the 'sources', and those extracts cited in the _Guardian_ report read like incredible tabloid gossips. If you are curious about the 'sources' used by the author, you can wait for public libraries or bookstores to bring in stocks of this upon its release and check it out by browsing without having to buy it.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Favorite books









John Ardoin & Gerald Fitzgerald: Callas, The Art And The Life
Michael Scott: Maria Meneghini Callas
John Ardoin: The Callas Legacy

I added one more, to show what contemporary critics perceived her.

Callas, As They Saw Her


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

MAS said:


> Favorite books
> 
> View attachment 153917
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Trying to attach pictures? Afraid the attachments are invalid and can't be opened.

By the way, Ars Vocalis thinks that the best biography of Callas he has read is Jürgen Kesting's book, despite Kesting's sometimes confusing prose and the problems of the English translation, and recommended that to me specifically.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I am certainly not advocating this book. Just to let you know what is going on in Callas' world. It doesn't interest me at all.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Andante Cantabile said:


> Trying to attach pictures? Afraid the attachments are invalid and can't be opened.
> 
> By the way, Ars Vocalis thinks that the best biography of Callas he has read is Jürgen Kesting's book, despite Kesting's sometimes confusing prose and the problems of the English translation, and recommended that to me specifically.


I wonder why the attachments are no good.

Kesting's book is very muddled as far as language is concerned. Instead of quoting English speaking authors directly, he translates the German version back into English with uncomfortable results. Ars Vocalis's opinion on a translated work may not be the best source. He may have read the book in German, though I am not sure.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

What Andante Cantabile said.
Trash Trash Trash!


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

MAS said:


> Favorite books
> 
> View attachment 153924
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> ...


Of the four listed here, the ones I like best and find truly worth keeping are:

-Ardoin and Fitzgerald, _Callas: The Art and The Life_. Apart from its beautiful presentation of pictures of Callas on stage in her most important roles, it offers an astute assessment of her historical and musical significance.

-Lowe, _Callas as They Saw Her_ - Worth keeping for the author's efforts in gathering contemporary reviews of her stage performances throughout her career, reminiscence of significant personalities in the world of opera who had either worked with her or at least known her personally (those of Tito Gobbi, Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, Placido Domingo, Janine Reiss are especially illuminating), and of course "The Callas Debate" (1969).

As for:

John Ardoin, _The Callas Legacy_ - good as a beginner's guide for Callas' live and studio recordings, but because of the various problems of the book as pointed by RES in the 'Callas' Recorded Legacy' thread, it is not totally reliable. I have done away with it.

Michael Scott, _Maria Meneghini Callas_ - Among the authors I have read, he is significantly the one who is most upset about her weight loss and its impacts and that colours and affects his assessment of her performances and he paid overt attention on matters pertaining to vocal technique and well-being at the expense of the musical and interpretive aspects. I find I disagree with him a lot of times and by now the book is coming down less and less from my shelve and has in fact been gathering dust.


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

MAS said:


> I wonder why the attachments are no good.
> 
> Kesting's book is very muddled as far as language is concerned. Instead of quoting English speaking authors directly, he translates the German version back into English with uncomfortable results. Ars Vocalis's opinion on a translated work may not be the best source. He may have read the book in German, though I am not sure.


Despite problems with its language and the translation, I quite like the way Kesting's book is organised. It starts with an overview of her musical and historical significance, followed by an analysis of various stages of her life and career. The third part of the book gives good and substantial analysis of her roles as heard on recordings and at times usefully quotes and develops 'conversations' with reviews of the various recordings that had been written by other writers, including Ardoin.


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I am certainly not advocating this book. Just to let you know what is going on in Callas' world. It doesn't interest me at all.


Before you post this thread, Tsaraslondon has already brought it up and commented on it, and rightly critically, in the 'Maria Callas' Recorded Legacy' thread, and not just once, but twice. The extracts quoted in the _Guardian_ report, as said, read more like sensational tabloid gossips. You should visit the 'Maria Callas' Recorded Legacy' thread more often for any latest updates in the 'Callas world'.


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## Parsifal98 (Apr 29, 2020)

You guys are already critical of a book which I believe is not out yet. Having read posts py Lyndsy Spence on Instagram concerning her Callas biography, she seems to be genuine in her affection for Callas as an artist and in her desire to present her life in a more objective way. You should check out Spence's instagram page and all the posts she wrote about Callas: https://www.instagram.com/lyndsyspence/?hl=fr-ca


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

Parsifal98 said:


> You guys are already critical of a book which I believe is not out yet. Having read posts py Lyndsy Spence on Instagram concerning her Callas biography, she seems to be genuine in her affection for Callas as an artist and in her desire to present her life in a more objective way. You should check out Spence's instagram page and all the posts she wrote about Callas: https://www.instagram.com/lyndsyspence/?hl=fr-ca


Any writer who publishes a book on Callas (or any other iconic personality) can always claim that he or she is 'genuine in his or her affection' for the subject and that he or she seeks to present the subject in 'an objective' way. Yet what really matters is the overall angle and perspective that the writer chooses to adopt and whether that angle/pertspetive truly adds something new to our understanding of the subject, or are actually just things that have been discussed over and over again. The extracts cited in _Guardian_ look hardly promising at all. The very reason why many here are so critical of the yet unreleased book is that the areas Spence seems to pay much attention to, such as Callas' extremely difficult relationship with her mother, her frustrations in her marital relationship with Meneghini, her so-called 'rivalry and feud' with Tebaldi, and her relationship with Onassis, no less, are exactly those aspects of her personal life that have already been covered *ad nauseam* in previously published biographies, especially the kind such as Ariana Stassinopoulos' _Maria Callas: The Woman Behind the Legend_, Nicholas Gage's _Greek Fire_, Anne Edwards' _Maria Callas: An Intimate Biography_, not to mention countless magazines, journals, newspapers and tabloids during Callas' own lifetime and self-serving/justifying memoirs of Callas' own mother, sister and ex-husband. Even if Spence has indeed gained access to what she claims as 'previously unpublished correspondences from various archives' and even if the said sources were genuine, authentic articles, it's still the same, old kind of fruits and vegetables tossed in the salad bowl despite the cooker's protestations that the materials have been picked from 'newly discovered or unraveled sources'. Ask yourself, would you still want to see the so-called Callas-Tebaldi 'feud' and Onassis hyped over and over again? Just take the Callas-Tebaldi 'feud', for instance, whenever the subject is brought up on Opera-L, you can always hear voices protesting they are getting more than enough of it.

Spence may be truly genuine in her affection and regard for Callas, to give her the benefit of doubt, but the overall perspective she chooses to portray Callas is unfortunate because it is still cast within the same old biographical paradigm that treats her as a celebrity instead of a musician (which Callas wishes herself to be remembered as). The title 'Cast a Diva' ironically tells the writer's inability to break out from the paradigm. If Spence were to move beyond the paradigm, she would have to turn her focus entirely to musical and artistic matters and analyse Callas' musical and artistic significance within professional musical, social-cultural as well as historical contexts, using source materials that shed light on these aspects rather than Callas' personal life. Yet gauging from Spence's background and credentials (which I have read), one is afraid to say she is simply not equipped to give us a deeper analysis of Callas' musical skills, performance practices and artistic accomplishments in book length, which is precisely the very thing we sorely need to gain a better understanding what truly makes Callas extraordinary and great, especially in two years' time for the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth.

We just don't need yet another biography essentially parroting those same old, stale stories of how troubled her personal life was despite highly publicised claims of newly discovered sources.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Andante Cantabile said:


> Michael Scott, _Maria Meneghini Callas_ - Among the authors I have read, he is significantly the one who is most upset about her weight loss and its impacts and that colours and affects his assessment of her performances and he paid overt attention on matters pertaining to vocal technique and well-being at the expense of the musical and interpretive aspects. I find I disagree with him a lot of times and by now the book is coming down less and less from my shelve and has in fact been gathering dust.


Whereas I agree with a lot of your assessment of the Michael Scott book, it was at least written by a musician, who understood Callas's importance _as a musician_, so I continue to prefer it to most of the other biograhpies. Most of the others have been written by people with little or no musical knowledge. Jürgen Kestig's book is also very good, but doesn't read very well in English and my German isn't good enough for me to be able to read it in the original.

The book that gives the best impression of what Callas must have been like on stage continues to be John Ardoin and Gerald Fitzgerald's _Callas: The Art and the Lfe_, which was written and published before she died. It has exactly the right balance; a chapter each about her life and her art, followed by copious photos, sorted in chronological order, of various productions she appeared in, starting with *I Vespri Siciliani* at La Scala and finishing with the Pasolini film of *Medea*. Most of these are taken from the La Scala archives, the only exceptions being the Covent Garden *Tosca* and Paris *Norma* of 1964. The Visconti *Traviata* sequence is so good that, when I listen to her in the opera now, I can see her in my mind's eye. I've had my copy since it was first published in the UK and it's looking quite old and tatty now as it is the one I turn to most often.

I've also always rather enjoyed Pierre-Jean Rémy's _Callas: A Tribute_, which is just that really; a tribute. It's a bit gushing but Rémy's devotion to his subject is not in question.

Has anyone ever read David Brett's book _The Tigress and the Lamb_? Talk about trashy! And so badly edited that people's name are constantly misspelled. That it was ever published at all is beyond me.


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Whereas I agree with a lot of your assessment of the Michael Scott book, it was at least written by a musician, who understood Callas's importance _as a musician_, so I continue to prefer it to most of the other biograhpies. Most of the others have been written by people with little or no musical knowledge. Jürgen Kestig's book is also very good, but doesn't read very well in English and my German isn't good enough for me to be able to read it in the original.
> 
> The book that gives the best impression of what Callas must have been like on stage continues to be John Ardoin and Gerald Fitzgerald's _Callas: The Art and the Lfe_, which was written and published before she died. It has exactly the right balance; a chapter each about her life and her art, followed by copious photos, sorted in chronological order, of various productions she appeared in, starting with *I Vespri Siciliani* at La Scala and finishing with the Pasolini film of *Medea*. Most of these are taken from the La Scala archives, the only exceptions being the Covent Garden *Tosca* and Paris *Norma* of 1964. The Visconti *Traviata* sequence is so good that, when I listen to a her in the opera now, I can see her in my mind's eye. I've had my copy since it was first published in the UK and it's looking quite old and tatty now as it is the one I turn to most often.
> 
> ...


Scott can be a bit contrarian at times. His assessment of Claudia Muzio and Rosa Ponselle in _The Record of Singing_, for instance, is bound to raise a lot of eyebrows. Though I have been reading less and less of him, I still haven't gone to the extent of doing away with his book. At least he is someone possessing real musical knowledge and understanding of vocal technique and even on points I disagree strongly with him, his opinions are still worth taking seriously.

The Ardoin & Fitzgerald book can now be complemented by the high resolution photos of Callas' La Scala performances that the La Scala Historical Archives have authorised Google Arts & Culture to make accessible to the public online.

I never cared a bit about Brett's book and so far I haven't read Pierre-Jean Rémy's one.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

MAS said:


> Favorite books
> 
> View attachment 153924
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> ...


These all discuss her art and there are possibly more books about her music making than there are pukka biographies. Most of the biographies are trashy gossip pieces that amount to little more than, "I used to be a friend/the husband/the mother/the sister* of the great Callas, you know"

*Delete as appropriate

The best book I have read about her is the one by Petsalis-Diomedis (I hope I have spelled that right). I quite like the Sacred Monster book too, despite many having qualms about some of its content.

N.


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Have spent some time reading the posts in Lynsy Spence's Instagram page. Needless to say, all Spence could discuss is her research into Callas' personal life. There is virtually nothing at all about Callas' musical and artistic skills and accomplishments. Spence did put in a considerable amount of effort mining Callas' private correspondences stored in the New York Public Library, Columbia University Library and Stanford University Library Collections. 

Among Spence's 'revelations', one that caught my eye concerns Callas' relationship with Tebaldi. Not sure where Spence got her info from. According to Spence, after an overdose incident on Callas' part in 1973, the two renewed their once short-lived friendship and this lasted until the end of Callas' life. Despite their much publicised feud in the 1950s, deep down they were fond of each other and held each other with great respect. Though they never met in person during the 1970s, they would spend hours chatting on the phone, confiding in each other over their respective hapless love lives and reminiscing about the past. Tebaldi had her own woes and troubles in her life. It's rather interesting to see Spence is also showing great interest in Tebaldi, seeing her as a woman of inner strength and vitality. 

Spence seeks to show that Callas was a much abused and exploited person in her troubled life. Is she trying to make Callas a MeToo icon? (she seems to be implying that's the purpose of her writing the book). Whatever, I agree with Andante Cantabile that we already have too much published writings about Callas' troubled personal life and just don't need another book about it. 

In the end it's Callas' extraordinary musical and artistic accomplishments that we remember and cherish. Whatever happened in her personal life and all its details, lurid and all, are things that can simply be put aside and disregarded. This also applies to Tebaldi and other Classical music artists of great significance.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Viardots said:


> In the end it's Callas' extraordinary musical and artistic accomplishments that we remember and cherish. Whatever happened in her personal life and all its details, lurid and all, are things that can simply be put aside and disregarded. This also applies to Tebaldi and other Classical music artists of great significance.


I only agree in part with you here. Whilst I have no interest in reading sensationalised accounts that present speculations we can't be sure of as fact, I don't think an artist's personal life can be totally disregarded. There is always some overlap and connection between the life of an artist and their art. That's why the biography of Callas' early years is so revealing. I don't think Petsalis-Diomedis' book is without its issues, but it does, at least, present a persuasive picture of the singer due to his meticulous research. One thing that is crystal clear from that book is her ambition and how it resulted in such high artistic standards on her part.

I think a biography based on all the existing Callas correspondence could be very interesting and would inform our view of her art if done well. I doubt that this volume is that book, though as it is being publicised as a lurid tale of drugs, sex abuse and what not. We don't need a new approach to the Callas biography, we need the good, old fashioned approach of the official bio as has been done for many other artists.

N.


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

The Conte said:


> I only agree in part with you here. Whilst I have no interest in reading sensationalised accounts that present speculations we can't be sure of as fact, *I don't think an artist's personal life can be totally disregarded. There is always some overlap and connection between the life of an artist and their art.*


I actually agree with the highlighted point you've made. The point I made earlier certainly needs some fine-tuning - we don't need incessant hyping, rehashing of those sensationalised bits from her life that have little or nothing to do with her art. Her difficult relationship with her mother in a way propelled her to work very hard in her youth to prove her worth. Those bits on sex and drugs, meanwhile, surely have nothing at all to do with her art.


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