Description
Book SynopsisMore than 40 years after her death, the legend of Maria Callas, La Divina Assoluta, remains unsurpassed. Much has been written about her sensational opera career and fraught private life, from her definitive mastery of iconic opera roles to her love affairs and tantrums. The prototype for the 20th century celebrity diva, Callas emblematizes the cliche of tormented talent genius in the ring with catastrophe. Her extraordinary voice, in particular, has become an object of cult-like adoration and cultural significance almost with a life of its own: as fetish object, as sophisticated sonic signifier, and most recently, as the lifeblood for a Callas hologram. Such adoration is not without consequences. When Callas is transformed into a vessel for such transcendent magic, it overshadows what is perhaps her most superhuman ability the masterful technique she deployed to shape and craft her astounding instrument. Singing bodies are working bodies, enacting an intimate and complex form of art
Trade ReviewEven if you’ve never heard of the 1954 Maria Callas album, even if you neither know nor care about her or opera, this book is entrancing. * Los Angeles Review of Books *
Table of ContentsList of Figures Author’s Note 1. Cilea,
Adriana Lecouvreur, Act I: Io son l’umile ancella [I am the humble servant of the creative spirit] 2. Cilea,
Adriana Lecouvreur, Act IV: Poveri Fiori [Poor flowers] 3. Giordano,
Andrea Chénier, Act III: La mamma morta [Mother is dead] 4. Catalani,
La Wally, Act I: Ebben? Ne andrò lontana [Well? Then I’ll go away] 5. Boito,
Mephistophele, Act III: L’altra notte in fondo al mare [The other night, in the depths of the ocean] 6. Rossini,
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Act I: Una voce poco fa [A voice just now] 7. Meyerbeer,
Le Pardon de Ploërmel, ou Dinorah, Act II: Ombra leggera [The Shadow Song] 8. Delibes,
Lakmé, Act II: Dov’è l’indiana bruna [The Bell Song]
Acknowledgments Appendix: Aria Texts and Translations Bibliography
