Maria by Callas

In one part of this documentary on the life and career of Maria Callas, she is returning to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House, in NYC, after a 7 year absence and a TV reporter is interviewing some of Callas' devoted fans who have been sleeping in line all night to be able to purchase tickets. One enthusiastic young man says that she is just magnetic on stage and has the greatest singing voice of the century. After viewing this film I would agree with him on both counts.

The doc, directed by Tom Volf, is a tribute to the complex and highly intelligent Callas, and much of the movie is told through her own words, vintage film clips, and some parts of her mesmerizing onstage performances. I'll readily admit I'm not a follower of opera but when Callas sang and acted onstage it was truly incredible with her range and charisma.

There's also, once she reached superstar status, the constant invasion of her privacy by the paparazzi (of course, decades before social media) , only heightened when she began a long relationship with the billionaire Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Even more so when he left her to marry Jackie Kennedy, only to return to Callas before his death.

Overall, although the doc is perhaps overly long at just under 2 hours, I just found Callas' persona and life story to be quite fascinating.

I heard a segment on NPR about "Maria by Callas" and wanted to see the movie. It was fantastic. What an amazing talent, what a special human being. I was so touched, I walked out of the theater with a smile and feeling really good.

I have watched a few documentaries about Callas over the years and this one still had many surprises in store for me. I thought the interviews and footage used were excellent. I had never seen her speak so much and, at times, lucidly about her life. You have the success and the solitude, the art and the love. There are also some exquisite arias. It is very moving, if you look carefully behind the facade.

One of most impressive portraits of Maria Callas. lovely because it is answer to many expectations. explanation for the presence of her name with same intensity today, like yesterday. her vulnerability - from the egocentric perspective about life and the people around her to the chance gived by Pasolini. a film who escape to the temptation to be a pure eulogy/hommage. a film defined by the emotions you feel. more than by other pieces. so, a splendid work.

Once in the height of the press media exploiting the supposedly rivalry between singers, Callas and Renata Tebadli, Callas was quoted (on comparing herself to the other singer) that it was like "comparing champagne to cognac". Tom Volf's debut documentary follows Callas's professional/personal life through its ups and downs by wonderfully, spooling in between her most famous "arias" performances.

It focuses on using archived TV interviews and scenes of "paparazzi" swarms but keeps a sharp focus on her early 50's career accomplishments until her untimely death in the mid 70s. Her early NYC childhood story and late adulthood Parisian isolation were only shown thru her interviews and the usage of a off-screen narrator reading Callas's letters and memoirs.

It also displayed her "Tigress" temperament towards the harsh reality of the Opera world as a booming recording industry and its societal environments. Volf's documentary subtlety unveils her own decadence of solitude dealing with a vocal declination and an endless love for Aristotle Socrates Onassis. A must-see for Opera lovers, truly amazing!