portrait of Maria Callas
Angelina Jolie viewing a portrait of Maria Callas in the portrait gallery at the Metropolitan Opera
Jolie as Callas
A leading article in the NYT entitled, “Star Power” on 11/30/24 by Javier C. Hernandez promoted, “Maria,” a film starring Angelina Jolie, which opened just before Thanksgiving in select theaters, and went to Netflix on Dec. 11. It was with great expectation that Rett and I watched the film on December 12. The two of us have had a great affinity for Callas’s voice ever since our student days as “voice” students in university. Her recordings of Verdi’s Macbeth and La Traviata, and Puccini’s Tosca, for me, are unsurpassed.
Hernandez: “Maria” is Angelina Jolie’s return to the screen after a three-year hiatus. The film has already prompted Oscar chatter around her performance, though she says her aim was to be true to Callas and to produce something that would please opera fans.
Maria Callas accepting applause at the Metropolitan Opera
In Callas, one of the greatest singers of the 20th century and an enduring cultural star, Jolie said she had found a kindred spirit. Called La Divina, Callas, too, was exalted and scorned by critics and fans. Her personal life was examined, interrogated and written about. (She had a long relationship with the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.) And she, too, was described as intense and elusive. Callas died in 1977, at 53, with only her housekeeper and butler nearby.
Maria Callas with Aristotle Onassis
Director Pablo Larrain has created an opulent film that portrays Callas’s final days in Paris. The viewer finds Maria, known as prima donna assoluta, now alone except for her devoted housekeeper and butler, and two poodles. Her mind is rattled by drugs and through hallucinations she creates her autobiography.
Angelina Joli captures Maria’s anguished state of mind. She portrays an artist whose career has wained and is tortured by past fame and fortune.
The human voice is capable of capturing the spectrum of human emotions and Maria Callas’s voice carried the anguish of the characters she portrayed. The film is filled with heart wrenching
music and some of Callas’s greatest singing.
Pablo Larrain made a daunting decision to juxtapose recordings of Callas’s voice against that of Angelina Jolie, requiring Jolie to train to sing very difficult passages from Callas’s repertoire. Callas had a very unique vocal timbre and anyone familiar with her voice can discern between them. That said, Jolie’s singing is successful, particularly when used to show the demise of Callas’s vocal state near the end of her life.
Let us circle back to the title of this post, “Tis the Season to be Jolie” and conclude with one of Callas’s famous arias, Ebben? Ne andrò lontana, from La Wally by Catalani. An English translation is below.
Well? I will go far away,
As far as the echo of the church bell,
There, through the white snow,
There, through the golden clouds,
There, where hope is regret and pain.
Oh, Wally is going far away,
Far from her mother's happy house.
Maybe she won't come back to you
You'll never see her again.
Never again, never again.
I will go alone and far
As far as the echo of the church bell,
There, through the white snow;
I will go, I will go alone and far
Through the golden clouds.
CPW
For more on the life of Callas, I refer you to my earlier blogpost entitled, “Maria Callas: A Fictional Memoir”.
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