Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s biographical drama, ‘Maria,’ focuses on the loneliness of the final days of the opera singer Maria Callas. By this time, Maria (Angelina Jolie) had been forsaken by everyone she loved, and her music career had been over for quite some time. Her last performance was years ago, but now, she is trying to find her voice again. During this time, she has to be in the company of her maid and her butler. Easing things further are her dogs, whom she keeps around herself at all times, especially when she is not feeling good. Maria’s love for dogs in the film is a translation of the love that Maria had for her dogs in real life.
Maria Callas Had Several Dogs Over the Course of Her Life
Maria Callas’ love for dogs had never been a secret. She received her first dog, a miniature black poodle whom she named Toy, from stage director Luchino Visconti. Pictures of Maria from that time show her taking Toy with him wherever she went. She took great care of the dog, who looked well-groomed and ready to go at all times. He would appear at airports with Maria; he would go to the Met with her, where his bathroom etiquettes would be questioned; he would even accompany her to Samuel Barber’s house. He would even appear in court with her at a pre-trial hearing.
If he spent the entire day with her, he would spend the nights sleeping at the foot of her bed. One time, when traveling on a plane, Maria was asked whether she would like her dog to travel in the luggage compartment. She refused to part with Toy, and he made the whole journey by sitting right by her feet. When Toy died, she had a huge oil painting made of him, which hung in her bedroom on the day she died. Maria showered the same love on all the dogs that followed. During her first marriage, she had a dog named Tea. Later, when she was with Aristotle Onassis, he gave her two more dogs, Pixie and Djedda, who were there the day she died. Her passing hit them badly, and they whimpered so much that they had to be moved to another room. By that time, both the dogs had already aged a lot, and they passed away a couple of years after Maria’s death.
Over the course of years, Maria started preferring the company of her dogs more and more. At one point, she said, “Only my dogs will not betray me.” She longed for them so much that once when she went to New York to hold masterclasses a couple of years before her death, she had Bruna fly them from Paris to New York so she could be with them. To a lot of people, the dogs were the kids that Maria never got to have. The absence of children from her life was something she didn’t desire for herself, but having the dogs eased that pain for her, which is why, perhaps, she held on to them even tighter.
Read More: Yakinthi “Jackie” Callas: What Happened to Maria Callas’ Sister?
