Aahana Swrup
Pablo Larraín’s musical film ‘Maria’ is an ode to a world-renowned opera singer’s glamorous yet tragic life as she nears the untimely end of her career. It revolves around the life of Maria Callas in Paris in the 1970s — the twilight years of her glory days. In this retreat from the public eye, the American-Greek opera singer shares the stories of grandeur from her previous years, allowing a glimpse into her legendary life and career.
Spanning decades—from the start of her professional career during World War II to her post-war endeavors and tumultuous personal affairs—Maria’s story remains one of fascinating intrigue. This Netflix film paints a rich and melodious picture of Maria Callas’ life, highlighting the self-actualization spiral she enters as she nears the imminent end of her story. Therefore, as the narrative is steeped in a period setting with various historical elements building the musical world around the protagonist, the real-life resonance behind the tale remains an inevitable point of interest.
Maria is a Moving Tale Based on the Real-Life Opera Singer’s Life
With ‘Maria,’ Pablo Larraín continues his filmmaking endeavor of telling stories about influential female historical figures, as done in projects like ‘Jackie’ and ‘Spencer.’ Thus, this Angelina Jolie-starrer is no different in presenting the true story of the real-life of Maria Callas, also known as “La Divina” for her divine performances. Callas is celebrated as one of the most significant opera singers of the 20th century, having left a noteworthy mark on culture through her captivating life and exceptional career. She was born in New York on December 2, 1923, to Greek parents Evangelia and George Kalogeropoulos. As Callas turned 13, Evangelia left her husband and took her two daughters to Athens.
Callas began her musical education in Athens at the Greek National Conservatory, where Maria Trivella oversaw her vocal training. As such, the young singer found her musical identity as a soprano. Three years later, she started training under Elvira de Hidalgo, a prominent Spanish soprano of her time. By 1942, at the age of 18, Callas was ready for her professional debut as an opera singer. Her career took off amidst the growing horrors of World War II. According to the opera singer’s account, her mother compelled her to mingle with German and Spanish soldiers for better provisions, which ultimately strained the mother-daughter duo’s relationship forever.
As the war ended, Callas had already established a career for herself in Greece. Yet, it was as she returned to America in 1945 as a 21-year-old that her true rise to fame began. During this time, the artist put out performances all over Italy, London, and America. Through riveting shows and rivalries that caught the public’s attention, Callas’ career bloomed in the 1950s. However, around the same time, she started experiencing vocal problems. The cause behind this decline in her voice has been a subject of speculation for years, with rapid weight loss and inadequate training coming up as the alleged source.
Whatever the cause may have been, Callas’ vocal issues—and other factors—eventually led to her departure from the stage in the 1960s. At the age of 41, she put out her final professional performance as an opera singer in July 1965 at Tosca’s Covent Garden. In the aftermath of her professional career, Callas remained in the public consciousness, mostly due to her extramarital affair. At the time, the opera singer was married to Giovanni Battista Meneghini and was having an affair with Aristotle Onassis, a Greek-Argentine business magnate who married Jacqueline Kennedy.
Callas continued existing in the world of music by teaching masterclasses at New York’s Juilliard School and international recitals with Giuseppe di Stefano. As these recitals came to an end in late 1974, the opera singer retired to a private life in a Parisian apartment. Three years later, on September 16, 1977, she unfortunately experienced a heart attack at the age of 53 and passed away. Larraín’s film follows some of these beats of Callas’ story and some others to portray her authentic life and career. Yet, it doesn’t shy away from creative liberties and fictionalizes some aspects while dramatizing others. This includes the narratively instrumental hallucinatory interactions Maria has with a filming crew near the end of her life. Even so, despite these liberties, ‘Maria’ remains realistic in its cinematic depictions.
Pablo Larraín Focuses on the Final Days of the Opera Singer’s Life in Maria
‘Maria’ possesses multiple narrative timelines, swinging to and fro between different aspects of Maria Callas’ on-screen life. However, the last few days leading up to the artist’s death become the film’s central focus, providing the tether from which the storyline stretches back to the past. As a result, instead of an extensive biopic, Pablo Larraín’s take on Callas’ life presents a more nuanced dive into the end of the singer’s life. Thus, many aspects of Callas’ real life that are otherwise mysteries to the public take on a more cemented shape in the film. For instance, its depiction of Maria’s relationship with Aristotle Onassis and the latter’s control over the singer’s career is a more fictionalized version of the known truth.
Therefore, it remains pertinent to remember that Larraín’s project, under Steven Knight’s screenwriting, occupies a unique space as a blend of fact and fiction. Still, the occasional tinkering with reality doesn’t impose on the on-screen story’s roots in the real life of Maria Callas. Larraín has been a fan of the Opera from a young age and holds Callas’ real-life legacy in great regard. Therefore, even after he dived into extensive research on her life—through biographies, documentaries, and old interviews—the filmmaker knew he could never capture the late artist’s actual reality.
Larraín shared a similar sentiment in conversation with Tudum, where he said, “It (Maria) is a creative imagining and psychological portrait of Maria Callas who, after dedicating her life to performing for audiences around the world, decides finally to find her own voice, her own identity, and sing for herself. I’m deeply honored to tell this story and share it with audiences worldwide like Maria did with her life.” Ultimately, the film takes a creative and cinematic route to bring Maria Callas’ real life to the screen and employs appropriate artistic license in the process.
Read More: Where Was Netflix’s Maria Filmed?
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