Maria Callas' Greek Adventure
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Maria Callas’ Greek Adventure The story of a strained relationship and the man who stood by her Marianna Kaloyeropoulou in Athens ing the invasion of Poland by the Ger- 1937-1945 John C. Bastias man Panzer Divisions, but almost eight It was 6 March 1937, when the young New months before Greece was invaded by the Yorker Maria Callas, who was not yet four- Italian forces on the Albanian front. teen, arrived for the first time in Athens Bastias appointed Elvira de Hidalgo, after her Greek parents’ separation in the for whose extensive experience in the in- States and her mother Litsa’s (Evangelia) ternational operatic scene he maintained decision to return to Greece with her two a high regard, as an advisor to the newly daughters. Litsa Callas also decided to founded Opera of Greece, while her con- return to her husband’s original name, tract allowed her to continue teaching Kaloyeropoulos, or to its feminine Greek at the Athens Odeum. De Hidalgo soon form, Kaloyeropoulou, which her hus- realized the great potential of her new band had Americanized to ‘Callas’, a not American-born student, as well as the unusual habit among immigrants. dangers lurking in the shadows if she did In the fall of that same year, Maria Ka- (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/FocalPoint) not follow the proper vocal placement, loyeropoulou registered at the National and did not simultaneously secure an in- Odeum (conservatory), attending les- she was accepted by the prestigious Ath- come that would allow her to contribute sons in Maria Trivella’s class, where she ens Odeum (conservatory), in the class of to the family budget without creating studied for two years. In the fall of 1939, the Spanish coloratura soprano Elvira de problems with her studies. Hidalgo, who had By mid-June 1940, those dark days Maria Callas’ first professional contract with the sung the role of when Paris was falling to the invaders, de Greek National Opera was signed on 20 June 1940. Rosina in Rossini’s Hidalgo visited Bastias at his home be- On the left, the signature of Costis Bastias, General Manager opera buffa The hind the Royal Theater followed by the of the Opera and on the right, the signature of Barber of Seville Marianna Kaloyeropoulou, the future Maria Callas over sixty times op- Spanish coloratura soprano Elvira de Hi- posite the legend- dalgo, Maria Callas’s teacher, ary Enrico Caruso. who brought her to Bastias’ home for the It was the year that private audition in 1940, that led to the the Royal Opera signing of her first professional contract. was founded, as Sketch by Phokion Demetriades part of the Royal in the mid-thirties Theatre of Greece, by its Director- General Costis Bas- tias, who was also Director-General of the Department of Letters and Fine Arts at the Ministry of National Educa- tion, something like a Minister of Culture. The theatre opened with a performance of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, on 5 March 1940, six months after World War II was declared, follow- No. 70 – November 2013 25 Maria Callas Magazine sixteen-year-old Maria, or Marianna as née performance in mid-February, since Maria continued her career at the she introduced herself, Kaloyeropoulou. the evening performances were then at National Opera during the rest of the De Hidalgo had requested a private audi- 6 p.m., because of the curfew due to the occupation despite hostility towards her tion at Bastias’ home, to avoid any gossip. danger of German bombardments. from many of the other sopranos, who She had even warned him that she was At the beginning of the German oc- sensed that their careers were threat- somewhat overweight, but had assured cupation in April of 1941, Bastias was ened. After the Liberation in October of him that he would hear a voice the likes of imprisoned because of his pro-British 1944, and the re-establishment of inter- which did not exist in the whole country. allegiance and Maria lost her most pow- national travel, Maria returned to New De Hidalgo sat at York in 1945, where the piano to accom- her father still lived, pany Maria, while not without some Bastias listened bitterness about with interest, smok- the country of her ing his pipe. Within ancestors and the a week, Marianna treatment she had Kaloyeropoulou received there. Two had signed her first years later she was contract with Bas- to begin her inter- tias as a member national career, not of the chorus, but in New York, but in under strict orders the Arena of Vero- that she was not na, interpreting the to participate in principal role of La the rehearsals for Gioconda in Pon- fear that such par- chielli’s grand op- ticipation might era, under Maestro be harmful to her Tullio Serafin, who voice, and would helped develop Ma- continue her les- ria Callas’ talents in sons with de Hidal- the years to come. go. Years later, she gave him a photo The disappointing on which she had 1957 return written in Greek: After an invitation “To Bastias, the first in 1957 by the Con- who recognized me stantine Karaman- – with my friend- lis government to ship, Maria, 1959”. appear in the 3rd It was in January Athens Festival 1941 during the war with two recitals at against Italy, when the ancient open- Greece was heav- air theatre, the Ode- ily and victoriously um Herodes Atticus, involved on the Al- on the 1st and 5th of banian front, that August, Maria Cal- Bastias decided to Photograph bearing a dedication to Costis Bastias in Greek: las arrived at Ath- try Maria out. He “To Bastias, the first person who recognized me – with friendship, Maria, 1959”. ens’s International placed her as an The costume of Hatshepsut is from the Imperial Ball airport on the 29th understudy in the at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, 11 January 1957 of July, accompa- Royal Opera’s third nied by her hus- production, Franz von Suppé’s comic op- erful supporter. However, she continued band, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. The era Boccaccio, where she appeared in the her career with the National Opera, as it famous Italian operatic conductor An- small role of Beatrice, replacing soprano was then renamed, and had her first tri- tonino Votto, from Milano’s Teatro alla Nafsika B. Galanou. However, though umph in a lead role playing Floria Tosca Scala, had been invited to conduct the we have her name on the programme, it in Puccini’s opera on 27 August 1942. At orchestra. is not certain which performances she the première, all the front row seats were Callas felt exuberant to be back after participated in. What we do know is that filled with German and Italian officers in eleven years. She had left as an unknown her first appearance was a 3 p.m. mati- uniform. young soprano and was returning an in- Maria Callas Magazine 26 No. 70 – November 2013 Due to the political crisis caused by the Maria Callas recital at the 1957 Athens Festival, artist Phokion Demetriades drew the above caricature of Callas sitting in the Odeum Herodes Atticus, at the foot of the Acropolis, refusing to sing, while minister Tsatsos is trying to explain, pointing to Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis and the leaders of the opposition, George Papandreou and Sophocles Venizelos ( front page: Athens daily To Vema, 4 August 1957) 31 July 1957. During the rehearsals for the concert at the Odeum Herodes Atticus. With Elvira de Hidalgo No. 70 – November 2013 27 Maria Callas Magazine 9 August 1960. Callas has just arrived at Athens’s International Hellinikon Airport and is welcomed by Costis Bastias. First meeting with the press. On the left, journalist Yorgos Pelihos of the daily Ta Nea. Maria Callas Magazine 28 No. 70 – November 2013 ternational star. Little did she know the mer Festival, which had only recently no one. She was locked in her suite crying, local political scene and how it would af- been founded, badly needed tourism and, ‘Send them all away’, refusing to appear at fect her recitals. After a bloody civil war of course, relied heavenly on Maria Callas the opening. The only person who had in the late ’40s between the communists herself. From April 1957, the plan started access to the suite was Bastias”.2 and the nationalists, Greece managed not unfolding as the daily Ta Nea revealed the Bastias had narrated the arrival at the to fall behind the Iron Curtain, and now terms of the contract and the two recitals hotel of Minister Tsatsos, when he was had a rather stable Conservative govern- became a major political issue. The lead- informed that Callas refused to appear in ment. Still, old animosities die hard and ers of the opposition, Papandreou and such a hostile environment claiming that the opposition, led by George Papan- Venizelos, refused to be present at the she was ill: “He visited her a little before dreou and Sophocles Venizelos, the son of première as a sign of their disapproval the opening to convince her to change Greece’s greatest political leader, Elefthe- of the ‘scandalous’ fee, and the principal her mind. ‘Do you know that if you don’t rios Venizelos, lost no opportunity to columnist of To Vema, Pavlos Palaiologos, sing tonight, the government is in danger Maria Callas, escorted by Costis Bastias, leaves Hellinikon Airport on the way to the Grande Bretagne Hotel in Athens, where they were to give a press conference the following day strike at the government. The daily news- incited his readers to boycott the perfor- of falling?’ he told her.