Maria Callas: An Intimate Biography Paperback – February 27, 2003

This book was thoroughly researched. Written honestly without prejudice. This book is written with great interest and simple language considering the subject of opera and singers can be complicated subjects. Understanding the shipping business has also been made easier to understand, though it is a complex business, especially since it covers the rules and complexities created by international waters and countries.

Great book !! My wife could not stop reading it

Amazing biography of an amazing woman and diva! Photos not seen frecuently in wab page based bios neither other paperback.

Everything as wished for. Thank you

I decided to read this book which I found in a small library because I love memoirs. I'm not an afficionado of opera; I'm an afficionado of people. Therefore I can't tell you if this book is accurate in an operatic sense. I can say only that Anne Edwards does an excellent job of showing us the woman, Maria Callas--the whole package--her career, her love life, her dreams. For me, in order to give a book five stars, I need it to be heavy on people and emotions and light on details and technicalities. I do like to learn new things so it was interesting to read about the incredible amount of work which goes into an operatic performance, but after a while I wanted to say, "Enough already!" Opera lovers would probably want more details about Callas' professional performances and less about her personal affairs. About halfway through the book her personal life heats up, and then the story became more interesting for me.It's a familiar story. We all know of many tragic rags-to-riches stories where the hero or heroine finds life with the white picket fence elusive. Think of Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley for instance. This story begins very dramatically as Callas was caught up in a hand-to-mouth existence during World War II. Her lover Onassis admired her greatly for triumphing over such a harrowing beginning. But her life was strewn with broken dreams and adulterous unions and scheming people, not to mention the fact that she had to be a slave to her career. My throat hurt just thinking about her getting out of a sick bed with a sore throat because the "Show must go on!"Edwards writes this intimate biography with compassion for Maria Callas. In the final pages she speaks of her flaws, but for the most part she helps the reader to empathize with the singer. This is by no means a tawdry hate-filled memoir--Anne Edwards is not Kitty Kelley--she's fair-minded and tolerant. I felt that I had a better view of Callas and all the characters in her life by the end of the book and felt more grateful than ever that I had a so-called ordinary life. If you're not rich and famous and have some of the trappings of the white picket fence life, maybe you too will heave a little sigh of relief. The paparazzi alone add so much to the miseries of the rich and famous. Picture yourself at one of the lowest points in your life being hounded by people trying to get a picture of you in all your misery. Then, count your blessings!

Anne Edwards has written several biographies on famous women, among them actress Katherine Hepburn, singer-actress Judy Garland and legendary actress Vivien Leigh. She does extensive research into the lives of these female artists and their lives, both personal and public, giving us the real scoop on who they were as well as providing the reader with an authentic look at the 20th century. Maria Callas (1923-1977) is synonymous with opera. Any real opera fan will know who she was and what she was all about. She was a legend in the opera world and raised the bar for other sopranos that would follow in her footsteps- among them Leonie Rysanek, Joan Sutherland and Shirley Verrett. This biography describes in detail everything there is to know about Maria Callas - her origins as a Greek immigrant living with her parents in New York City, the frustration she endured after being rejected to perform at the Met, her trouble with her weight (even bulimia), her impressive career, her marriages, the last being wed to Aristotle Onaissis the Greek millionaire who would divorce her to marry the widowed Jacky Kennedy. This is truly an intimate biography as the title reveals and we feel as if Anne Edwards herself had lived as Maria Callas herself.Maria Callas was born in Greece. Throughout her life, though she adopted American culture and nuances (even becoming a staunch follower of Audrey Hepburn's supermodel glamour)she remained innately Greek. Her passion, her fire and her temperament was all expressive of her Greek blood. Yes, she was infamous for her diva attitude (and this was before Diana Ross) and she was even known to have struck a reporter/paparazzi when he dared to get her in business, but we like our Maria Callas that way. Can you imagine how uninspired her performances at the opera would have been had she not been a strong woman ? It is her intensity that most attracts us to the great Maria Callas.Never was her Greek soul more pronounced than in her opera performances. This is why people overlooked her flaws- Maria Callas had faults in her voice (at times her tessitura and dramatic vocals can sound too harsh and scratchy,at times her chest voice was so deep she sounded like a man). One can also comment on the fact that she sang only in Italian, never bothering to expand her repertoire into the German operas of Wagner, Mozart or the French operas of Massenet, Bizet, etc. When she sang Carmen, which was written in French, she sang in Italian and she mostly sang Italian versions of otherwise French or German operas. She overcame these issues by truly delivering drama, acting, for she knew that opera was as much about acting as it was about singing. She reigned supreme in the role of Bellini's Norma, caused a great sensation in the fiery roles of Puccini's Tosca, Turandot, La Vestale and most notably as Medea. For Medea, she appeared in one film version, her only film work she ever did. She was said to be the most acclaimed Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata, the best Lucia of the Donizetti opera, and the best Madam Butterfly. Working with Maria Callas might have proved difficult. She was extremely dedicated but egotistical. Somehow, she managed to work with other such big egos as conduct Herbert Von Karajan and tenors Franco Corelli and John Vickers.Maria's opera performances were a blaze of glory, but all good things come to an end. Eventually, her voice wore thin. By the 70's she was not performing with dynamic frequency if she was performing at all. She was in her 50's when she died, in a luxurious apartment in Paris. She had been addicted to sleeping pills since she had always been a nocturnal woman and had trouble sleeping at night. Contrary to the popular legend, Callas did not die of a broken heart when her last husband millionaire Onaissis divorced her to marry Jackie Kennedy. She was a strong woman who would not pine for a man she loved for very long. She had just simply become tired of life and was decidely single but proud in the last years of her life. And she had reason to be. She had lived quite a life. Behind her was a career in opera that many sopranos still envy

Love this story it's not boring

Fora de série. Nota 10.

とても良かったです。カラスをより知ることができました。