Hey everyone! Very interested to hear your thoughts, specially on the whole "art as suffering" topic if you are a part of classical music/art making; and also what you thought about MARIA if you've seen it ( but please keeping it respectful ;)
Callas herself said in an interview "You must suffer to be an artist". I do however think that that was an opinion she adopted in her later years; in her early career when her voice was in good shape and as a consequence she was less scared of going on stage, I think she perceived being an artist in more direct musical terms.
@@howimettheopera there is a reason to make the distinction between sympathy and empathy. As time progresses add a person embraces life and suffering in a healthy manner, they move from the realm of being able to be a concerned companion into sharing the n the joy and pain of another.
I think there are important nuances when it comes to this topic. Obviously there's a toxic element to it when people say that you need to suffer for your art which can lead artists to not seek help when they need it. But then there's also a positive side in that art can be a way to deal with suffering. It's a field where you can succeed despite mental health struggles, you can even transform them into something positive. If you suffer from issues with mental health, it can be quite uplifting to see how many great artists created amazing works despite suffering from the same issues. And sometimes these struggles can even lead you to insights and new perspectives, turning your weakness into a strength. Virginia Woolf for example talked about how she took a lot of inspiration from her psychotic episodes when writing her books. You obviously don't need to suffer from schizophrenia to become a great writer but if you do suffer from it, you can make use of it for your art. That's the positive angle of the whole 'art from suffering' narrative. To take another example, consider the origin of Blues. It was developed by disenfranchised people with roots going all the way back to slavery. The great names in early blues history were all poor, they all faced discrimination and intense racial hatred, they struggled with addiction and other issues. And this suffering had a huge impact on the development of the blues, it was a way to cope with the suffering, to transform it. That's the power of art, it can give you hope and help you survive even in the darkest times.
I would like to gently push back on the comparison you made between yourself as an orchestra conductor and Callas, an opera singer. While you are both technically artists…the two art forms require vastly different their talents. An opera singer is an actor and they have to build character and that can be mentally and emotionally draining. Callas was a child of the War and endured many traumas, the thin line between suffering in her own life and the character’s life may have created its own unique suffering, each performance. All while maintaining her extraordinary vocals … it must have been draining. Many performers/actors do have a hard time shaking off characters… And I particularly have great empathy for Callas, since she most definitely never had therapy after her wartime trauma and it’s clear it greatly affected all aspects of her life and art.
@@howimettheopera Involuntary or consequential suffering is part of the human condition that can become a creative or destructive force. The direction it takes depends upon the character of the sufferer.
'Maria' is a movie about Angelina Jolie - not Maria Callas. I you want a see a movie about Maria Callas - watch 'Maria by Callas' - 2017 movie - very, very good and stars Maria Callas herself.
Angelina didn’t even take the time to learn the hand mannerisms and cadence of speaking of Maria Callas. It was a poor choice and it’s unfortunate because Maria was so enthralling to hear speak and sing. So yes, you must be right, this is a movie about Angelina. It’s definitely not a movie with the essence of Maria in it.
Honestly, Maria Callas is one of the greatest artists of the past century. I wish there was a movie about her glory days in the 50's. There's plenty of drama there also, but we would at least get a glimpse on why she is so important, why after almost 50 years after she died we still talk about her. And, as you say, she was the most dedicated profesional. Look up the interview with the great Teresa Berganza. She perfectly describes her commitment to the artform and her generosity as a colleague. I hope we get that portrayal one day. She deserves it.
BS, I enjoy all types of music and my first introduction would've been our own Kiri TeKanawa Opera and all types of music is a personal choice. I have seen Andrea Bocelli twice in Brisbane and absolutely fantastic. Opera is not elitist, it's available to everyone. I enjoyed Angelina Jolie's performance very emotional. Maria was Aristotle 's love of his love 💕💕.
Absolutely! That's what I thought when I watched the first 20 minutes of the movie I could stand. They did exactly the same with Judy. Movie and and TV makers today seem to focus on the dark and ugly stuff.
I am an educated singer. Before my education, I spent countless hours on UA-cam listening to Callas in interviews, masterclasses, and recordings. I feel as if I had known her personally, even as if she knows me! And I love her dearly. The biggest thing for me with her was her dedication to her art. I really appreciate all your points in the video. I don’t feel like watching Angelina Jolie play Callas. The casting immediately makes me know the movie couldn’t be good. Luckily, there is so much real footage of Maria - she is like her own movie. It’s totally possible to do an interpretation of her, but the talent of those making the movie just wasn’t there, it seems.
Her influence continues to be felt in the way we perceive and celebrate the most captivating and larger-than-life performers, both in the classical and popular music realms.
That "im in the mood for adulation" line is so revolting. Anyone who has studied all her interviews will know that at heart she was actually an incredibly humble woman who put her art above her persona. She even likened a cleaners work as equally valid to her. She also spoke out against idolatry. So for the film maker to mischaracterise her for views is so vulgar and ironically a continuation of the injustice she faced in her life.
@@shaundudley4576 do you think you have missed the irony of the scripting given this is an art film that underscores an ungrateful public and Callis’s desire or raw need for the adulation of an audience that she desperately needed? The line speaks to her performative psychological defense mechanisms developed in childhood. Instead she gets derision from an ungrateful, self absorbed public. I actually think the line that you so excoriate is far more subtle than you perceive.
This makes me so mad. Her interviews from the 70s, u see how much she understand her art and how much she understand she is not at her prime and how she is not trying to be like when she was younger because it is impossible, the body changes etc. She is never delusional, weak or a impossible woman. Her true drama was the fact her mother pushed her into this life and she was forced to make a lot of sacrifices, her family kind leeched on her even after her death, there is even a video from her sister giving talks about her in the 80s/90s for fans (charging them). Also how they treat her like she never goes out of her apartment lol, she was a private person and there are several paparazzi pics of her going out of her building in Paris during her last years. It is kinda like what they did to Greta Garbo who just didn't want to be famous anymore and was bullied for it till her death.
Thank you for one of the most insightful and sensitive readings of this cubist collage of an art film I have seen to date. As an art historian/critic and teacher I found the film shaded by tints of Fedora and the last year of Dietrich and was reminded of Marlene singing “just a giggling” as no one slse could giving it a nuance and emotional pathos that is staggering. This is similar to what happens in the final aria. I thought the film was a little too long but in general it was an artistic attempt to reveal the passion and tragedy of Maria the woman and La Callis the performative self the an abused and sexually assaulted girl developed for self protection from a killing world. In this she is not unlike many creatives who are told early on” you’re too sensitive” My mother used to add for your own good. Many people here will disagree here will disagree with you. But I say Brava for your love, knowledge and sensitivity to what being in a creative league of one’s own requires. I believe Jolie and Callis both are superb!
@@2violettina I have not yet had the opportunity to see the film yet, but this scene has been shown repeatedly so indeed the context might give redeeming nuance. I hope so For I dearly want this to be good. Two things: it reinforces the stereotype too crudely and Callas knew she had no need to doubt her reception anywhere in Paris at the time her fame and adulation was universal and transcendent in the Parisian scene.
Its too simplistic as analisis to say María was recognized as the singer that was commited to express emotion when nobody was doing it. In that period, there was a lot of expressive singers, but more of the verismo school. She was a great actress, by instict, and she had a peculiar sound and a very personal way of singing. Later, she excelled at the bel canto roles, which were in that time sunged by singers without the adecuate tecnique for belcanto. She mastered belcanto given her schooling, and was indeed very expressive in those roles, vocally and phisically. Thats why her Lucia was clearly distinguishble, along with her Elvira, and later Ana Bolena, and of course Norma. She was a mix of a very compelling, charismatic, and stage actress, a great musician, and a very intelligent woman with a very personal voice.
thank you for expanding on this, I didn't want to get too technical so for whoever is interested in a more in depth/opera specific explanation of why her approach was so special this is a great explanation.
I think the media treatment of Maria Callas is seen so often when the artist is intelligent and has strong opinions. If you are a man, this is so often seen as assertive and strong, but for a female are features of a diva. The media so often wants females to be simply timid and pretty. I thought your reflections on suffering and empathy were very interesting. Thanks for the engaging video.
Such important points. LOVE your analysis. I personally am offended by this movie: 1) mixing Maria Callas' voice with anothers - horror 2) actor playing Maria Callas is horrible. The way she uses a haughty stance throughout this movie as if aloof, haughtiness is what Maria Callas was and as if this is "art". Maria Callas can be listened to to truly know her. Anything less, heellywud/peedoowud trying to make money on the rare beauty of Maria Callas' soul expressing through her beautiful being is just wrong in every way. Many will never go further than this movie which portrays Maria Callas' in every way wrongly. I so appreciate your sharing the truth behind the horrific rituals of slander, humiliation and canceling that is slowly moordorooz just like they have done to sooo many women in our world throughout the ages to try to break them to control them or destroy them. This is what they did to Maria Callas on purpose. It was an engineered effort by those who believe they can "own" people and that people are theirs to enslave or worse. For those hearing Maria Callas through this movie and watching the horrendous lip-singing of Jolie, I feel sorry for the nightmare that will never leave their memories of having watched the horrorshow that is this movie with Jolie pretending to be Maria Callas by walking around with her chin jutting out wearing high fashion as if fashionable clothes wearing makes a "diva." The reason we know the name Maria Callas has zero to do with her clothes. Zero to do with her chin in the air and zero to do with her hair styles etc. We know the name Maria Callas because Maria Callas moves us-to tears, to catharsis, to open our hearts, to the freedom we all long for but don't always know how to get to on our own. Maria Callas touches our soul. Maria Callas touches our spirit. Maria Callas evaporates time and space and collapses existence into the eternal present where we can feel fulfilled by the raw essence of pure beingness. Maria Callas brings us all home to ourselves which we so much abandon in the stress of our divided daily lives. The way "society" has been structured by the bangksturzz who run our world, who have destroyed millions, billions of communities, tribes, families for 1000s of years, we have lost our connections to ourselves and each other and the safety net of true love and true support through the fracturization of our human race. Maria Callas we listen to to remember what it's like to be loved, to be loving, to BE love. She embodies love-not just loss, but love itself. This is why we listen to Maria Callas. Jolie cannot embody this as a mimicker of materialistic media mayhem that is the parasitic machine that started and is hellywud. To know Maria Callas is only to listen to her herself: listen to her operas, her interviews, her letters: HER. Thank you for playing parts of the interviews of her showing how the interviewers were so atrociously disrespectful and offensive and explaining a bit about how the propaganduh machine worked then just as it does now. There are so many examples of how they have done this to women over centuries and millennia.
@@sarahwestmusic I am so grateful for this magnificent piece. You have said it all. Loving Maria is both the easiest and the hardest thing to do. Easiest because once you get her, she keeps on giving like nothing and no-one else. Hardest because being the lover of such a woman and such an artist in this grotesque world where misogyny is cool again has driven me to despair for humanity. And quite frankly it too frequently is her biggest "fans" that disappoints most egregiously. Where are the serious scholarly studies of the Callas Phenomenon? Feminist scholarship is practically non-existent. How does that work? How can the woman who singularly and spectacularly conquered the most elitest male dominated cultural edifice in western civilization and paid the price for it (was destroyed because of it) be of so little serious concern to the very scholars that has precisely that as their core remit. It speaks volumes. Anyway, you have inspired me greatly. Thank you.
That is not really true, even in the 50's. I think the Italian tabloid press was simply merciless. I have seen negative articles were the press calls Corelli a divo, because of his disagreements with conductors. One article even said that Corelli is a diva just like Callas. They did this to men as well, and he was often objectified as well. These things doesn't just happen to women, even in the 50's.
They don't have every right to portray it as they see it fit. it's not about a fictional character but a real person, with a real life, feelings, dreams, dissapointments, a human. A human with a huge time permeating legacy they ought not only respect, but honor. Taking these kinds of liberties are director-ego-centered, and they don't genuinely serve as a portrait of the character, but rather an interpretation of the director themselves, which inherently may end up deviating substantially from the reality. Additionally, using the expression "shed a tear" showcases remoteness and distance to feeling. Empathy is about identifying, not merely sympathising with a situtation and that's what makes art, Art. That's what distinguishes minor artists with perfect technique, from great artists who move your soul and bring you "to tears", whether it's joy, or sadness or both. You shouldn't be afraid to let go and let it break you. Especally for Opera, you cannot have opera without "much". Maria Callas was a huge person on the inside and that was reflected in her voice. Her voice was her character and her soul. At the same time she was sweet and she carried the Greek temperament of drama in her voice, and the extemities of war and poverty in her mind. Having someone like Angelina Jolie portray her, although she did try, she could never be close to enough for such a role. I doubt anyone from mainstream stardom could actually be, given the mostly pampered lives they have and also not being Greek. Thing with Maria Callas was that she was unconventional, kind and that's why she received so much backlash. She was a good person, she didn't pretend to be who she was. She had no need for that and that's why next to her light, other's darkness was exposed. Onassis was a sick narcissist and through her childhood wounds found ground to destroyed her. It's better to read the books with her letters to better understand her. Movies like these, sorry but are, rubbish.
Lots of creative people do have loneliness and depression, but we don't create out of that space, that side of us hurts our art, not helps it. We create out of our hope, our desire to transcend our basic forms, to become eternal, to communicate with the planet. I totally agree that I am tired of hearing people say that suffering is the key to art. Nice video (okay movie).
speak for yourself lmao some of the greatest artists who ever lived created out of profound sadness. Van Gogh is a perfect example. he was in so much pain and that’s part of what made his art so beautiful - the way the world treated him did not affect how he saw it or portrayed it. Dostoyevsky is another example. that man was deeply sad, because he understood too much. and as a result - his books.
Thank you for saying this! I’m a professional musician (a cellist) and am very tired of the “Musicians must suffer for their art.” trope that many biopics emphasize. Sure, my sad, bad, terribly painful experiences have helped me to be able to interpret and express certain pieces of music in a more meaningful way, but, as you say, to wallow in those emotions in order to make the music more authentic is counterproductive and, frankly, a load of hogwash. If you’re in the depths of depression, trauma or grief it’s extremely difficult to even play or sing. I know from personal experience. How I wish that film and television productions about musicians would instead focus on the absolute joy, delight and outright fun making music and performing for and with others most often is. The scene in “Maestro” where Leonard Bernstein is conducting the Mahler Second Symphony at Ely Cathedral is fantastic in portraying the joy in making music. Every musician in the orchestra, the soloists and Bradley Cooper/Leonard Bernstein are visibly having the time of their lives, and the “audience” is genuinely caught up in the experience. I suppose this may not be sexy or interesting enough for some people, but it is the truth so much of the time, at least in my own experience. Let’s hope that we can get rid of the “suffering musician” trope for good! 👏❤️🎵
I have read several biographies of María Callas and it is sad that the movies only focus on her last days and her relationship with Onasis. The life of Maria Callas is fascinating because it was the struggle of a woman who had everything against her to succeed in the difficult world of opera and yet managed to dethrone the queen of Scalla, the great Tebaldi and revolutionize opera. Maria Callas was a kind of Rocky Balboa in the world of opera.
I hate it how they always depict Maria as a has been, delusional, solitary and desperate woman. If u watch her interviews in the 70s - like the clips u shown here, close to her death, she is always DOWN TO EARTH, when they keep comparing her to her prime days, she always admits "I don't sing like when I was 20 and I'll never sing like that anymore, people change with age" she is never that delusional woman who thinks she will be back to singing like when she was younger. About Onassis, she was always ok in being his mistress, she speaks about him with love even when the press want to make a big tabloid drama. She knew her craft sooooo well. About 20 years ago they did another biopic about her with that same "she is crazy and alone and delusional". She was never like that! The big drama in her life was: her mother pushed her to be a singer, she never wanted to be a singer, her mother made her even lie her age to get into the conservatory, her close family kind took advantage of her. She wanted to be an actress, the whole being the best singer ever was an accident for her, it was never her goal. This was her big drama. Also they always treat her like she is that impossible demanding woman, if u listen to her masterclass or watch her interviews, she is never like that, she is direct because she understands her craft, but she always value the crew. I guess Hollywood can't sell her true story.
Someone a while back, a friend who couldn't make a Sarah Brightman concert gave me two concert tickets because of something very important he and his wife had to address. It was my first ever opera concert. I took my father. I must admit being a pop, rock n roll, rhythm and blues, and jazz music fan. I found that concert to be awesome. Sarah came out with a beautiful dress and sang many songs. My mother loved Luciano Pavarotti, and whenever he was on TV, she was tuned in. Afterward, I began to research other opera singers such as Maria Callas and Placido Domingo. I rented some time ago, a movie titled Carmen featuring Placido Domingo. And even my mother liked it. Maria was an American of Greek ancestry, which I found surprising. I thought she was born in Europe.
Mike Wallace was one of the most obnoxious "interviewers" of all time. He would ask the cruelest and essentially most pointless questions of A-List Talent. I'm sorry that Maria had to endure him.
This is a fragmented film, leaving the audience with little understanding of what is happening! Just a ghostly extended story of unexplained decline and death! Ultimately, nothing but an unfulfilling mystery, for those too young to know her story!
This is an excellent analysis and shows Maria Callas as more than just caricature of a difficult opera diva caught up in her own hype. However, my comment is more about the film itself. My question: Did anyone else feel that Jolie, as hard as she may have tried, fails to really make us believe that she's Callas and not Jolie trying to be Callas. As hard as I tried, I couldn't get past the feeling that I was just watching an actor playing a role. For contrast, Marion Cotillard as Piaf or Theron as Wuornos. Those actresses gave themselves completely over to those roles and we believed them. Here I just couldn't and it's a shame.
Your comments strike a cord as I am 75 and was an adult when many of history’s events happened. I agree with most of your comments and observations. The greatest or one of, opera’s voices is undeniable. Supreme pleasure to have heard her!!!❤❤🎉
You, as many others, have not understood why Maria Callas changed the world of opera. She brought forgotten opera back to life and the uniqueness of her voice and technique allowed her to sing operas of such contrasting nature as Parsifal by Wagner and Il turco in Italia by Rossini. Yes, her pathos and expressiveness, and the colour of her voice were unique and captivating. This latter point is what has made her famous with the general public.
I admit that I got introduced to Maria Callas because of this movie and having looked up some of her performances on youtube, I totally get what you're saying. She actually acts out the part while singing. Very theatrical and dramatic. I never knew Opera singers could perform like that. I had the impression that they just stand sill and sing.
Watching that horrific interview with Callas, where the interviewer brutally attacks her, is disturbing. It would have happened close to her retirement in the late 60s/early 70s, when she was still only in her 40s - she looks terrible. Callas was not a martyr for her art; she simply wasn't respected enough.
Thank you for your perspective. I am a retired ballerina and I often worry about the death of the appreciation of art forms like opera, ballet, and symphony orchestras. I feel that anything that might spark interest into the younger generation is a net positive. I don't want the live performance of fine art to fizzle away.
As an opera and Callas fan, I broke down and watched this film on Netflix. It took me two days to get through. If you want to know about Callas' life skip the film and just read Arianna Huffington's "Maria Callas". It's perfect for non-opera fans to learn about her and her life. You can still find some decent film clips online of her actual performances. Also, I know all about Maria's weight loss but Jolie looks emaciated and seriously ill. Callas never looked like that nor was she tyrannical as depicted. She just pushed herself hard and everyone around her to achieve a better perfection.
Another biopic, of course of these biopics really started because of the Queen/ Freddie Mercury biopic. He was very much the opposite of an artist constantly suffering , he loved life, and wrote very positive and joyful music, he was not a depressed musical genius, but of course he was portrayed that way. They picked the wrong period of life for this Maria movie. They could have told a very different and positive story if they had focused on the young Callas. They could have showed her getting started working hard to perfect her craft, her struggles with her mother and her sister, surviving during WII in Greece by singing to the soldiers. Her first performances at La Scala and the Met, her work with some conductors, her work with Visconti. Her weight loss. They could have ended the movie with Callas' big comeback to the Met in 1965. There would have been a lot of material, and the movie could have had a more positive focus of a poor immigrant girl who really makes it. All of these biopics have the same standard formula, Maria is too late, it is another biopic in a long line of biopics, it will not get that much attention. The Queen biopic partly stood out because it ends on such a massive high with one of the band's biggest triumphs of their career. I think they should have used that formula for this Callas movie. Artists do need some life experience to appear authentic. But that is also no indicator of a great artist. There are singers and musicians with difficult lives who still does not produce great art.
Thank you for comments. I'd like to see the film but unfortunately I'm not a big Angelina fan. However, I will remember that the film is going to be an introduction to Ms. Callas, not a documentary and I can learn more from books, music commentaries and other video sources . I'm glad to have this introduction from you!
This portrays her end of life. Comparing your temperament to hers doesn’t make for a good assessment. She is a different person, of a different past etc. For example did you live in a country occupied by the enemy? We’re you pimped out by your mother? She suffered her past, she was traumatized.
I don't actually follow this comment. It seems you think the video is attacking Callas? But as I see it, it's showing how much she was misrepresented and vilified by a sensationalist press that was looking for a misogynist shock story, not at all concerned with the truth.
Having to address adversity and having personal success is the only way to build character. Don't look for suffering but rise above and conquer the suffering that comes into your life.
Such important points. LOVE your analysis. I personally am offended by this movie: 1) mixing Maria Callas' voice with anothers - horror 2) actor playing Maria Callas is horrible. The way she uses a haughty stance throughout this movie as if aloof, haughtiness is what Maria Callas was and as if this is "art". Maria Callas can be listened to to truly know her. Anything less, heellywud/peedoowud trying to make money on the rare beauty of Maria Callas' soul expressing through her beautiful being is just wrong in every way. Many will never go further than this movie which portrays Maria Callas' in every way wrongly. I so appreciate your sharing the truth behind the horrific rituals of slander, humiliation and canceling that is slowly moordorooz just like they have done to sooo many women in our world throughout the ages to try to break them to control them or destroy them. This is what they did to Maria Callas on purpose. It was an engineered effort by those who believe they can "own" people and that people are theirs to enslave or worse. For those hearing Maria Callas through this movie and watching the horrendous lip-singing of Jolie, I feel sorry for the nightmare that will never leave their memories of having watched the horrorshow that is this movie with Jolie pretending to be Maria Callas by walking around with her chin jutting out wearing high fashion as if fashionable clothes wearing makes a "diva." The reason we know the name Maria Callas has zero to do with her clothes. Zero to do with her chin in the air and zero to do with her hair styles etc. We know the name Maria Callas because Maria Callas moves us-to tears, to catharsis, to open our hearts, to the freedom we all long for but don't always know how to get to on our own. Maria Callas touches our soul. Maria Callas touches our spirit. Maria Callas evaporates time and space and collapses existence into the eternal present where we can feel fulfilled by the raw essence of pure beingness. Maria Callas brings us all home to ourselves which we so much abandon in the stress of our divided daily lives. The way "society" has been structured by the bangksturzz who run our world, who have destroyed millions, billions of communities, tribes, families for 1000s of years, we have lost our connections to ourselves and each other and the safety net of true love and true support through the fracturization of our human race. Maria Callas we listen to to remember what it's like to be loved, to be loving, to BE love. She embodies love-not just loss, but love itself. This is why we listen to Maria Callas. Jolie cannot embody this as a mimicker of materialistic media mayhem that is the parasitic machine that started and is hellywud. To know Maria Callas is only to listen to her herself: listen to her operas, her interviews, her letters: HER. Thank you for playing parts of the interviews of her showing how the interviewers were so atrociously disrespectful and offensive and explaining a bit about how the propaganduh machine worked then just as it does now. There are so many examples of how they have done this to women over centuries and millennia.
you know what’s ridiculous about this hoity toity analysis? the fact that I had no idea who Maria Callas was until Angelina came out with this movie, and because I love and respect Angelina Jolie as an actress and person, I was immediately invested, and now I love Maria Callas and empathize with her story - a story I knew nothing about 6 months ago. sometimes hop off the high horse and have a wider lens by which you view the world.
THANK YOU! These narcissistic, egotistical actors think they can replicate an ineffable legend of music. Simply impossible. I feel sorry for anyone who thinks they have been introduced to Callas by this idiotic bio-pic. Go and simply 😊listen to the music. C’est comme ça.
@@parisbreakfast I WAS introduced to Maria Callas by this movie, but because I’m not brainless like you, I checked her out before the movie even came out, because unlike you, I have a brain that understands movies are movies and they’re meant usually only to tell a story, and though sometimes that story is based in reality, they’re only shadows of the real thing. get off your high horse
flapping your wings violently doesn't make you fly-- it's very bad habit of bloggers to flap about. Callas also quite happily created many of her own scandals and wars out of spite. She wasn't exactly such a pleasant person.
I agree with your assessment of the lack of popularity of classical music in modern times; it's a shame that people are missing all that, especially in the US. As you state, all this drama does not help. Classical music is pure joy and emotion, as are rock, jazz, hip hop, etc.
Art is essentially a discipline. Any emotions that the audience experiences is their response to the result of hours and hours of preparation and practice by the performers.
I am a huge Maria Callas fan and also I have been going to many operas over the last 40+ years. I will definitely be going to see Maria though my heart will be in my mouth…. I’m not an Angelina Jolie fan to start with so I wouldn’t have picked her to portray Maria. I’m hoping I will love the film or at least enjoy it. I went to a performance of The 7 Deaths of Maria Callas by Marina Abramovic and was surprised at how much I liked it! Marina is a huge Callas fan - and it showed. Some reviews I have seen by American You Tube film reviewers have been disappointing because most of then admitted that they had no idea who Callas was. So were praising Jolie’s performance based on what? They thought she was great and Oscar worthy. So presumably they were judging it as a display of acting skills. Thank you very much for your comments which I set great store by as you are a musician who appreciates what it takes to study for a whole lifetime and has to give of yourself when on stage. A collaboration between the composer and yourself. From what I have read and seen in documentaries of La Divina she studied constantly and dug deep into the score and her fabulous technique. Thanks again for your analysis.
This film maybe fascinating for those familiar with her artistry and are fans of Callas, but it fails to attract younger viewers or those unfamiliar with Callas’ talent by not highlighting/portraying her more spectacular performances as an operatic singer on stage. I felt the film focused more on her complex personality and relationships rather than on her music. This film is painful to watch. It’s certainly not a celebration of her musical prowess.
Thank you for this. Your critiques rang true to me and resonated profoundly. I have a lot more to say but I cannot do better than sarahwestmusic does below. She does Maria proud and those of us who truly get it.
Art is discipline. Movies can never show all the hours spent working on the craft. No one wants to see that. Hence movies cannot convey artists as it takes a lot of time to be an artist! ❤
Haven't seen the film, but Jolie looks nothing like Callas. Perhaps her acting is more up to par than her appearance. Callas was not in a love triangle, she was in a dark place waiting for Aristotle to divorce and marry her, who betrayed her and went for Jackie instead. Your video is honest and a good presentation of the facts overall.
Angelina Jolie is not a great actress, she always give that tabloid version of people, she did the same to Gia biopic. If u look to Gia's real life pics, she always extremely sultry even when doing naked pics, she brought class to her sexuality, when u see Angeline in the movie, it looks like a cheap adult movie, vulgar.
You say she was a great actress. Did you ever see her live in an opera? There is very little video, the second act of Tosca. People mostly know about her singing from her records. There can be many takes during a recording. I am 84 years old and was 5 years old when she made her debut and 14 in 1954 when she lost 50 or more pounds. In 1959 she took a break from singing for an extended period. Some time after the weight loss, she loss the ability to project her voice, essential to singing in a large opera house without microphone. Renee Fleming, the great soprano, in her wonderful book “The Inner Voice” suggests that shots of her showed her with both arms pressed against her chest, presumably to help her project. I don’t deny that she was a great soprano and performer: the records I have that I bought for my mother when I was a teenager are special. And I trust the opinions of the experts, now mostly deceased, who did see her perform. But there are so many superlatives that come from people who are not old enough to have ever seen her live on stage( that includes The new NY Times critic who wrote a long article about her recently.
The mistreatment of great talents by the classical music industry during the 1950 (Michael Rabin, exhaustive touring, trying to maintain stands of utter perfection) was common, and with female artists was also much much worse because of the endemic sexism of the time. Nobody would have interviewed Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau during the 1950 or 60solr even 70s and asked him about his love life. Or Benjamin Britten, for that matter. This sensationalism of the press then is matched by the sensationalism of Hollywood now. The problem about the depiction of classical music by mass media is that it is the depiction of a subtle and sophisticated art form by a crude and sensationalist one and emotional pain and suffering is something they milk cynically in order to manipulate the audience. Art = suffering, therefore Brahms and Schumann must be great, all of Mahler's children died, Bruckner never had a woman, Tchaikovsky was gay, yadda. Yet, oddly, two of the greatest classical musicians were both married, one had lots of children, one was feted during his young adulthood as a great composer, and both clearly found it easy and not in the least bit painful to write great music very quickly and easily. The equation doesn't work, but as a popular myth it is regularly plundered by film makers. Ken Russell made a whole carrer out of tormented artists films, which got steadily worse as he went on. The worst example of the myth that singing is painful (something which anyone who has done it knows is utter rubbish) is popular singers pulling faces of emotional pain when singing one or two notes which are quite easy to reach with a mediocre voice and idiots praising them as one of the best singers of all time. Interesting that in the Disney world or world of musicals; characters sing when they are happy or excited or in love. So make up your minds, mass media, music is the expression of joy or suffering? Or could both be a partial truth and that, like everything else, music, like the life which it attempts to mirror, at its finest, expresses both?
Great video, and as a classical singer myself, I agree with everything you said. I also want to add that as someone who admires Callas’s music and artistry, I did not appreciate the movie or what it portrayed.
The problem with making a movie like this is that the actress who plays callas should never sing, unless they hire an opera singer with a similar voice that trained for years to sound like Maria callas. Instead, we get Angelina Jolie…
I hated the movie. Not too long into it, I had to turn it off. It felt like a series of postures, rather than the story of an amazing woman. I appreciated many of your comments, but I just wanted to add that Maria Callas did not feel like a real woman here. Just for background, I was trained as a classical pianist, but now I only improvise and continue performing.
These aggressive journalists should have been ashamed to attack sensitive and fragile Maria in such a despicable way. It's like kicking someone, who's already on the floor.
I think the movie did a lot good for Maria callas and opera. She was a great artist only known by opera lovers but now an artist known by everyone thanks to pablo lorraine and Angelina Jolie. And a lot talk about opera is everywhere how come they say it doesn't picture her good but harms her reputation. That's realy mean and not done by good intentions. Simply the competition in film industry and jelousy/ envy that always goes hand to hand with it. I believe she deserved the oscar and if she cannot get it that means oscars are realy not about good artistic talent but whose more powerful in the industry which has nothing to do with real art.
I think we get the idea that a biopic is a documentary when in fact it’s a dramatic interpretation- just like an opera is a dramatic interpretation. That said, as a classical musician, I don’t think the general public would find a realistic/documentary style portrayal of classical livelihoods very interesting! La Callas was a victim of the mindsets and the media of her time and I found the film almost an artful commentary on the myth those created, rather than a reliable examination of Maria, the person. To that I think Jolie was admirable. Alas, however, the trope of the suffering artist, broken by trauma but churning that into great art is a weary trope. Well-formed review, thank-you!
Many thanks for this very interesting video. I think that this discussion around Maria is very helpful. As yet I have not seen the movie with Angelina Jolie in the main role. There is another very good biography of Maria on one of the YT channels which I think might be Mystic Women or similiar. I hope some folks might look that up as well. Maria had a very hard life right from the beginning and she had to work very hard to become the queen of aria around the mid 20th Century. There were many problems, difficulties and rejections she had to overcome first Maria may have been something of a perfectionist in her work, but that is not unusual in a talented and professional person. I would like to have seen all of her interview with Mike Wallace. Thank you for including a little bit of it. Even for Angelina, it must have been a challenging role to play, some singing included. Good on those "putting it out there". I found this very interesting. Thanks 👍.
Thanks for this presentation. I am an old man, long time Callas fan, and opera lover. I am curious about this film, but am not a Jolie fan in general and have 0% interest in hearing her sing. I also have mixed feelings about this Director (liked 'Jackie' but found 'Spencer' ponderous and slow).
For me, Maria Callas was always an incredibly strong and disciplined woman, she certainly had her rough edges, we all have them. But I also believe that it was a lot more difficult as a woman in this profession at that time than we can imagine today. I haven't seen the film yet, but I'm a bit worried that there will be a lot of emphasis on ‘suffering’ again. Pablo Larrain also seems to have a certain soft spot for suffering women (i must confess, i found ‘spencer’ hardly bearable). Based on your review, I'm a little worried that it will be similar here (is this perhaps a ‘male thing’: strong women must suffer and be terribly unhappy??). But maybe I'm wrong and Maria Calla's strength and assertiveness is also shown in this film to an appropriate degree. And by the way: is it actually possible not to love her voice and her singing? Unimaginable for me.
It really makes me wonder.. I’ve liked Jolie in many [very particular] roles. Roles like this really aren’t her strength. This type of role seems like something I’d rather see from Monica Belluci.
Personal life reasons definitely affects artist’s mental stage. 8:55 The movie didn’t apply art = mental health. It’s her destiny in relationship with her background, affair effected her mental health.
When she goes to see the pianist he states that he is NOT a teacher or a repetiteur. Jeffrey Tate was a pianist/ conductor who offered to play for her, listen to her voice.
Historical fiction is usually preferred to readers and viewing audiences; documentaries tend to be too bland. Interviewers have asked and continue to ask questions which are usually none of their business; indifference, prejudice, and intentional proactive destruction usually hides under their veneer.
The only truthfull movie about Callas that exists, it is, in my opinion (and as a Classical music fan): "Maria by Callas" - a Tom Volf 2017 documentary using Callas' interviews, letters, and some restored live performances of her music. Callas was always so humble when it came to her Art and work, she was also a force of nature during her prime years and I believe that people should be aware of her genius in full force and serving the Composer's music as she intended to, but unfortunately, some filmakers are more interested on giving an image of decadence and suffering which is very reductive when it comes to Callas' musical greatness. I will leave you with my favourite Callas video, from 1957... it is worth more than all of the movies about her combined: ua-cam.com/video/U-wiHzq_Bbk/v-deo.html
The thoughtfulness here! The research here is what a serious artist meaningfully, honestly gives to another artist. It will probably remain o ne of the best and most telling. Great music often can engage and move people.The first issue she mentions explains Laina 's approach in his Great Women trilogy. The rest of the review really clearly explains Alot of the mistreatment LaCallas received. Her statements show a wise woman who fought for her maturity the film shows a weak,infantile woman. After I see the movie I'll see. Most of all does the music provide a chance for the casual music lover to fall in love with the Music itself. Cult of personality will not sell a figure today only known by opera lovers -a niche audience. I think the fact Thatcher,IndiraGhandi or some other powerful woman was not chosen by Laina is a testament to the power of Callas' fame. Let's hear and see the real thing a lot more. Maestro brought out the primacy of the music and that may contribute to it lasting longer. The reviewer says the music is honored and Vissi d'arte is showcased; that means a lot to me.
Well done. I've adored Maria Callas since I was a child, when I found one of her albums in a thrift store. How could she not have been extremely self protective with all the vicious nonsense directed toward her? The movie, though beautifully filmed, left me with the feeling that the writers and director only skimmed the surface of Maria's life.
There was a lot of expressive singers, but perhaps they were more male side. But Caruso and Gigli where certainly know for their expression. Rosa Ponselle and Lily Pons were also a expressive and a good actress. And there were certainly divas like Nellie Melba and Eva Turner.
Here are the 4 musicians who did not appear in Toronto for concerts I had bought tickets in the last year: Hilary Hahn, Michael Tilson Thomas, Daniel Barenboim, Sondra Rodvanovsky. This is not relevant to Maria Callas, I’m just slightly annoyed.
Oh please, knowledgeable people know about the bel canto and who she was. People who are ignorant or indifferent know she was Onassis"s mistress and he left her to marry Jacjie Kennedy.
I'd say youtube, some curiosity and the music itself should be able to get more people into the genre. The lacking element is ...that curiosity. But if you lack the amount to go check some out on a media as at your fingertips as youtube...would you really make the effort of going to a theater and paying money to go see a movie on classical music?
Thanks, So TIRED of movies that promulgate the "suffering artist" or "arrogant artist" myths, when they don't have to. "Maria" got 74% on Rotten Apples (vs. 96% for "Diva" and only 90% for "Amadeus") so it won't poison the well too much if not that many see it, at least. Let them watch/listen to her operas instead
Sad she died so early, sad most of her story…. But the movie was very dark… same as Spencer… a little of life joys need to be added…. Personally, don’t like the directors route in Maria and Spencer… much emphasis about suffering …
There’s no artist who can satisfy all of the audience/critics/public in general. There will always be fans and haters and to be honest, publicity relies too often on sensational news (aka scandals). It’s in the human nature, unfortunately. And last, but not least, art is an utterly subjective thing.
Acting is somewhat different than music. Using your personal history as an Actor to create a role can be draining. Music does not necessarily need that.
This is very sad. Callas was well known to be a consummate professional and she experienced a lot of hostility both personally and professionally. The clips from the movie appear to illustrate a pathetically hackneyed profile of a deluded, broken person. Callas was famed as a singular genius.
Well the movie defames Maria Calla's memory with many lies e.g that her mother made a prostitute out of her to the Germans or it is famously known that she spoke proficiently four languages and to every person accordingly (she and Onassis being Greeks don't you think that they'd spoken in greek?). Most brutal and annoying is that Maria's vocal condition in 1977 was the best it was since the late 60's - as she also states in the Barbara Walter's interview. In this personal recording made two weeks before her death, at her house along with Vaso Devetzi on the piano, one can listen that she finally had won back the strength she missed. The movie in a total, is a sad reminder on how people who don't know and understand the world of classical music/opera, venture to create something under the money incentive. The name Callas draws people in the theaters even today and she did not accept or like the fact that some people took advantage of her name to make money for themselves. (famously on John Ardoin and his book about the Joulliard Masterclasses) ua-cam.com/video/FFsd8w6JbbA/v-deo.html
it was not hard at all to understand the movie or the portrayal of Maria…at all. did we watch the same movie? u don’t need to know all the lore to “get” the movie or Maria in it. Angelina created a character was easy to be very sympathetic with and invested in, and now I know of Maria Callas, love her music, feel bad for her, and am a new fan. I think people are just too jaded, it was a great movie. also - it was a portrayal. it’s not a documentary. approaching a project like this with a meticulous laundry list of details instead of as a tapestry of a story that is partially fictional in order to highlight other aspects of the story is your first mistake. I await your take on a Maria Callas movie.
Hey everyone! Very interested to hear your thoughts, specially on the whole "art as suffering" topic if you are a part of classical music/art making; and also what you thought about MARIA if you've seen it ( but please keeping it respectful ;)
Callas herself said in an interview "You must suffer to be an artist". I do however think that that was an opinion she adopted in her later years; in her early career when her voice was in good shape and as a consequence she was less scared of going on stage, I think she perceived being an artist in more direct musical terms.
@@howimettheopera there is a reason to make the distinction between sympathy and empathy.
As time progresses add a person embraces life and suffering in a healthy manner, they move from the realm of being able to be a concerned companion into sharing the n the joy and pain of another.
I think there are important nuances when it comes to this topic. Obviously there's a toxic element to it when people say that you need to suffer for your art which can lead artists to not seek help when they need it. But then there's also a positive side in that art can be a way to deal with suffering. It's a field where you can succeed despite mental health struggles, you can even transform them into something positive.
If you suffer from issues with mental health, it can be quite uplifting to see how many great artists created amazing works despite suffering from the same issues. And sometimes these struggles can even lead you to insights and new perspectives, turning your weakness into a strength. Virginia Woolf for example talked about how she took a lot of inspiration from her psychotic episodes when writing her books. You obviously don't need to suffer from schizophrenia to become a great writer but if you do suffer from it, you can make use of it for your art. That's the positive angle of the whole 'art from suffering' narrative.
To take another example, consider the origin of Blues. It was developed by disenfranchised people with roots going all the way back to slavery. The great names in early blues history were all poor, they all faced discrimination and intense racial hatred, they struggled with addiction and other issues. And this suffering had a huge impact on the development of the blues, it was a way to cope with the suffering, to transform it. That's the power of art, it can give you hope and help you survive even in the darkest times.
I would like to gently push back on the comparison you made between yourself as an orchestra conductor and Callas, an opera singer. While you are both technically artists…the two art forms require vastly different their talents. An opera singer is an actor and they have to build character and that can be mentally and emotionally draining. Callas was a child of the War and endured many traumas, the thin line between suffering in her own life and the character’s life may have created its own unique suffering, each performance. All while maintaining her extraordinary vocals … it must have been draining.
Many performers/actors do have a hard time shaking off characters…
And I particularly have great empathy for Callas, since she most definitely never had therapy after her wartime trauma and it’s clear it greatly affected all aspects of her life and art.
@@howimettheopera Involuntary or consequential suffering is part of the human condition that can become a creative or destructive force. The direction it takes depends upon the character of the sufferer.
'Maria' is a movie about Angelina Jolie - not Maria Callas. I you want a see a movie about Maria Callas - watch 'Maria by Callas' - 2017 movie - very, very good and stars Maria Callas herself.
??? "I you want a see a movie" What?
Angelina didn’t even take the time to learn the hand mannerisms and cadence of speaking of Maria Callas. It was a poor choice and it’s unfortunate because Maria was so enthralling to hear speak and sing.
So yes, you must be right, this is a movie about Angelina. It’s definitely not a movie with the essence of Maria in it.
@@edglebennett6312 Obviously If... just a typo
@@Alpha-Andromeda I thought she did a wonderful job! Maybe you could do it better.
@@fp5206 I'm not coming you. I just thought you might want to go back and edit.
LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK! Bravo. The way you articulated these concepts was so satisfying to hear. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Honestly, Maria Callas is one of the greatest artists of the past century. I wish there was a movie about her glory days in the 50's. There's plenty of drama there also, but we would at least get a glimpse on why she is so important, why after almost 50 years after she died we still talk about her. And, as you say, she was the most dedicated profesional. Look up the interview with the great Teresa Berganza. She perfectly describes her commitment to the artform and her generosity as a colleague. I hope we get that portrayal one day. She deserves it.
Exactly
BS, I enjoy all types of music and my first introduction would've been our own Kiri TeKanawa Opera and all types of music is a personal choice. I have seen Andrea Bocelli twice in Brisbane and absolutely fantastic. Opera is not elitist, it's available to everyone. I enjoyed Angelina Jolie's performance very emotional. Maria was Aristotle 's love of his love 💕💕.
Hallelujah. i think they despair at the herculean challenge of doing justice in that medium to the Callas Phenomenon. And rightly so.
Absolutely! That's what I thought when I watched the first 20 minutes of the movie I could stand. They did exactly the same with Judy.
Movie and and TV makers today seem to focus on the dark and ugly stuff.
@@fp5206Of course.
I am an educated singer. Before my education, I spent countless hours on UA-cam listening to Callas in interviews, masterclasses, and recordings. I feel as if I had known her personally, even as if she knows me! And I love her dearly. The biggest thing for me with her was her dedication to her art.
I really appreciate all your points in the video. I don’t feel like watching Angelina Jolie play Callas. The casting immediately makes me know the movie couldn’t be good. Luckily, there is so much real footage of Maria - she is like her own movie. It’s totally possible to do an interpretation of her, but the talent of those making the movie just wasn’t there, it seems.
Maria, like Judy Garland, deserved much more respect, at least from crass media wolves like Mike Wallace.
Also from over-personal fans who call her by her Christian name even though they never met her.
@@kbhprinsessewe know her as Maria lmao what is your problem, you never met her either yet here you are being a weird white knight
@@kbhprinsesse🙄
@prototropo Absolutely. I mention Judy film in my comment too.
Her influence continues to be felt in the way we perceive and celebrate the most captivating and larger-than-life performers, both in the classical and popular music realms.
That "im in the mood for adulation" line is so revolting. Anyone who has studied all her interviews will know that at heart she was actually an incredibly humble woman who put her art above her persona. She even likened a cleaners work as equally valid to her. She also spoke out against idolatry. So for the film maker to mischaracterise her for views is so vulgar and ironically a continuation of the injustice she faced in her life.
Yes, that line is particularly bad. It shows that not only don't they know Maria, they despise her. cheap stereotyping
@@shaundudley4576 do you think you have missed the irony of the scripting given this is an art film that underscores an ungrateful public and Callis’s desire or raw need for the adulation of an audience that she desperately needed? The line speaks to her performative psychological defense mechanisms developed in childhood. Instead she gets derision from an ungrateful, self absorbed public. I actually think the line that you so excoriate is far more subtle than you perceive.
This makes me so mad. Her interviews from the 70s, u see how much she understand her art and how much she understand she is not at her prime and how she is not trying to be like when she was younger because it is impossible, the body changes etc. She is never delusional, weak or a impossible woman. Her true drama was the fact her mother pushed her into this life and she was forced to make a lot of sacrifices, her family kind leeched on her even after her death, there is even a video from her sister giving talks about her in the 80s/90s for fans (charging them). Also how they treat her like she never goes out of her apartment lol, she was a private person and there are several paparazzi pics of her going out of her building in Paris during her last years. It is kinda like what they did to Greta Garbo who just didn't want to be famous anymore and was bullied for it till her death.
Thank you for one of the most insightful and sensitive readings of this cubist collage of an art film I have seen to date. As an art historian/critic and teacher I found the film shaded by tints of Fedora and the last year of Dietrich and was reminded of Marlene singing “just a giggling” as no one slse could giving it a nuance and emotional pathos that is staggering. This is similar to what happens in the final aria. I thought the film was a little too long but in general it was an artistic attempt to reveal the passion and tragedy of Maria the woman and La Callis the performative self the an abused and sexually assaulted girl developed for self protection from a killing world. In this she is not unlike many creatives who are told early on” you’re too sensitive” My mother used to add for your own good.
Many people here will disagree here will disagree with you. But I say Brava for your love, knowledge and sensitivity to what being in a creative league of one’s own requires. I believe Jolie and Callis both are superb!
@@2violettina I have not yet had the opportunity to see the film yet, but this scene has been shown repeatedly so indeed the context might give redeeming nuance. I hope so For I dearly want this to be good. Two things: it reinforces the stereotype too crudely and Callas knew she had no need to doubt her reception anywhere in Paris at the time her fame and adulation was universal and transcendent in the Parisian scene.
You’ve given us a very thoughtful and respectful review. Thank you!
Its too simplistic as analisis to say María was recognized as the singer that was commited to express emotion when nobody was doing it. In that period, there was a lot of expressive singers, but more of the verismo school. She was a great actress, by instict, and she had a peculiar sound and a very personal way of singing. Later, she excelled at the bel canto roles, which were in that time sunged by singers without the adecuate tecnique for belcanto. She mastered belcanto given her schooling, and was indeed very expressive in those roles, vocally and phisically. Thats why her Lucia was clearly distinguishble, along with her Elvira, and later Ana Bolena, and of course Norma. She was a mix of a very compelling, charismatic, and stage actress, a great musician, and a very intelligent woman with a very personal voice.
thank you for expanding on this, I didn't want to get too technical so for whoever is interested in a more in depth/opera specific explanation of why her approach was so special this is a great explanation.
I think the media treatment of Maria Callas is seen so often when the artist is intelligent and has strong opinions. If you are a man, this is so often seen as assertive and strong, but for a female are features of a diva. The media so often wants females to be simply timid and pretty.
I thought your reflections on suffering and empathy were very interesting. Thanks for the engaging video.
Completely agree! and thank you for watching
So much so, she became a pop icon and wildly adored in her own genre.
Such important points. LOVE your analysis. I personally am offended by this movie: 1) mixing Maria Callas' voice with anothers - horror 2) actor playing Maria Callas is horrible. The way she uses a haughty stance throughout this movie as if aloof, haughtiness is what Maria Callas was and as if this is "art". Maria Callas can be listened to to truly know her. Anything less, heellywud/peedoowud trying to make money on the rare beauty of Maria Callas' soul expressing through her beautiful being is just wrong in every way. Many will never go further than this movie which portrays Maria Callas' in every way wrongly. I so appreciate your sharing the truth behind the horrific rituals of slander, humiliation and canceling that is slowly moordorooz just like they have done to sooo many women in our world throughout the ages to try to break them to control them or destroy them. This is what they did to Maria Callas on purpose. It was an engineered effort by those who believe they can "own" people and that people are theirs to enslave or worse. For those hearing Maria Callas through this movie and watching the horrendous lip-singing of Jolie, I feel sorry for the nightmare that will never leave their memories of having watched the horrorshow that is this movie with Jolie pretending to be Maria Callas by walking around with her chin jutting out wearing high fashion as if fashionable clothes wearing makes a "diva." The reason we know the name Maria Callas has zero to do with her clothes. Zero to do with her chin in the air and zero to do with her hair styles etc. We know the name Maria Callas because Maria Callas moves us-to tears, to catharsis, to open our hearts, to the freedom we all long for but don't always know how to get to on our own. Maria Callas touches our soul. Maria Callas touches our spirit. Maria Callas evaporates time and space and collapses existence into the eternal present where we can feel fulfilled by the raw essence of pure beingness. Maria Callas brings us all home to ourselves which we so much abandon in the stress of our divided daily lives. The way "society" has been structured by the bangksturzz who run our world, who have destroyed millions, billions of communities, tribes, families for 1000s of years, we have lost our connections to ourselves and each other and the safety net of true love and true support through the fracturization of our human race. Maria Callas we listen to to remember what it's like to be loved, to be loving, to BE love. She embodies love-not just loss, but love itself. This is why we listen to Maria Callas. Jolie cannot embody this as a mimicker of materialistic media mayhem that is the parasitic machine that started and is hellywud. To know Maria Callas is only to listen to her herself: listen to her operas, her interviews, her letters: HER. Thank you for playing parts of the interviews of her showing how the interviewers were so atrociously disrespectful and offensive and explaining a bit about how the propaganduh machine worked then just as it does now. There are so many examples of how they have done this to women over centuries and millennia.
@@sarahwestmusic I am so grateful for this magnificent piece. You have said it all.
Loving Maria is both the easiest and the hardest thing to do. Easiest because once you get her, she keeps on giving like nothing and no-one else. Hardest because being the lover of such a woman and such an artist in this grotesque world where misogyny is cool again has driven me to despair for humanity. And quite frankly it too frequently is her biggest "fans" that disappoints most egregiously.
Where are the serious scholarly studies of the Callas Phenomenon? Feminist scholarship is practically non-existent. How does that work? How can the woman who singularly and spectacularly conquered the most elitest male dominated cultural edifice in western civilization and paid the price for it (was destroyed because of it) be of so little serious concern to the very scholars that has precisely that as their core remit. It speaks volumes.
Anyway, you have inspired me greatly. Thank you.
That is not really true, even in the 50's. I think the Italian tabloid press was simply merciless. I have seen negative articles were the press calls Corelli a divo, because of his disagreements with conductors. One article even said that Corelli is a diva just like Callas. They did this to men as well, and he was often objectified as well. These things doesn't just happen to women, even in the 50's.
Brava. Your intelligence and honesty are so welcome. Callas would applaud you.
They don't have every right to portray it as they see it fit. it's not about a fictional character but a real person, with a real life, feelings, dreams, dissapointments, a human. A human with a huge time permeating legacy they ought not only respect, but honor. Taking these kinds of liberties are director-ego-centered, and they don't genuinely serve as a portrait of the character, but rather an interpretation of the director themselves, which inherently may end up deviating substantially from the reality. Additionally, using the expression "shed a tear" showcases remoteness and distance to feeling. Empathy is about identifying, not merely sympathising with a situtation and that's what makes art, Art. That's what distinguishes minor artists with perfect technique, from great artists who move your soul and bring you "to tears", whether it's joy, or sadness or both. You shouldn't be afraid to let go and let it break you. Especally for Opera, you cannot have opera without "much". Maria Callas was a huge person on the inside and that was reflected in her voice. Her voice was her character and her soul. At the same time she was sweet and she carried the Greek temperament of drama in her voice, and the extemities of war and poverty in her mind. Having someone like Angelina Jolie portray her, although she did try, she could never be close to enough for such a role. I doubt anyone from mainstream stardom could actually be, given the mostly pampered lives they have and also not being Greek. Thing with Maria Callas was that she was unconventional, kind and that's why she received so much backlash. She was a good person, she didn't pretend to be who she was. She had no need for that and that's why next to her light, other's darkness was exposed. Onassis was a sick narcissist and through her childhood wounds found ground to destroyed her. It's better to read the books with her letters to better understand her. Movies like these, sorry but are, rubbish.
arialight77, What a beautifully written, thoughtful, trustworthy detailed argument. Thank you. I share almost every thought you vocalized here.
Lots of creative people do have loneliness and depression, but we don't create out of that space, that side of us hurts our art, not helps it. We create out of our hope, our desire to transcend our basic forms, to become eternal, to communicate with the planet. I totally agree that I am tired of hearing people say that suffering is the key to art. Nice video (okay movie).
Very well said, thank you!
speak for yourself lmao some of the greatest artists who ever lived created out of profound sadness. Van Gogh is a perfect example. he was in so much pain and that’s part of what made his art so beautiful - the way the world treated him did not affect how he saw it or portrayed it. Dostoyevsky is another example. that man was deeply sad, because he understood too much. and as a result - his books.
Thank you for saying this! I’m a professional musician (a cellist) and am very tired of the “Musicians must suffer for their art.” trope that many biopics emphasize. Sure, my sad, bad, terribly painful experiences have helped me to be able to interpret and express certain pieces of music in a more meaningful way, but, as you say, to wallow in those emotions in order to make the music more authentic is counterproductive and, frankly, a load of hogwash. If you’re in the depths of depression, trauma or grief it’s extremely difficult to even play or sing. I know from personal experience.
How I wish that film and television productions about musicians would instead focus on the absolute joy, delight and outright fun making music and performing for and with others most often is. The scene in “Maestro” where Leonard Bernstein is conducting the Mahler Second Symphony at Ely Cathedral is fantastic in portraying the joy in making music. Every musician in the orchestra, the soloists and Bradley Cooper/Leonard Bernstein are visibly having the time of their lives, and the “audience” is genuinely caught up in the experience. I suppose this may not be sexy or interesting enough for some people, but it is the truth so much of the time, at least in my own experience. Let’s hope that we can get rid of the “suffering musician” trope for good! 👏❤️🎵
I have read several biographies of María Callas and it is sad that the movies only focus on her last days and her relationship with Onasis. The life of Maria Callas is fascinating because it was the struggle of a woman who had everything against her to succeed in the difficult world of opera and yet managed to dethrone the queen of Scalla, the great Tebaldi and revolutionize opera. Maria Callas was a kind of Rocky Balboa in the world of opera.
First time visitor. So well done.
I hate it how they always depict Maria as a has been, delusional, solitary and desperate woman. If u watch her interviews in the 70s - like the clips u shown here, close to her death, she is always DOWN TO EARTH, when they keep comparing her to her prime days, she always admits "I don't sing like when I was 20 and I'll never sing like that anymore, people change with age" she is never that delusional woman who thinks she will be back to singing like when she was younger. About Onassis, she was always ok in being his mistress, she speaks about him with love even when the press want to make a big tabloid drama. She knew her craft sooooo well. About 20 years ago they did another biopic about her with that same "she is crazy and alone and delusional". She was never like that! The big drama in her life was: her mother pushed her to be a singer, she never wanted to be a singer, her mother made her even lie her age to get into the conservatory, her close family kind took advantage of her. She wanted to be an actress, the whole being the best singer ever was an accident for her, it was never her goal. This was her big drama. Also they always treat her like she is that impossible demanding woman, if u listen to her masterclass or watch her interviews, she is never like that, she is direct because she understands her craft, but she always value the crew. I guess Hollywood can't sell her true story.
Someone a while back, a friend who couldn't make a Sarah Brightman concert gave me two concert tickets because of something very important he and his wife had to address. It was my first ever opera concert. I took my father. I must admit being a pop, rock n roll, rhythm and blues, and jazz music fan. I found that concert to be awesome. Sarah came out with a beautiful dress and sang many songs. My mother loved Luciano Pavarotti, and whenever he was on TV, she was tuned in. Afterward, I began to research other opera singers such as Maria Callas and Placido Domingo. I rented some time ago, a movie titled Carmen featuring Placido Domingo. And even my mother liked it. Maria was an American of Greek ancestry, which I found surprising. I thought she was born in Europe.
Mike Wallace was one of the most obnoxious "interviewers" of all time. He would ask the cruelest and essentially most pointless questions of A-List Talent. I'm sorry that Maria had to endure him.
This is a fragmented film,
leaving the audience with little
understanding of what is happening!
Just a ghostly extended story of
unexplained decline and death!
Ultimately, nothing but an
unfulfilling mystery, for those too
young to know her story!
This is an excellent analysis and shows Maria Callas as more than just caricature of a difficult opera diva caught up in her own hype. However, my comment is more about the film itself. My question: Did anyone else feel that Jolie, as hard as she may have tried, fails to really make us believe that she's Callas and not Jolie trying to be Callas. As hard as I tried, I couldn't get past the feeling that I was just watching an actor playing a role. For contrast, Marion Cotillard as Piaf or Theron as Wuornos. Those actresses gave themselves completely over to those roles and we believed them. Here I just couldn't and it's a shame.
Your comments strike a cord as I am 75 and was an adult when many of history’s events happened. I agree with most of your comments and observations. The greatest or one of, opera’s voices is undeniable. Supreme pleasure to have heard her!!!❤❤🎉
You, as many others, have not understood why Maria Callas changed the world of opera. She brought forgotten opera back to life and the uniqueness of her voice and technique allowed her to sing operas of such contrasting nature as Parsifal by Wagner and Il turco in Italia by Rossini. Yes, her pathos and expressiveness, and the colour of her voice were unique and captivating. This latter point is what has made her famous with the general public.
I admit that I got introduced to Maria Callas because of this movie and having looked up some of her performances on youtube, I totally get what you're saying. She actually acts out the part while singing. Very theatrical and dramatic. I never knew Opera singers could perform like that. I had the impression that they just stand sill and sing.
Your "two cents" is worth more than you will ever know for all of us! Also, thanks for "How I Met The Opera" ! Kilroy NYC
Watching that horrific interview with Callas, where the interviewer brutally attacks her, is disturbing. It would have happened close to her retirement in the late 60s/early 70s, when she was still only in her 40s - she looks terrible. Callas was not a martyr for her art; she simply wasn't respected enough.
Smoking didn’t do her any favors either.
Thank you for your perspective. I am a retired ballerina and I often worry about the death of the appreciation of art forms like opera, ballet, and symphony orchestras. I feel that anything that might spark interest into the younger generation is a net positive. I don't want the live performance of fine art to fizzle away.
Thank you very much for your critique. Very well thought out and reasonable.
EXCELLENT analysis! Thank you from a Callas fan.
As an opera and Callas fan, I broke down and watched this film on Netflix. It took me two days to get through. If you want to know about Callas' life skip the film and just read Arianna Huffington's "Maria Callas". It's perfect for non-opera fans to learn about her and her life. You can still find some decent film clips online of her actual performances. Also, I know all about Maria's weight loss but Jolie looks emaciated and seriously ill. Callas never looked like that nor was she tyrannical as depicted. She just pushed herself hard and everyone around her to achieve a better perfection.
Another biopic, of course of these biopics really started because of the Queen/ Freddie Mercury biopic. He was very much the opposite of an artist constantly suffering , he loved life, and wrote very positive and joyful music, he was not a depressed musical genius, but of course he was portrayed that way. They picked the wrong period of life for this Maria movie. They could have told a very different and positive story if they had focused on the young Callas. They could have showed her getting started working hard to perfect her craft, her struggles with her mother and her sister, surviving during WII in Greece by singing to the soldiers. Her first performances at La Scala and the Met, her work with some conductors, her work with Visconti. Her weight loss. They could have ended the movie with Callas' big comeback to the Met in 1965. There would have been a lot of material, and the movie could have had a more positive focus of a poor immigrant girl who really makes it.
All of these biopics have the same standard formula, Maria is too late, it is another biopic in a long line of biopics, it will not get that much attention. The Queen biopic partly stood out because it ends on such a massive high with one of the band's biggest triumphs of their career. I think they should have used that formula for this Callas movie.
Artists do need some life experience to appear authentic. But that is also no indicator of a great artist. There are singers and musicians with difficult lives who still does not produce great art.
Thank you for comments. I'd like to see the film but unfortunately I'm not a big Angelina fan. However, I will remember that the film is going to be an introduction to Ms. Callas, not a documentary and I can learn more from books, music commentaries and other video sources . I'm glad to have this introduction from you!
Thank you to the 15 people who agree with me so far- if you agree, please 'Like' my comment
Excellent analysis...very wise. Have a happy Christmas.
This portrays her end of life. Comparing your temperament to hers doesn’t make for a good assessment. She is a different person, of a different past etc. For example did you live in a country occupied by the enemy? We’re you pimped out by your mother? She suffered her past, she was traumatized.
I don't actually follow this comment. It seems you think the video is attacking Callas? But as I see it, it's showing how much she was misrepresented and vilified by a sensationalist press that was looking for a misogynist shock story, not at all concerned with the truth.
Having to address adversity and having personal success is the only way to build character. Don't look for suffering but rise above and conquer the suffering that comes into your life.
so well said!
Excellent! Thank you for your intelligent and insightful analysis! You are so correct.
Such important points. LOVE your analysis. I personally am offended by this movie: 1) mixing Maria Callas' voice with anothers - horror 2) actor playing Maria Callas is horrible. The way she uses a haughty stance throughout this movie as if aloof, haughtiness is what Maria Callas was and as if this is "art". Maria Callas can be listened to to truly know her. Anything less, heellywud/peedoowud trying to make money on the rare beauty of Maria Callas' soul expressing through her beautiful being is just wrong in every way. Many will never go further than this movie which portrays Maria Callas' in every way wrongly. I so appreciate your sharing the truth behind the horrific rituals of slander, humiliation and canceling that is slowly moordorooz just like they have done to sooo many women in our world throughout the ages to try to break them to control them or destroy them. This is what they did to Maria Callas on purpose. It was an engineered effort by those who believe they can "own" people and that people are theirs to enslave or worse. For those hearing Maria Callas through this movie and watching the horrendous lip-singing of Jolie, I feel sorry for the nightmare that will never leave their memories of having watched the horrorshow that is this movie with Jolie pretending to be Maria Callas by walking around with her chin jutting out wearing high fashion as if fashionable clothes wearing makes a "diva." The reason we know the name Maria Callas has zero to do with her clothes. Zero to do with her chin in the air and zero to do with her hair styles etc. We know the name Maria Callas because Maria Callas moves us-to tears, to catharsis, to open our hearts, to the freedom we all long for but don't always know how to get to on our own. Maria Callas touches our soul. Maria Callas touches our spirit. Maria Callas evaporates time and space and collapses existence into the eternal present where we can feel fulfilled by the raw essence of pure beingness. Maria Callas brings us all home to ourselves which we so much abandon in the stress of our divided daily lives. The way "society" has been structured by the bangksturzz who run our world, who have destroyed millions, billions of communities, tribes, families for 1000s of years, we have lost our connections to ourselves and each other and the safety net of true love and true support through the fracturization of our human race. Maria Callas we listen to to remember what it's like to be loved, to be loving, to BE love. She embodies love-not just loss, but love itself. This is why we listen to Maria Callas. Jolie cannot embody this as a mimicker of materialistic media mayhem that is the parasitic machine that started and is hellywud. To know Maria Callas is only to listen to her herself: listen to her operas, her interviews, her letters: HER. Thank you for playing parts of the interviews of her showing how the interviewers were so atrociously disrespectful and offensive and explaining a bit about how the propaganduh machine worked then just as it does now. There are so many examples of how they have done this to women over centuries and millennia.
you know what’s ridiculous about this hoity toity analysis? the fact that I had no idea who Maria Callas was until Angelina came out with this movie, and because I love and respect Angelina Jolie as an actress and person, I was immediately invested, and now I love Maria Callas and empathize with her story - a story I knew nothing about 6 months ago. sometimes hop off the high horse and have a wider lens by which you view the world.
THANK YOU! These narcissistic, egotistical actors think they can replicate an ineffable legend of music. Simply impossible. I feel sorry for anyone who thinks they have been introduced to Callas by this idiotic bio-pic. Go and simply 😊listen to the music. C’est comme ça.
@@parisbreakfast are you slow?
@@parisbreakfast I WAS introduced to Maria Callas by this movie, but because I’m not brainless like you, I checked her out before the movie even came out, because unlike you, I have a brain that understands movies are movies and they’re meant usually only to tell a story, and though sometimes that story is based in reality, they’re only shadows of the real thing. get off your high horse
@@alexeios Chill. Sarah gave an excellent critical analysis. Not "hoity-toity" at all.
flapping your wings violently doesn't make you fly-- it's very bad habit of bloggers to flap about. Callas also quite happily created many of her own scandals and wars out of spite. She wasn't exactly such a pleasant person.
yeah because you were there and can also prove that, right? please find the door already.
I agree with your assessment of the lack of popularity of classical music in modern times; it's a shame that people are missing all that, especially in the US. As you state, all this drama does not help. Classical music is pure joy and emotion, as are rock, jazz, hip hop, etc.
Art is essentially a discipline. Any emotions that the audience experiences is their response to the result of hours and hours of preparation and practice by the performers.
Excellent analysis! Intelligent and honest.
I am a huge Maria Callas fan and also I have been going to many operas over the last 40+ years. I will definitely be going to see Maria though my heart will be in my mouth…. I’m not an Angelina Jolie fan to start with so I wouldn’t have picked her to portray Maria.
I’m hoping I will love the film or at least enjoy it. I went to a performance of The 7 Deaths of Maria Callas by Marina Abramovic and was surprised at how much I liked it! Marina is a huge Callas fan - and it showed. Some reviews I have seen by American You Tube film reviewers have been disappointing because most of then admitted that they had no idea who Callas was. So were praising Jolie’s performance based on what? They thought she was great and Oscar worthy. So presumably they were judging it as a display of acting skills.
Thank you very much for your comments which I set great store by as you are a musician who appreciates what it takes to study for a whole lifetime and has to give of yourself when on stage. A collaboration between the composer and yourself. From what I have read and seen in documentaries of La Divina she studied constantly and dug deep into the score and her fabulous technique.
Thanks again for your analysis.
This film maybe fascinating for those familiar with her artistry and are fans of Callas, but it fails to attract younger viewers or those unfamiliar with Callas’ talent by not highlighting/portraying her more spectacular performances as an operatic singer on stage. I felt the film focused more on her complex personality and relationships rather than on her music. This film is painful to watch. It’s certainly not a celebration of her musical prowess.
Agree wholeheartedly with this perspective. As an aside, the Mike Wallace interview with Maria Callas is just insufferable.
Thank you for this. Your critiques rang true to me and resonated profoundly. I have a lot more to say but I cannot do better than sarahwestmusic does below. She does Maria proud and those of us who truly get it.
Art is discipline. Movies can never show all the hours spent working on the craft. No one wants to see that. Hence movies cannot convey artists as it takes a lot of time to be an artist! ❤
Haven't seen the film, but Jolie looks nothing like Callas. Perhaps her acting is more up to par than her appearance. Callas was not in a love triangle, she was in a dark place waiting for Aristotle to divorce and marry her, who betrayed her and went for Jackie instead. Your video is honest and a good presentation of the facts overall.
Lmaoo you act like you know her personally and knew exactly what happened in her life based on the paparazi’s report.
Sorry.Have not seen the movie.But, Angelina Jolie as Maria C? I do not know about that one..
.
Angelina Jolie is not a great actress, she always give that tabloid version of people, she did the same to Gia biopic. If u look to Gia's real life pics, she always extremely sultry even when doing naked pics, she brought class to her sexuality, when u see Angeline in the movie, it looks like a cheap adult movie, vulgar.
You say she was a great actress. Did you ever see her live in an opera? There is very little video, the second act of Tosca. People mostly know about her singing from her records. There can be many takes during a recording. I am 84 years old and was 5 years old when she made her debut and 14 in 1954 when she lost 50 or more pounds. In 1959 she took a break from singing for an extended period. Some time after the weight loss, she loss the ability to project her voice, essential to singing in a large opera house without microphone. Renee Fleming, the great soprano, in her wonderful book “The Inner Voice” suggests that shots of her showed her with both arms pressed against her chest, presumably to help her project. I don’t deny that she was a great soprano and performer: the records I have that I bought for my mother when I was a teenager are special. And I trust the opinions of the experts, now mostly deceased, who did see her perform. But there are so many superlatives that come from people who are not old enough to have ever seen her live on stage( that includes The new NY Times critic who wrote a long article about her recently.
The mistreatment of great talents by the classical music industry during the 1950 (Michael Rabin, exhaustive touring, trying to maintain stands of utter perfection) was common, and with female artists was also much much worse because of the endemic sexism of the time. Nobody would have interviewed Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau during the 1950 or 60solr even 70s and asked him about his love life. Or Benjamin Britten, for that matter. This sensationalism of the press then is matched by the sensationalism of Hollywood now. The problem about the depiction of classical music by mass media is that it is the depiction of a subtle and sophisticated art form by a crude and sensationalist one and emotional pain and suffering is something they milk cynically in order to manipulate the audience. Art = suffering, therefore Brahms and Schumann must be great, all of Mahler's children died, Bruckner never had a woman, Tchaikovsky was gay, yadda. Yet, oddly, two of the greatest classical musicians were both married, one had lots of children, one was feted during his young adulthood as a great composer, and both clearly found it easy and not in the least bit painful to write great music very quickly and easily. The equation doesn't work, but as a popular myth it is regularly plundered by film makers. Ken Russell made a whole carrer out of tormented artists films, which got steadily worse as he went on. The worst example of the myth that singing is painful (something which anyone who has done it knows is utter rubbish) is popular singers pulling faces of emotional pain when singing one or two notes which are quite easy to reach with a mediocre voice and idiots praising them as one of the best singers of all time. Interesting that in the Disney world or world of musicals; characters sing when they are happy or excited or in love. So make up your minds, mass media, music is the expression of joy or suffering? Or could both be a partial truth and that, like everything else, music, like the life which it attempts to mirror, at its finest, expresses both?
The Carolina wren opens its throat and sings the triplet three times without a care
All we needed to know was that Angeline Jolie knew so little of her legend she saw fit TO SING IN THE FILM!
right? out of all singers in history she would pick the greatest one lol. Skills aside, Callas´ power were the emotions.
Great video, and as a classical singer myself, I agree with everything you said. I also want to add that as someone who admires Callas’s music and artistry, I did not appreciate the movie or what it portrayed.
Yes, movies like Tar will not garner new classical music lovers Callas doesn't need another bio. She is beyond belief.
The problem with making a movie like this is that the actress who plays callas should never sing, unless they hire an opera singer with a similar voice that trained for years to sound like Maria callas. Instead, we get Angelina Jolie…
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Good point, but there is no one who sounded like Callas.
Love your comments, will be checking in
She was a female with her own mind in a men's world.
I hated the movie. Not too long into it, I had to turn it off. It felt like a series of postures, rather than the story of an amazing woman. I appreciated many of your comments, but I just wanted to add that Maria Callas did not feel like a real woman here. Just for background, I was trained as a classical pianist, but now I only improvise and continue performing.
These aggressive journalists should have been ashamed to attack sensitive and fragile Maria in such a despicable way. It's like kicking someone, who's already on the floor.
I think the movie did a lot good for Maria callas and opera. She was a great artist only known by opera lovers but now an artist known by everyone thanks to pablo lorraine and Angelina Jolie. And a lot talk about opera is everywhere how come they say it doesn't picture her good but harms her reputation. That's realy mean and not done by good intentions. Simply the competition in film industry and jelousy/ envy that always goes hand to hand with it. I believe she deserved the oscar and if she cannot get it that means oscars are realy not about good artistic talent but whose more powerful in the industry which has nothing to do with real art.
I think we get the idea that a biopic is a documentary when in fact it’s a dramatic interpretation- just like an opera is a dramatic interpretation. That said, as a classical musician, I don’t think the general public would find a realistic/documentary style portrayal of classical livelihoods very interesting!
La Callas was a victim of the mindsets and the media of her time and I found the film almost an artful commentary on the myth those created, rather than a reliable examination of Maria, the person. To that I think Jolie was admirable.
Alas, however, the trope of the suffering artist, broken by trauma but churning that into great art is a weary trope.
Well-formed review, thank-you!
Agreed. The film is a caricature of the diva she never was. Such a shame. Can we now stop vilifying women who are artists?
Wow those journalists were really obnoxiously rude. Guess journalists always were obnoxiously arrogant
Please search for: "Eternal Source of Light Divine", Edita Gruberova & Wynton Marsalis.Listen to it and may Maria Callas rest in peace.
Many thanks for this very interesting video. I think that this discussion around Maria is very helpful. As yet I have not seen the movie with Angelina Jolie in the main role.
There is another very good biography of Maria on one of the YT channels which I think might be Mystic Women or similiar. I hope some folks might look that up as well. Maria had a very hard life right from the beginning and she had to work very hard to become the queen of aria around the mid 20th Century. There were many problems, difficulties and rejections she had to overcome first Maria may have been something of a perfectionist in her work, but that is not unusual in a talented and professional person. I would like to have seen all of her interview with Mike Wallace. Thank you for including a little bit of it.
Even for Angelina, it must have been a challenging role to play, some singing included. Good on those "putting it out there". I found this very interesting. Thanks 👍.
Thank you!
Thanks for this presentation. I am an old man, long time Callas fan, and opera lover. I am curious about this film, but am not a Jolie fan in general and have 0% interest in hearing her sing. I also have mixed feelings about this Director (liked 'Jackie' but found 'Spencer' ponderous and slow).
For me, Maria Callas was always an incredibly strong and disciplined woman, she certainly had her rough edges, we all have them. But I also believe that it was a lot more difficult as a woman in this profession at that time than we can imagine today.
I haven't seen the film yet, but I'm a bit worried that there will be a lot of emphasis on ‘suffering’ again. Pablo Larrain also seems to have a certain soft spot for suffering women (i must confess, i found ‘spencer’ hardly bearable). Based on your review, I'm a little worried that it will be similar here (is this perhaps a ‘male thing’: strong women must suffer and be terribly unhappy??). But maybe I'm wrong and Maria Calla's strength and assertiveness is also shown in this film to an appropriate degree.
And by the way: is it actually possible not to love her voice and her singing? Unimaginable for me.
Missing is that Jolie can’t act, and very likely, can’t sing either?
It really makes me wonder.. I’ve liked Jolie in many [very particular] roles. Roles like this really aren’t her strength. This type of role seems like something I’d rather see from Monica Belluci.
I'm a professional musician too. All things you mention I can agree 100 %.
Personal life reasons definitely affects artist’s mental stage. 8:55 The movie didn’t apply art = mental health. It’s her destiny in relationship with her background, affair effected her mental health.
This kind of mistreatment wouldn't have been accepted if there was a Union and obviously wouldn't have been accepted easily today
Pretty Yende has surpassed her in technical prowess and outright excellence
When she goes to see the pianist he states that he is NOT a teacher or a repetiteur. Jeffrey Tate was a pianist/ conductor who offered to play for her, listen to her voice.
Listen to music. Like it, or don't like it, for yourself. End of conversation.
Historical fiction is usually preferred to readers and viewing audiences; documentaries tend to be too bland. Interviewers have asked and continue to ask questions which are usually none of their business; indifference, prejudice, and intentional proactive destruction usually hides under their veneer.
I hope she has seen the film 'Amadeus' from 1984 💖
The only truthfull movie about Callas that exists, it is, in my opinion (and as a Classical music fan): "Maria by Callas" - a Tom Volf 2017 documentary using Callas' interviews, letters, and some restored live performances of her music.
Callas was always so humble when it came to her Art and work, she was also a force of nature during her prime years and I believe that people should be aware of her genius in full force and serving the Composer's music as she intended to, but unfortunately, some filmakers are more interested on giving an image of decadence and suffering which is very reductive when it comes to Callas' musical greatness.
I will leave you with my favourite Callas video, from 1957... it is worth more than all of the movies about her combined:
ua-cam.com/video/U-wiHzq_Bbk/v-deo.html
The thoughtfulness here! The research here is what a serious artist meaningfully, honestly gives to another artist. It will probably remain o ne of the best and most telling. Great music often can engage and move people.The first issue she mentions explains Laina 's approach in his Great Women trilogy. The rest of the review really clearly explains Alot of the mistreatment LaCallas received. Her statements show a wise woman who fought for her maturity the film shows a weak,infantile woman. After I see the movie I'll see. Most of all does the music provide a chance for the casual music lover to fall in love with the Music itself. Cult of personality will not sell a figure today only known by opera lovers -a niche audience. I think the fact Thatcher,IndiraGhandi or some other powerful woman was not chosen by Laina is a testament to the power of Callas' fame. Let's hear and see the real thing a lot more. Maestro brought out the primacy of the music and that may contribute to it lasting longer. The reviewer says the music is honored and Vissi d'arte is showcased; that means a lot to me.
Well done.
I've adored Maria Callas since I was a child, when I found one of her albums in a thrift store. How could she not have been extremely self protective with all the vicious nonsense directed toward her? The movie, though beautifully filmed, left me with the feeling that the writers and director only skimmed the surface of Maria's life.
There was a lot of expressive singers, but perhaps they were more male side. But Caruso and Gigli where certainly know for their expression. Rosa Ponselle and Lily Pons were also a expressive and a good actress. And there were certainly divas like Nellie Melba and Eva Turner.
15:04 Is that an Argentine accent I hear?
I am exhausted looking at her arm movement. My God
Maybe she wants an Oscar
Here are the 4 musicians who did not appear in Toronto for concerts I had bought tickets in the last year: Hilary Hahn, Michael Tilson Thomas, Daniel Barenboim, Sondra Rodvanovsky. This is not relevant to Maria Callas, I’m just slightly annoyed.
Oh please, knowledgeable people know about the bel canto and who she was. People who are ignorant or indifferent know she was Onassis"s mistress and he left her to marry Jacjie Kennedy.
I'd say youtube, some curiosity and the music itself should be able to get more people into the genre. The lacking element is ...that curiosity. But if you lack the amount to go check some out on a media as at your fingertips as youtube...would you really make the effort of going to a theater and paying money to go see a movie on classical music?
Thanks, So TIRED of movies that promulgate the "suffering artist" or "arrogant artist" myths, when they don't have to. "Maria" got 74% on Rotten Apples (vs. 96% for "Diva" and only 90% for "Amadeus") so it won't poison the well too much if not that many see it, at least. Let them watch/listen to her operas instead
I agree
And yet pain is essential in cases like Callas that goes for good literature
I interpret that as a 1 star rating - please keep your day job.
Sad she died so early, sad most of her story…. But the movie was very dark… same as Spencer… a little of life joys need to be added…. Personally, don’t like the directors route in Maria and Spencer… much emphasis about suffering …
This really was about A.J.
There’s no artist who can satisfy all of the audience/critics/public in general. There will always be fans and haters and to be honest, publicity relies too often on sensational news (aka scandals). It’s in the human nature, unfortunately. And last, but not least, art is an utterly subjective thing.
Acting is somewhat different than music. Using your personal history as an Actor to create a role can be draining. Music does not necessarily need that.
Watch Act 2 of Tosca with Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. Here is an example of great acting and great singing.
I can't hande these trailers. I don't feel anything but Angelina on screen - not Maria.
She was sooooo mistreated..if u watch her interviews..they were always super nasty to her
thank you
This is very sad. Callas was well known to be a consummate professional and she experienced a lot of hostility both personally and professionally. The clips from the movie appear to illustrate a pathetically hackneyed profile of a deluded, broken person. Callas was famed as a singular genius.
Well the movie defames Maria Calla's memory with many lies e.g that her mother made a prostitute out of her to the Germans or it is famously known that she spoke proficiently four languages and to every person accordingly (she and Onassis being Greeks don't you think that they'd spoken in greek?). Most brutal and annoying is that Maria's vocal condition in 1977 was the best it was since the late 60's - as she also states in the Barbara Walter's interview. In this personal recording made two weeks before her death, at her house along with Vaso Devetzi on the piano, one can listen that she finally had won back the strength she missed. The movie in a total, is a sad reminder on how people who don't know and understand the world of classical music/opera, venture to create something under the money incentive. The name Callas draws people in the theaters even today and she did not accept or like the fact that some people took advantage of her name to make money for themselves. (famously on John Ardoin and his book about the Joulliard Masterclasses) ua-cam.com/video/FFsd8w6JbbA/v-deo.html
The things that misses the mark in the portrayal of Callas were her gestures. Jolie is too wooden.
it was not hard at all to understand the movie or the portrayal of Maria…at all. did we watch the same movie? u don’t need to know all the lore to “get” the movie or Maria in it. Angelina created a character was easy to be very sympathetic with and invested in, and now I know of Maria Callas, love her music, feel bad for her, and am a new fan. I think people are just too jaded, it was a great movie. also - it was a portrayal. it’s not a documentary. approaching a project like this with a meticulous laundry list of details instead of as a tapestry of a story that is partially fictional in order to highlight other aspects of the story is your first mistake. I await your take on a Maria Callas movie.