Maria Callas (1923-1977), the celebrated opera singer, has gotten on more people’s radars with Angelina Jolie’s portrayal in Maria, on Netflix. Add to your appreciation of Maria Callas with the new novel by Jerome Charyn. Callas had the look, the poise, and, most assuredly, the voice. While keeping to her opera sphere of influence, she was certainly heard beyond it. Novelist Jerome Charyn, known for his in-depth explorations of notable figures, including Emily Dickinson and Abraham Lincoln, delivers a rags-to-riches tale of Callas at the level befitting such a towering diva.
Maria Callas is this novel’s clay, which Charyn molds into this beautiful melancholic character: perpetually hungry for cheese and chocolate; perpetually starving for love; blessed with extraordinary raw talent; burdened with poor eyesight and awkwardness. Callas came from humble origins. So humble that a Dickensian treatment, at least in part, is apropos to tell her story. Once she found her voice, she began to soar, even while still a teenager, at the height of World War II, living in occupied Greece, and fearing for her life. But Callas, at her core, isn’t especially fearful in this novel. She is gifted with an out-sized operatic singing voice that preoccupies her every waking moment. Displaced as she is growing up, her neurotic stage mother moving her and her sister from New York to Greece, she gains much solace from the companionship of three canaries, particularly her prized Stephanakos. Her lovers fated to doom. Callas, truly a tragic figure.
Maria Callas, portrait by Cecil Beaton, 1956.
Charyn, a masterful writer by any measure, is a delight to read. He sets in motion a narrative that you do not want to put down. His prose has a distinctive poetic magic to it, a relentless drive that charms and intrigues the reader. He will highlight certain aspects, features, quirks, of a character and return to them: Maria’s devouring, like a wolf, cheese and chocolate; Maria’s aspirations to master the art of “bel canto,” an impossible goal for any singer; Maria’s myopia, leaving her to memorize every inch of the stage since she won’t easily see it when she performs. Charyn, the writer and artist, diligently researches his subject to the point where he has a palette to dive into, like a painter, that sets him free to express the essence, meaning and purpose of a character, a story.
Maria Callas was to know world-wide fame but happiness was to allude her. In many ways, she was trapped: another VIP among other VIPs. It is in this bittersweet world of privilege and deprivation that Maria navigated. In such a world, she could be both miserable and mesmerized. In such a world she could find herself on the yacht of one of the richest men in the world, Aristole Onasis, circa 1959, the start of an extended love affair with Onasis. Here is just a brief excerpt as Charyn, amid all the glamour and pomp, has Callas, in an unhappy marriage with her manager, return to the simple pleasures of her canaries while speaking with Winston Chruchill:
“Madame Meneghini,” Sir Winston said, “you keep staring at poor Toby. Does my bird delight you?”
A shiver ran through Maria. Somehow this pompous bird reminded her of Stephanakos, her lost canary, and how much she missed singing duets with that bright yellow wonder of a male soprano.
“Forgive me, Sir Winston. I did not mean to stare. But I must kiss your hand.” And she did. His hand felt rough against her lips.
“That’s cheeky,” said Sir Winston’s bodyguard from Scotland Yard.
“Shut up,” Sir Winston said, his eyes half closed, “and let the opera singer explain herself. I’m sure she had an excellent reason, Sergeant Marley.”
“You see,” Maria said, “I was in Athens during the civil war, when you arrived in your armored car. It ignited the population.”
The old man with the babyish bald head was suddenly alert. “I remember that afternoon, indeed. I couldn’t afford to have Greece fall to the Reds. All of Europe would have fallen.”
Sir Winston’s head began to droop. His bodyguards transferred him to the outsize wheelchair, trundled him as far as they could, then cradled him in their arms and carried him to Aristotle’s lavish suite on the bridge deck.
Maria La Divina by Jerome Charyn is available now. I highly recommend that you seek out this engaging tale of bittersweet existence, the story of Maria Callas, La Divina, considered the greatest diva that ever lived.
