25 years have passed since the death of Maria Callas, who has become a myth and a unique personality in nowadays musical scene. During her life she scored a series of successes, but also bitter experiences which undermined her psychological strength and hence deprived her of the necessary peace that an artist requires. Her misadventures started ever since her birth, in America. Indeed, her actual date of birth was never ascertained, since no official documents offering sufficient accuracy and comprehensive information exist. Maria always celebrated her birthday on December 2nd, whereas her mother maintained that she was born on December 4th, 1923. This was a mystery that was never resolved. Furthermore, she was never accepted by her family, which only viewed her as an additional source of worry in their unstable financial situation. After going back to Greece from America in 1936, Maria Callas, aged 13, went through some difficult and not very constructive years from an artistic point of view. From 1937 to 1945 she studied singing at the National Conservatoire first and then at the “Odeon Athenon” Conservatoire, where she was disappointed with the education received and expressed rather unflattering judgements on her teachers. In this regard she said that: “In those years she had learnt more from David, her canary, than from the Conservatoire professors”. In 1939 she came across a turning point in her life. In the meantime Elvira de Hidalgo, famous coloratura soprano, had arrived in Greece, and she became Maria’s real teacher, the person who managed to mould this woman’s dormant artistic personality and voice. Her real artistic debut as main character in a major opera took place in August 1942 with Puccini’s “Tosca”. She continued to sing and study and in 1944 she interpreted the role of Santuzza in “Cavalleria Rusticana”. Elvira de Hidalgo recommended she visited Italy, the home of melodrama, where she was sure to find work and success. Maria had no money, so she decided to go back to America, where she knew she could rely on her father’s financial support. She stayed there two years, but since she was unable to find reliable working opportunities, this experience proved negative. But fate led her to Italy, and more specifically to Verona, having obtained a contract to sing at the Arena in Ponchielli’s “Gioconda”, and here she met in 1947 her future husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, a very, very wealthy man, who was 52 years old, whereas Maria was not even 24. Their love story blossomed almost instantly, according to the following sequence: Meneghini met her on the evening of June 30th, on 1st July he had already kissed her, whereas on the 4th a famous meeting took place, during which they made a “deal” involving both love and work. Her future husband wrote a warm note to her, aimed at pushing his way through the young woman’s feelings: “Dear Madam, I hope that, even though very brief, your Venetian stay of last night proved both to yourself and your very kind friend, pleasant, relieving and joyful, and I also flatter myself that we shall soon go back to Venice, for a less hasty stay…”. A few days later, on the other hand, Meneghini proved how careful he was about looking after his own interests, by writing a rather questionable contract-letter: “Until the end of the year, I shall take care of all your needs: hotel, restaurant, tailor… You only need to worry about singing and studying with singing teachers whom I shall choose myself. At the end of the year, we shall assess the outcome. If we shall both be satisfied, we shall draw up a contract governing our future working relationship.” Maria sang at the Arena and obtained a fair amount of success, but neither her voice nor her personality were completely ripe yet. Maestro Tullio Serafin, who directed her, recommended she continued to study, because she needed to improve her technique and learn to master her diaphragm. In the meantime, her relationship with Meneghini had continued, but on a different level. The man seemed to have cooled down and his initial enthusiasm had significantly dropped. Maria’s residence permit was about to expire and she did not know what line to take with her partner. She would have liked his help, but he was elusive. In this regard, a significant letter dating back to this time still exists and we are summarising it below: “Battista, I feel the need to let you know that my love for you is so deep and fervent that it sometimes gives me pain …, I need you so much, I need your love. Yesterday I was determined to leave, as I felt you had got tired with me … My dear Battista, you own every single part of me, everything, up the slightest feelings … I live for you … I’d do anything you ask me to, but please to not simply take this love and place it on a shelf …, I would like to know whether you still want me as you used to. Yours, Maria”. This is a touching letter, in which the woman expressed all her feelings and pain. Once the crisis was over, Meneghini continued to take care of Maria and took her to see Maestro Mario Labroca, artistic director of La Scala, for an audition which had a disastrous outcome. In addition to these circumstances, Maria Callas managed to perform in other Italian theatres, among which La Fenice in Venice, where, on 30 December 1947, she interpreted Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” directed by Tullio Serafin, and obtained a convincing success. At last, the magic moment of her wedding arrived; this was celebrated at 4:00 p.m. on 21 April 1949, in the vestry of the Filippini Parish in Verona, since Maria was not a Catholic and could not access the church; furthermore, they were a “clandestine” couple, since they already lived together and, therefore, officially and in the eyes of the world they were sinners. Now Meneghini had convinced himself that they should set out to conquer La Scala. After Labroca’s stinging refusal, they had to get round the difficulty by trying to approach the General Director, Antonio Ghiringhelli. As luck would have it, owing to an indisposition of Renata Tebaldi, who should have interpreted Aida, Maria was selected to replace her. This was a lucky opportunity, which however did not have a positive outcome, since the press did not give the news much prominence and Ghiringhelli did not show special enthusiasm and did not go and greet her in her dressing room. Fate decreed that Maria, thanks to Luigi Stefanotti, a great opera lover, should get to know Maestro Arturo Toscanini, by intercession of his daughter Wally. The meeting took place on 27 September 1950 in Milan, at the Toscanini residence, located at no. 20, Via Durini. The audition was a success and Toscanini had her sing a few pages from “Macbeth”, which he was to conduct at La Scala. Meneghini’s strategy was starting to yield fruit. Ghiringhelli himself, who up to that stage had always displayed an indifferent attitude, had almost miraculously become polite and helpful. After conquering Europe, Maria wanted to also make a name for herself in the Untied States, and started to work in this direction. In 1954 she sang at the Lyric Opera in Chicago and in 1956 at the Metropolitan in New York, and obtained excellent reception. This started a productive period from a professional point of view, but a difficult one as far as social relations were concerned. Maria did not manage to work with Karl Boehm in 1957, owing to artistic misunderstandings, nor did she succeed with Herbert von Karajan, who had asked her to go to Vienna to interpret “La Traviata”, this time owing to money issues; in other words these were really difficult and turbulent years. She also received an invitation to sing in Greece, but the situation in her family’s homeland, was not idyllic. Maria’s mother and sister blamed her for never having been generous to them, and had put together a press campaign against the woman, but she was nevertheless able to overcome the many obstacles she met with and obtained tangible success. Hard years loomed ahead, including dismissal by La Scala, possibly as a result of the events taking place at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, where, owing to hoarseness, Maria did not meet with the success she had been hoping for, and hence decided not to continue singing, causing the opera to be suspended. Among the audience was the President of the Republic, Giovanni Gronchi, who certainly was not amused with the accident. Maria Callas needed to find new openings for her career. She had lost La Scala, America had eventually neglected her and therefore, if she wanted to continue to be the “queen”, she needed to find good connections. At this stage Aristotle Onassis, Greek ship-owner and certainly one of the richest men in the world, came on the scene. Onassis had already been courting her for some time, and Cupid’s dart was released during the 1959 spring, when the ship owner invited Maria for a cruise on his yacht “Christina”. Maria went with her husband, and by the end of the cruise she was head-over-heels in love with Aristotle, and decided to leave Meneghini. A scandal broke out and, once again, this had a negative impact on the woman, who was accused of unfaithfulness. Their love lasted nine years and this new relationship had miraculous effects, since Maria resumed work with la Scala, she also went back to America and was again successfully received in Greece. It looked as if her life had taken a favourable course. The singer longed to marry Onassis, but unfortunately the ship owner by no means shared her desire. Aristotle was not in love with her; Maria had only been a conquered territory for him and, after this success, he had lost any interest for the woman. In the meantime, Maria had tirelessly continued to sing, obtaining growing success, whilst her relationship with Onassis inexorably deteriorated. After only four years living together, Aristotle Onassis shifted his aim to the Kennedy family, which was in a position to expand his power and his already remarkable business activity. He started courting princess Lee Radziwill, Jackie Kennedy’s sister and subsequently, following the death the United States President, John Kennedy, on 22 November 1963, he started courting his widow, Jackie, and married her on 20 October 1968. In this terrible atmosphere, Maria’s life had turned into a nightmare, also in view of the fact that, in the meantime, her legal case with Meneghini showed no signs of getting solved. Indeed, he did not intend to agree to her request for divorce and he also intended to keep part of the money that Maria Callas had earned with her own work. Maria reacted by plunging into work, and also accepted to take part in a movie, “Medea” directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. However, she did not manage to completely overcome the numerous tragic occurrences that had taken place and, in 1970, she was hospitalised in Paris following a mysterious and never clarified attempted suicide. In 1972 Giuseppe Di Stefano, a dear friend of Maria’s with whom she had sang way back in 1957, reappeared in her life. Di Stefano offered psychological help, by attempting to get her back into the show business, with the purpose of relieving her from her deep state of pain. Maria interpreted her friend’s help as evidence of love, and as a result of this fell in love with Di Stefano, who however did not accept the relationship. This was the umpteenth defeat and once again she was left on her own, in her house in Paris, where she spent her time playing cards with her domestic staff, and in this way started to gradually die, day after day. She passed away on 16 September 1977 following cardiovascular failure, leaving behind a world which had loved her, but also so much abused her. Her funeral service was celebrated on Tuesday afternoon, September 19th and, in line with her explicit request, her body was cremated. A woman had died, but her myth had only just been born.