MARIA BY CALLAS

Director: Tom Volf

2018, 113, PG-13

Cast: Maria Callas,Fanny Ardant, Aristotle Onassis, Vittorio De Sica, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Luchino Visconti,Omar Sharif.

 

MARIA BY CALLAS is the first film to tell the life story of the legendary Greek/American opera singer completely in her own words. Told through performances, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters and unpublished memoirs—nearly all of which have never been shown to the public—the film reveals the essence of an extraordinary woman who rose from humble beginnings in New York City to become a glamorous international superstar and one of the greatest artists of all time. Assembling the material for the film took four years of painstaking research, which included personal outreach to dozens of Callas’s closest friends and associates, who allowed him to share their personal memorabilia in the film.

Instead of trying to sum up her vast musical repertoire through countless clips, Maria By Callas presents some of her most important arias in their entirety. Each aria is chosen for its significance for the period in Callas’s life. Arias include: “Casta Diva” (“Norma”), “Love is a Rebellious Bird” (“Carmen”), and “I Lived for Art, I Lived for Love” (“Tosca”).