“ALL OR NOTHING!” – MARIA CALLAS
Maria Callas was amazingly beautiful. She was admired, feared. However, with all her genius and controversy, she always remained a woman who wanted to be loved and needed. In 1957, the Greek singer was on top of fame. She just turned 34. Her figure has gained amazing slimness after three years earlier she lost half the weight. The world’s best couturiers dreamed of Callas appearing in the toilets they had created.
Waiting for love
But bathed in glory, she still felt alone. The husband, the famous impresario Giovanni Battista, Meneghini, or Titta, as many called him, was 30 years older. But in the fall of 1957, Maria finds herself at a ball in Venice, organized in her honor. That evening, she met a black-haired man of short stature. He wore big horn-rimmed glasses, from which a piercing and slightly mocking look rushed at the interlocutor. The stranger kissed her hand, and they exchanged first in English, and then in Greek, meaningless words. His name was Aristotle Onassis …
The yacht that belonged to him anchored in a Venetian bay. He presented Mary his wife Tina – a beautiful woman who gave him two children – Alexander and Christina.
Maria Callas delusion
singer Maria Callas c Giovanni Batista Menegini
Their second meeting took place there, in Venice, at a secular reception – only two years later. She came to the reception with her husband, and he and his wife. But this did not prevent Onassis all evening from keeping his gaze on Maria. And then he invited her, of course, with her husband to the “Christina” yacht. But they waited for the singer at Covent Garden in London. At first the billionaire was stunned to hear the rejection. However, on reflection, I decided, together with my family, to go to London, where I ordered 17 seats for the play “Medea”, in which Maria sang. He gave a grand reception in honor of the prima donna in the chic Dorchester hotel. It was on this unforgettable reception, during which everything was buried in roses, Onassis and managed to win the heart of Mary. His wife had a dull look, Mary’s husband, too, looked like a commander who lost the battle. But everyone behaved as if nothing had happened. So, Callas and her husband accepted Onassis’s invitation to take a trip on the Christina yacht.
On July 22, 1959, the yacht set sail on a seventeen-day voyage. Maria is having fun, like a girl, appearing in the evenings in breathtaking robes, slightly shocking others. And during a stop in Portofino, she bought herself a red wig, dyed her lips with cherry cherry singer Maria Callaszvetom. Together with Onassis, she appears in numerous shops of port cities, where one glance at one of the toilets is enough for him to buy half of the store. And then night came in the Aegean Sea, when Maria stayed in the cabin of Onassis, or rather, Ari, as she had already begun to call him.
And on August 8 in Istanbul, Maria and her husband, leaving the yacht, boarded a plane and returned to Milan. In his villa Sirmione, Callas tries not to talk about anything. She’s all waiting. Very soon, on August 17, Onassis comes here in a huge car. Giovanni is trying to protest, but is no longer able to prevent what is happening. Literally an hour later, the unfortunate spouse is left alone, seeing the retreating car with a sad look, which will permanently take away his wife.
Maria Callas is either a woman or a singer …
It was like an obsession. But at the beginning – just a world scandal. She is the diva of divas, the operatic goddess, the owner of the voice of the century, Maria Callas and he – the richest person on the planet Aristotle Onassis – turned out to be only a woman and a man.
singer Maria Callas with Aristotle Onassis
Already on September 8, Maria in a press communique officially announced her break with her spouse. The diva herself bathes in happiness. She is on top of bliss. But if in love Maria is happy, then with the singer Callas all is not well. During 1959, she sang all in ten performances.
On November 14, Callas officially divorced Giovanni Menegini. A year later, Onassis divorced. Now the lovers could be all the time together, Maria hopes that he marries her. However, he is not in a hurry. But they are very good together. Of course, he often has to leave her alone, get on a plane and go to the other end of the world. In 1960, she spent the days alone on “Christina” and performed in only six opera performances …
She decided to settle in Paris in the house on Avenue Foch to “intercept” Ari during his travels between London and Monte Carlo, where the offices of the billionaire empire were located. Mary gradually refuses the career of the singer. “I no longer have a desire to sing,” she admitted in one of her interviews. – I want to live. To live like any woman. ”
Other
Spring comes in 1963. New trip aboard the Christina. singer Maria Callas, among the guests of honor – the spouses Grimaldi: Prince Rainier and his wife Grace, as well as Princess Lee Radziwill, who was Jacqueline Kennedy’s sister.
