See the trailer and which cinema is played
“As my first career I consider what I did in Athens. There I trained and had my first stage experiences, my good and bad moments. That’s why I say that my first career was absolutely essential to me. ” Her voice Maria Callas It sounds to defend the first, Greek, years of her career, but also her… Greekness: “I belong to the Greek world above […] My blood is Greek and no one extinguishes. “
The story of Maria Kalogeropoulou, the 14 -year -old girl who was about to become Maria Callas, the woman who managed to lift the art of opera to phonetic and stage perfection, but also to make her not only concern the elites but all classes , and in that sense she made her a pop. This is the story of the documentary “Mary, Marianna, Maria: The Unknown Greek Years of Calla”, which today, Thursday, is being screened in cinemas.
The production of the documentary was made on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Maria Callas, and was first displayed on December 2, 2023, as part of the events of the year of Callas of the National Opera, at George Koumentakis.
Far from speculations, narrative rounds or deviations, the documentary comes to give the closest to Maria Callas.
“If we insist on seeing it as a” secular “person isolated in Paris, who, among other things, lived a failed love with Onassis, I feel we are perpetuating a wrong image that the big audience has for Callas and unfortunately we do not see the substance. of her art, the reasons why it is a unique phenomenon that has changed the opera consistently, “she said, speaking to RES-EIA, the artistic advisor of planning and communication by ELS Vassilis Louras, who is also the man behind the idea, the idea, Research and the documentary script, while sharing the directing with Michalis Pattenidis.
The two wanted to focus on artistic value and on what the great artist grew up. “Our desire was to talk about that period of Callas that was completely unknown not only to foreigners but also to the Greeks. Here she did her studies – at the National Conservatory and the Athens Conservatory – and here she started working on the National Opera, “she said.
“Through very important evidence that highlights exactly what happened in 1937-1945, through systematic research and persistent confirmation of all sources, we have told this story and tried to break down those non-existent rumors that follow it to date, as it worked with The Italians and the Germans, “he added.
The basis of the story of the story consisted of two books: “Maria Callas, her Greek career” by Polyvios Marsan (1982) and “The Unknown Callas” by Nikolaos Petsalis-Diomedes (1998) who have recorded in detail in the early years of Callas’ artistic career . Combined with rare archival material, anecdotal recordings, interviews, audio documents, the documentary comes to illuminate the early years of Callas’ career in Greece.
“It was a unique amalgam of internal power, very great will and great great hard work. Although as a child she had nothing to do with the image she had in the days of her great glory, she still succeeded, despite the uninvited external conditions, to change herself, to reach him where she thought she could go and to go and It becomes what happened. She experienced extremely difficult social conditions, poverty, war, had a very problematic marital situation, faced great hostility – and yet she left it all behind her, as if she was kicked out of her and became what happened, “Mr Louras noted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfoocpvaszq
The ‘human’ Callas
The undoubted trump, but also two of the highlights of the documentary, are the two anecdotal documents, which capture the raw power of voice, the flawless purity of sound and ultimately a Callas, beyond Divina, human and working:
The first, a video from the summer of 1964, when the yacht “Christina” has caught a port in Lefkada and Callas interprets Santucha’s Aria from “Rousikana Kavaleria” in a makeshift scene set up on the island’s square with Young piano student Kyriakos Sfitsa to accompany her- without any preparation.
The second, a recording from the last rehearsal she made at her home in Paris in the summer of 1977, on an army of Verdi’s “power of destiny” a few days before her death.
“With this valuable documentary, from the Constantine Archive and Victoria Pylarinou confirms that until the last minute, she was working, trying daily, with great perseverance, recording her rehearsals, listened to them, corrected. And we realize that her voice was freer than the 1973-74 tour, which had received negative reviews, that she had lost her voice. If he had actually lived more, he would have managed to record a different repertoire. Her voice was there, “Mr. Louras commented on RES-EIA.
Callas and Athens
Apart from the above, however, the documentary manages to “travel” the viewer on Callas’ paths to Athens, as the career stations and its early years are at the same time stations in the history of Athens. An Athens so familiar, but also so unknown at the same time: the open theaters of Klafthmonos and Alexandra Avenue, the old “Olympia” theater, Pallas, Patision and Piraeus, are all connected on a journey of a parallel universe in an earlier time.
And in this route, Callas emerges as a man who lived – like all Athenians – the historical events of the time: How did Maria Callas live in Athens of World War II? How did he live during the Occupation? How did he live the liberation of Athens and how do the December?
Indicatively, a special addition to Callas’ image comes through the narrative of her colleague, Marika Papadopoulou: In 1944, after rehearsals, Callas, leaving her theater, told her to go to a pastry shop. There, she gave an invitation to perform the theater and gave her sweets. “In this, at the most difficult time of the war, we see that Callas was a child trying to survive under conditions of great cruelty,” Mr Louras said.
For him, what was happening in World War II, what the civil and post -war conditions were, how Greece was in the 1960s it concerns a much wider audience, beyond that opera. “Through the events, Greece’s political and social history goes ahead of us,” he explained. “I think it is unprecedented to see through people’s testimonies exactly what was happening and how all this is linked to the history of the city and the history of music,” he added.
Why Maria became Callas
However, apart from 1937-1945, the documentary is mentioned in the years from 1957 onwards, when Callas returns to Greece.
Many accompanied Callas, envy, intrigues, triumphs and tragedies, but what made it in world consciousness as the most important lyric singer, may be summarized in what Marios Ploritis wrote, two days after the premiere of “Norma”. “Freedom”:
“If Callas is a phonetic phenomenon, it is no less an act of acting craftsmanship. Combating the two, he became a complete artist, one of the few people ever met. “
Where is played
The documentary “Mary, Marianna, Maria: The Unknown Greek Years of Calla”, 103΄, will be in eight central cinemas in Athens and Thessaloniki from today, Thursday, February 13, 2025, distributed by Cinobo: at Cinobo Opera 1 & 2 at the Academy, in the Film Library of Greece 1 in Gazi, in Galaxy 2 in Ampelokipi, Nana 1 Cinemax in Daphne, Kifissia 1 Cinemax, Diana in Maroussi, and in Thessaloniki in the John Kassavetis Hall in Port.
The idea, research and script are by Vasilis Louras, directed by Michalis Patthenidis-King Louras and production by Stella Angeletou, while scientific advisers were performed by Aris Christofellis and Sofia Kompotiatis.
