From Publishers Weekly
Legendary diva Maria Callas was born in New York City in 1923 to Greek immigrants George and Litsa Kaloyeropoulou. In 1937, Litsa abruptly left her husband and returned to her homeland, taking Maria, whom she called Mary, and her sister. In this exhaustively researched book, historian Petsalis-Diomidis tells the story of Mary Kaloyeropoulou's student years in Athens, where she lived from 1937 to 1945. During that formative period she studied with two prominent vocal teachers, Maria Trivella at the National Conservatory and Elvira de Hidalgo at the Athens Conservatory, and launched her career in leading roles at the Greek National Opera. She believed she could become the greatest singer in the world, and the author, a historian living in Athens, shows how poverty, the struggle to survive during the WWII German occupation, and a troubled home life with a mother she hated contributed to her tempestuous personality and her ruthless pursuit of her goal. Having interviewed many who knew her, the author constructs a fascinating portrait of an overweight, contentious teenager who alienated nearly everyone she met, but who transformed into a magnetic presence on stage. Leonidas Zoras, conductor for the National Opera, said of Callas at 21, "Whenever she came on stage, so powerful was her personality that everybody's attention was concentrated entirely on her." Her extraordinary acting ability enabled her to use to compensate for the well-known vocal flaws that plagued her throughout her career. Among the recent spate of books on Callas, which tend to concentrate on the sensational aspects of her life, this stands out for its insight into her evolution as an artist. Petsalis-Diomidis's fine book won Greece's National Biography Award in 1999. B&w photos. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Winner of Greece's National Biography Award in 1999 and here translated into English for the first time, this biography of Callas (1923-77) concentrates on a less-explored portion of the soprano's life: what Athenian scholar Petsalis-Diomidis calls "the crucial Greek years" from 1937 to 1945. Built around findings from Athenian archives and interviews with more than 200 colleagues, this work devotes special attention to Callas's vocal studies, opera roles, recital repertoire, and interactions with colleagues. The author also addresses the political situation in Greece during World War II, including Callas's alleged involvement with German and British occupying forces, the Communist threat, and privations suffered by the populace. Setting the stage with Callas's youth in New York and her personal relationships with relatives, he concludes with an exploration of her psychological makeup in later years and historical background on the Athens Conservatory, singing technique, and various operas. Archival photographs and documentation are especially valuable. If readers can get beyond the minutiae of the descriptions, they will be rewarded with a glimpse into a period and situations rarely touched on by other Callas biographers. Recommended as a worthy supplement to standard Callas biographies. (Index not seen.) Barry Zaslow, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Library Journal
A glimpse into a period and situations rarely touched on by other Callas biographers.


Publishers Weekly , February 19, 2001
Among the recent spate of books on Callas, this stands out for its insight into her evolution as an artist.


William Littler, Toronto Star , December 11, 2001
A major addition to Callas literature.


Patrick O’Connor, The Times Literary Supplement , November 23, 2001
Callas’s admirers, not to mention her future biographers, will be forever indebted to the author for his dogged work.


Robert Baxter, Opera Quarterly
This book claims an important place in the Callas biography.


Harold M. Green, Leisure, Vol. 28 No. 6
A landmark biography which surpasses all previous studies. . . . [It] will be of interest to opera and history buffs alike.


Choice
Ranks among the very best biographies of opera singers . . . The diva is well served.


Book Description
In this award-winning biography, Petsalis-Diomidis closely examines Maria Callas's life in Athens from 1937 to 1945. These years have been largely absent from previous works about Callas, but were crucial to her professional and personal growth. The author examines her professional development, her studies, her concertizing, and her work with the Greek National Opera. He also recounts Callas's daily life, her friendships, her rivalries at the conservatory, and her personal life. Though it is a detailed historical biography, the writing and pace are novelistic. HARDCOVER.


From the Publisher
In this award-winning biography, Petsalis-Diomidis closely examines Maria Callas's life in Athens from 1937 to 1945. These years have been largely absent from previous works about Callas but were crucial to her professional and personal development. The author has uncovered much new material establishing many revealing incidents in her life. He examines her professional development, her studies, her concertizing, and her work with the Greek National Opera. He also recounts Callas's daily life, her friendships, her rivalries at the conservatory, and her personal life. Though it is a detailed historical biography, the writing and pace are novelistic.


About the Author
Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis is a historian and lives in Athens. He studied law at Athens University and history at the London School of Economics (B.A., 1969) and Birkbeck College (Ph.D., 1974). Concurrently with his historical research and writing, he ran a leading Athenian art gallery for fifteen years, until 1993. The Greek edition of The Unknown Callas (1998) won Greece's National Biography Award in 1999.


Excerpted from The Unknown Callas : The Greek Years (Opera Biography Series, No. 14) by N. Petsales-Diomedes. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Once she had got over her initial seasickness Mary began exploring the ship, finding her way about and getting to know something about the other passengers. Most important among her discoveries was the piano in the tourist class salon, where she immediately sat down and started playing and singing pieces from her self-taught repertoire. One day the captain happened to hear her and invited her to sing the plainchant, or alternatively the Ave Maria, at Mass the following Sunday. Mary refused, but when the captain asked her to sing for the officers and two titled Italian ladies instead, she agreed. On the night of the party, Litsa recalls, her daughter was "at first just like any other little girl of thirteen in a blue cotton dress with a white collar, her bangs carefully combed and her face powdered to hide the pimples; but once she sat down at the piano to play her own accompaniment, she was a poised, accomplished artist." Mary had taken off her glasses, her black eyes were "snapping with excitement," and she sang "as though she had been singing at concerts for years." After the Ave Maria, "La Paloma," and perhaps another song or two, Mary astonished her listeners by singing the Habanera from Bizet's Carmen, an extremely demanding aria that calls for a mature, well-trained mezzo-soprano voice and a high level of acting ability. . . At the end of the aria, where Carmen taunts the captivated Don José with the warning "Prends garde à toi!", Mary, who had probably made sure that a vase of flowers stood nearby, reached out and tossed a carnation to the astonished captain. He laughed, picked it up, and kissed it, eyeing the young girl with some embarrassment. The next day he sent her a bunch of flowers with a note of thanks, the first bouquet she had ever received for a public performance, and with it he sent a doll. "For Maria, who never played with dolls!" Litsa remarks wryly, though it never occurred to her to wonder why Mary had never played with dolls, still less whether she herself might not be at least partly responsible. "I didn't have toys," Maria recalled in 1971. "There were classical records and books -- and the piano until eleven o'clock in the evening. My first and only doll was given to me when I was thirteen, on the boat going to Greece."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The melodramatic story of the century's greatest soprano, from her birth to Greek-immigrant parents in New York to her triumphs on international stages, has often been chronicled, and the world is by now more than familiar with her fiery temperament, her tragic affairs, and her lonely death in a Parisian apartment at the age of fifty-three. In all these accounts, however, a key period in her life has gone undocumented: at the age of thirteen, she left New York with her mother and sister and traveled to Greece, where she spent her formative teenage and early professional years." "The heart of this biography is the young Maria Callas's life in Athens from 1937 to 1943 - a turbulent time that was crucial to her artistic and personal development. In his researches of Athenian archives and through interviews with more than two hundred of Callas's Greek colleagues and friends, Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis uncovers much that is new and dispels much that is old, casting new light on the whole of her life."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Legendary diva Maria Callas was born in New York City in 1923 to Greek immigrants George and Litsa Kaloyeropoulou. In 1937, Litsa abruptly left her husband and returned to her homeland, taking Maria, whom she called Mary, and her sister. In this exhaustively researched book, historian Petsalis-Diomidis tells the story of Mary Kaloyeropoulou's student years in Athens, where she lived from 1937 to 1945. During that formative period she studied with two prominent vocal teachers, Maria Trivella at the National Conservatory and Elvira de Hidalgo at the Athens Conservatory, and launched her career in leading roles at the Greek National Opera. She believed she could become the greatest singer in the world, and the author, a historian living in Athens, shows how poverty, the struggle to survive during the WWII German occupation, and a troubled home life with a mother she hated contributed to her tempestuous personality and her ruthless pursuit of her goal. Having interviewed many who knew her, the author constructs a fascinating portrait of an overweight, contentious teenager who alienated nearly everyone she met, but who transformed into a magnetic presence on stage. Leonidas Zoras, conductor for the National Opera, said of Callas at 21, "Whenever she came on stage, so powerful was her personality that everybody's attention was concentrated entirely on her." Her extraordinary acting ability enabled her to use to compensate for the well-known vocal flaws that plagued her throughout her career. Among the recent spate of books on Callas, which tend to concentrate on the sensational aspects of her life, this stands out for its insight into her evolution as an artist. Petsalis-Diomidis's fine book won Greece's National Biography Award in 1999. B&w photos. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Winner of Greece's National Biography Award in 1999 and here translated into English for the first time, this biography of Callas (1923-77) concentrates on a less-explored portion of the soprano's life: what Athenian scholar Petsalis-Diomidis calls "the crucial Greek years" from 1937 to 1945. Built around findings from Athenian archives and interviews with more than 200 colleagues, this work devotes special attention to Callas's vocal studies, opera roles, recital repertoire, and interactions with colleagues. The author also addresses the political situation in Greece during World War II, including Callas's alleged involvement with German and British occupying forces, the Communist threat, and privations suffered by the populace. Setting the stage with Callas's youth in New York and her personal relationships with relatives, he concludes with an exploration of her psychological makeup in later years and historical background on the Athens Conservatory, singing technique, and various operas. Archival photographs and documentation are especially valuable. If readers can get beyond the minutiae of the descriptions, they will be rewarded with a glimpse into a period and situations rarely touched on by other Callas biographers. Recommended as a worthy supplement to standard Callas biographies. (Index not seen.) Barry Zaslow, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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