Maria, starringAngelina Jolie,is an intense look at the final years of the life of famed opera singer Maria Callas. Directed by Pablo Larraín and debuting on Netflix in December 2024,MariafollowsJackie(2016) andSpencer(2021) as the final film in his trilogy of movies about influential 20th-century women.
WhileMariafocuses on Maria Callas’s life during the 1970s, the years leading up to that time shaped the complex, fascinating woman portrayed by Jolie. Maria Callas’s challenges on and off the stage were fodder for her colleagues and the media, as was her highly publicized relationship with Aristotle Onassis. Later in her life, Maria Callas experienced vocal challenges that ultimately ended her historic career, although her contributions to the music world remain beyond reproach. Here’s more about the titular icon to understandwhy Jolie went to great lengthsto bringMariato life.
And Struggled With Her Physical Presence
Born in New York City in 1923,Maria Anna Cecilia Sophia Kalageropoulos went to Greece with her mother, Litsa, when she was a teen. Their trip coincided with the start of World War II, and they ultimately spent years abroad. While in Greece, Callass — who had already developed a passion for singing — won a scholarship to the National Conservatory and sang for soldiers in exchange for supplies to support her family.
According to Callas, her mother preferred her sister because,in her words,“I was the ugly duckling, fat and clumsy and unpopular. It is a cruel thing to make a child feel ugly and unwanted.” Herthick glasses and heavy presence contributed to what one of her teachers called “a real inferiority complex.“The only thing Callas had confidence in was her voice.
Callas later returned to the United States but ultimately grew her professional operatic career in Italy. She found moderate success but became increasingly miserable and her health suffered. It wasn’t until she met conductor Tullio Serafin that her star began to rise.Callas distinguished herself with herBel Cantotechnique, a traditional Italian operatic style that means “beautiful singing.”
Callas’s distinct sound required “a very particular style of singing, the pitch, the color, the breathing, the posture,” which is whyAngelina Jolie trainedfor seven months to prepare. Even with that amount of work,Mariafeaturesrecordings of Jolie singing combined"with Maria – different levels, sometimes it’s a tiny bit of Angie and mostly Maria…. Sometimes it’s more. But it’s always there.”
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‘Maria’ Explores Callas and Her Life In Paris
During the 1950s,Maria Callas thrived in the opera world, but her personal life was fraught with pain:“I am fed up with my parents’ egoism and indifference toward me… I want no more relationship.” Her husband, a wealthy brick manufacturer named Giovanni Battista Meneghini, doted on her and essentially managed her career. Meneghini was by Callas’s side through much of the 1950s,financially supporting Callas because, as he put it, “my wife is the greatest singer in the world.“Callas later wrote, however, that her husband, “Robbed me of more than half my money by putting everything in his name since we were married … I was a fool … to trust him.”
Callasperformed operas by the world’s greatest composers during the late 1940s and early 1950s.Numerous works by Giuseppe Verdi and Vincenzo Bellini at opera houses in Milan, Mexico City, and Florence accompanied an extensivepresentation of operas by Giacomo Pucciniand Richard Wagner in Venice, Chicago, and Athens.
As her success increased, so did Callas’s weight. Her contemporaries told her she needed to lose weight and,through a meticulous process that may have included swallowing a tapeworm and ingesting iodine,Callas dropped roughly 80 lbs.She spent the rest of her life working to stay thin but simultaneously experienced an irreparable vocal decline. Whether or not her weight loss and vocal challenges were related remains unclear but, according to Bruno Tosi from the International Maria Callass Association, “It was a dangerous treatment because it affected the central nervous system and changed her metabolism, but she turned into a beautiful swan.”
Maria Callas’s Affair with Aristotle Onassis Ended a Decade Before ‘Maria’ Takes Place
By the late 1950s,Maria Callas and Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis became romantically involved.Callas left her husband, Giovanni Meneghini, in 1959 andthe publicity contributed to her retreat from the stage. Callas and Onassis allegedlyconceived at least one child, but she never carried a baby to term. Biographer Adrianna Stassinoupoulos claimed, “Maria had always wanted children, as she often told her friends, but Onassis said he would end their relationship if she kept this child.”
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This took place in 1966. Two years later, “Onassismarried Jacqueline Kennedyin 1968, something Stassinoupoulos indicated “he already had determined to marry Mrs. Kennedy, the ultimate prize in his quest for prestige.“Callas and Onassis carried on with their affair even after he wed the former First Lady,but the marriage felt like a betrayal to the singer. Her mental and physical deterioration intensified and an effort to revive her career was largely unsuccessful. Callas retreated to Paris in 1974 and was a recluse untilshe died in 1977.
During those years, Callas — who’d spent years taking various drugs to cope with being overworked — took more and more pills until “her body gave up.” Callas died of a heart attack on June 10, 2025.
