Word: diva
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WITH these lines, TIME'S Music section last year concluded a story about the famed-and-furious soprano's latest fracas at the Met. Last week Diva Callas was indeed in Dallas, helping to launch the city's top-notch new opera company and give a concert. On hand to witness the historic meeting between the Lone Star State and the stately star of opera was TIME Music Researcher Dorothea Bourne. For a report on how the limerick came true, see Music, Callas in Dallas...
Able Chicago Impresario Lawrence V. Kelly, who undertook the staggering job of installing an opera company deep in the heart of Texas, had managed to snag Maria Callas to kick off his new Dallas Civic Opera Company with a grand inaugural concert. But earlier in the season the diva dived off the deep end and failed to appear with the San Francisco Opera Company, pleading ill-health (TIME, Sept. 30). Rumors said that her voice had cracked. Some people in Dallas thought she could not sing, others that she would not. Texans by the droves failed to buy tickets...
...Opera's pinup girl has always cut a lissome figure, and her voice fills with rills and lusty high Fs; away from the mustiness of the Met, on TV she is freer to indulge her self-confessed "innate ham" with quick changes and buoyant tunes. The first Met diva to have her own TV series, Patrice opened with wit, authority, bounce and ten costume changes. She gave plenty of evidence that she can handle a TV repertory that will probably extend all the way from Verdi...
...Macbeth, with thousands of tickets sold weeks in advance, Manhattan-born Soprano Maria Callas was reached in Milan, after days of trying via transatlantic telephone, announced on the eve of the opera season that she wanted to cut the number of performances, and postpone their dates. The temperamental diva was promptly fired...
...Pelleas et Melisande, a crowd demanded refunds because it had expected a double feature such as Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana. The company had its share of low-comedy disasters : one performance of an extravaganza titled The Garden of Allah was broken up by the terrified screech of a diva whose bare back was being licked by a camel imported for the production. Most important, Impresario Russell had a way of juggling his bookkeeping and pressing his stars for salary kickbacks. After its fifth season, the company collapsed...