One thing that exasperated me intensely during my many years as an opera critic was the assumption that I must be a passionate admirer of Maria Callas. She is the only prima donna who most people have heard of, and her supreme status has long been taken for granted, to the point at which the sound of her voice, as well as her personal story, have fomented a myth, a legend, an icon, and made any rational judgment almost impossible. She is Callas, La Divina, the embodiment of opera: one can only fall down and worship.
The Callas bibliography runs, according to the British Library, to 136 books
In a year that marks the centenary of her birth (she died in 1977), the incense in the temple has become positively stifling. Marina Abramovic is currently in London, en route with an international tour of her opera 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. The Diva exhibition at the V&A has Callas at its heart, and there are further shows of Callas memorabilia on offer in Paris, Milan, New York and Athens.
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