Editing Maria Callas (section)

==Vocal decline==
In the opinion of several singers, the heavy roles undertaken in her early years damaged Callas's voice.<ref name="rasponi"/> The mezzo-soprano Giulietta Simionato, Callas's close friend and frequent colleague, stated that she told Callas that she felt that the early heavy roles led to a weakness in the diaphragm and subsequent difficulty in controlling the upper register.<ref name="hastings">{{cite journal|last=Hastings|first=Stephen|title=The Spirit of Giulietta|journal=[[Opera News]]|date=May 2002}}</ref>

[[Louise Caselotti]], who worked with Callas in 1946 and 1947, prior to her Italian debut, felt that it was not the heavy roles that hurt Callas's voice, but the lighter ones.{{sfn|Petsalis-Diomidis|2001|p={{Page needed|date=September 2018}}}} Several singers have suggested that Callas's heavy use of the chest voice led to stridency and unsteadiness with the high notes.<ref name="rasponi"/> In his book, Callas's husband Meneghini wrote that Callas suffered an unusually early onset of [[menopause]], which could have affected her voice. Soprano [[Carol Neblett]] once said, "A woman sings with her [[ovary|ovaries]]—you're only as good as your hormones."<ref name="mordden"/>

Critic [[Henry Pleasants (music critic)|Henry Pleasants]] has stated that it was a loss of physical strength and breath-support that led to Callas's vocal problems, saying,<blockquote>Singing, and especially opera singing, requires physical strength. Without it, the singer's respiratory functions can no longer support the steady emissions of breath essential to sustaining the production of focused tone. The breath escapes, but it is no longer the power behind the tone, or is only partially and intermittently. The result is a breathy sound—tolerable but hardly beautiful—when the singer sings lightly, and a voice spread and squally when under pressure.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pleasants|first1=Henry|year=1993|title=Maria Meneghini Callas|journal=Opera Quarterly|volume=10|issue=2|pages=159–63|doi=10.1093/oq/10.2.159}}</ref></blockquote>

In the same vein, [[Joan Sutherland]], who heard Callas throughout the 1950s, said in a BBC interview,
<blockquote>[Hearing Callas in ''Norma'' in 1952] was a shock, a wonderful shock. You just got shivers up and down the spine. It was a bigger sound in those earlier performances, before she lost weight. I think she tried very hard to recreate the sort of "fatness" of the sound which she had when she was as fat as she was. But when she lost the weight, she couldn't seem to sustain the great sound that she had made, and the body seemed to be too frail to support that sound that she was making. Oh, but it was oh so exciting. It was thrilling. I don't think that anyone who heard Callas after 1955 really heard the Callas voice.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llJDRA9Mb4w| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111207004042/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llJDRA9Mb4w&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=2011-12-07 | url-status=dead|title=Dame Joan Sutherland Talks about Maria Callas' Voice – BBC interview|publisher=YouTube|date=December 19, 2009|access-date=April 6, 2013}}</ref></blockquote>

Michael Scott has proposed that Callas's loss of strength and breath support was directly caused by her rapid and progressive weight loss,<ref name="scott"/> something that was noted even in her prime. Of her 1958 recital in Chicago, Robert Detmer wrote, "There were sounds fearfully uncontrolled, forced beyond the too-slim singer's present capacity to support or sustain."<ref name="lowe"/>

Photos and videos of Callas during her heavy era show a very upright posture with the shoulders relaxed and held back. Of a television broadcast from May 1960 of a recital in Hamburg, ''The Opera Quarterly'' noted, "[W]e [can] watch&nbsp;... the constantly sinking, depressed chest and hear the resulting deterioration".<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Opera Quarterly|volume=4|issue=4|page=129|title=Review of ''Demented: The World of the Opera Diva'' by Ethan Mordden, Franklin Watts 1984|first=Phyllis|last=Curtin|author-link=Phyllis Curtin|title-link=Ethan Mordden}}; cited in Scott (1992), p. 220.</ref> This continual change in posture has been cited as visual proof of a progressive loss of breath support.<ref name="scott"/><ref name="whitson"/>

Commercial and [[bootleg recording|bootleg]] recordings of Callas from the late 1940s to 1953—the period during which she sang the heaviest dramatic soprano roles—show no decline in the fabric of the voice, no loss in volume and no unsteadiness or shrinkage in the upper register.<ref name="ardoin" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}} Of her December 1952 Lady Macbeth—coming after five years of singing the most strenuous dramatic soprano repertoire—Peter Dragadze wrote for ''Opera'', "Callas' voice since last season has improved a great deal, the second passagio on the high B-natural and C has now completely cleared, giving her an equally colored scale from top to bottom."<ref name="artandlife" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}} And of her performance of Medea a year later, John Ardoin writes, "The performance displays Callas in as secure and free a voice as she will be found at any point in her career. The many top B's have a brilliant ring, and she handles the treacherous [[tessitura]] like an eager thoroughbred."<ref name="ardoin" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}}

In recordings from 1954 (immediately after her {{convert|80|lb|kg|adj=on|disp=or}} weight loss) and thereafter, "not only would the instrument lose its warmth and become thin and acidulous, but the altitudinous passages would to her no longer come easily."<ref name="scott">{{cite book|last=Scott|first=Michael|title=Maria Meneghini Callas|publisher=Northeastern University Press|location=Boston|year=1992|url=https://archive.org/details/mariameneghinica00scot|url-access=registration|isbn=978-1-55553-146-1}}</ref> It was at this time that unsteady top notes first begin to appear.<ref name="ardoin" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}} Walter Legge, who produced nearly all of Callas's EMI/Angel recordings, states that Callas "ran into a patch of vocal difficulties as early as 1954": during the recording of ''[[La forza del destino]]'', done immediately after the weight loss, the "wobble had become so pronounced" that he told Callas they "would have to give away seasickness pills with every side".<ref name="schwarzkopf"/>

There were others, however, who felt that the voice had benefitted from the weight loss. Of her performance of ''Norma'' in Chicago in 1954, Claudia Cassidy wrote that "there is a slight unsteadiness in some of the sustained upper notes, but to me her voice is more beautiful in color, more even through the range, than it used to be".<ref name="lowe"/> And at her performance of the same opera in London in 1957 (her first performance at Covent Garden after the weight loss), critics again felt her voice had changed for the better, that it had now supposedly become a more precise instrument, with a new focus.<ref name="lowe"/> Many of her most critically acclaimed appearances are from 1954–1958 (''Norma'', ''La traviata'', ''Sonnambula'' and ''Lucia'' of 1955, ''Anna Bolena'' of 1957, ''Medea'' of 1958, among others).
[[File:Тито Гобби. Москва.1970 г..jpg|thumb|upright=1|Tito Gobbi, 1970]]
Callas's close friend and colleague Tito Gobbi thought that her vocal problems all stemmed from her state of mind:
<blockquote>I don't think anything happened to her voice. I think she only lost confidence. She was at the top of a career that a human being could desire, and she felt enormous responsibility. She was obliged to give her best every night, and maybe she felt she wasn't [able] any more, and she lost confidence. I think this was the beginning of the end of this career.<ref name="documentary"/></blockquote>

In support of Gobbi's assertion, a bootleg recording of Callas rehearsing Beethoven's aria "[[Ah! perfido]]" and parts of Verdi's ''La forza del destino'' shortly before her death shows her voice to be in much better shape than much of her 1960s recordings and far healthier than the 1970s concerts with [[Giuseppe Di Stefano]].<ref name="ardoin" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}}

Soprano [[Renée Fleming]] posited that videos of Callas in the late 1950s and early 1960s reveal a posture that betrays breath-support problems:
<blockquote>I have a theory about what caused her vocal decline, but it's more from watching her sing than from listening. I really think it was her weight loss that was so dramatic and so quick. It's not the weight loss ''per se''—you know, [[Deborah Voigt]] has lost a lot of weight and still sounds glorious. But if one uses the weight for support, and then it's suddenly gone and one doesn't develop another musculature for support, it can be very hard on the voice. And you can't estimate the toll that emotional turmoil will take as well. I was told, by somebody who knew her well, that the way Callas held her arms to her solar plexus [allowed her] to push and create some kind of support. If she were a [[Soubrette]], it would never have been an issue. But she was singing the most difficult repertoire, the stuff that requires the most stamina, the most strength.<ref name="whitson" /></blockquote>

However, writing about [[Voice type|dramatic soprano]] Deborah Voigt in 2006 shortly after her {{convert|135|lb|kg|-1|adj=on}} weight loss after [[gastric bypass surgery]], music critic [[Peter G. Davis]] brings up comparisons with Callas and notes an increasing acidity and thinning in Voigt's voice that recall the changes in Callas's voice after her weight loss:
<blockquote>A change has also come over Voigt's voice lately, though it's hard to tell if it's from weight loss or normal aging—controversy still rages over whether Maria Callas' drastic diets contributed to her rapid vocal decline. Not that Voigt as yet exhibits any of Callas' technical problems: Her voice continues to be reliably supported and under control. What is noticeable, however—earlier this season in Verdi's La Forza del Destino and now in Tosca—is a marked thinning of quality at the very center of the instrument, together with a slight acidity and tightening of the tone that has definitely taken the youthful bloom off, especially at the top.<ref>[[Peter G. Davis]], [http://nymag.com/arts/classicaldance/classical/reviews/16855/ "Deborah Voigt's New Problem: Now that she looks the part, the soprano sounds troublingly tentative and colorless in ''Tosca''"], ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'', May 8, 2006</ref></blockquote>

Voigt explained how her dramatic weight loss affected her breathing and breath support:
<blockquote>Much of what I did with my weight was very natural, vocally. Now I've got a different body—there's not as much of me around. My diaphragm function, the way my throat feels, is not compromised in any way. But I do have to think about it more now. I have to remind myself to keep my ribs open. I have to remind myself, if my breath starts to stack. When I took a breath before, the weight would kick in and give it that extra whhoomf! Now it doesn't do that. If I don't remember to get rid of the old air and re-engage the muscles, the breath starts stacking, and that's when you can't get your phrase, you crack high notes.<ref name="singer">{{cite journal|last=Singer|first=Barry|title=Turning Point|journal=[[Opera News]]|date=October 2006}}</ref></blockquote>

Callas attributed her problems to a loss of confidence brought about by a loss of breath support, even though she does not make the connection between her weight and her breath support. In an April 1977 interview with journalist Philippe Caloni, she stated,
<blockquote>My best recordings were made when I was skinny, and I say skinny, not slim, because I worked a lot and couldn't gain weight back; I became even too skinny&nbsp;... I had my greatest successes – ''Lucia'', ''Sonnambula'', ''Medea'', ''Anna Bolena'' – when I was skinny as a nail. Even for my first time here in Paris in 1958 when the show was broadcast through Eurovision, I was skinny. Really skinny."<ref>April 1977 Interview with journalist Philippe Caloni, translated by Marie Gilles, available at {{YouTube|g1D0mEpyoCY}}</ref></blockquote>

And shortly before her death, Callas confided her own thoughts on her vocal problems to Peter Dragadze:
<blockquote>I never lost my voice, but I lost strength in my diaphragm.&nbsp;... Because of those organic complaints, I lost my courage and boldness. My vocal cords were and still are in excellent condition, but my 'sound boxes' have not been working well even though I have been to all the doctors. The result was that I overstrained my voice, and that caused it to wobble. (''Gente'', October 1, 1977){{sfn|Petsalis-Diomidis|2001|p={{Page needed|date=September 2018}}}}</blockquote>

Whether Callas's vocal decline was due to ill health, early menopause, over-use and abuse of her voice, loss of breath-support, loss of confidence, or weight loss will continue to be debated. Whatever the cause may have been, her singing career was effectively over by age 40, and even at the time of her death at age 53, according to Walter Legge, "she ought still to have been singing magnificently".<ref name="schwarzkopf"/>

===Fussi and Paolillo report===
A 2010 study by Italian vocal researchers Franco Fussi and Nico Paolillo revealed Callas was very ill at the time of her death and her illness was related to her vocal deterioration. According to their findings, presented at the [[University of Bologna]] in 2010, Callas had [[dermatomyositis]], a rare, connective tissue disease that causes a failure of the muscles and ligaments, including the larynx. They believe she was showing signs of this disease as early as the 1960s. Fussi and Paolillo cite an initial report by physician Mario Giacovazzo, who in 2002 revealed he had diagnosed Callas with dermatomyositis in 1975. Treatment included corticosteroids and immunosuppressive agents, which affect heart function.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}}

At an event hosted by the journal ''Il Saggiatore Musicale'', Fussi and Paolillo presented documentation showing when and how her voice changed over time. Using modern audio technology, they analyzed live Callas studio recordings from the 1950s through the 1970s, looking for signs of deterioration. Spectrographic analysis showed that she was losing the top half of her range. Fussi observed video recordings in which Callas's posture seemed strained and weakened. He felt that her drastic weight loss in 1954 further contributed to reduced physical support of her voice.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}}

Fussi and Paolillo also examined restored footage of the infamous 1958 ''Norma'' "walkout" in Rome, which led to harsh criticism of Callas as a temperamental superstar. By applying spectrographic analysis to that footage, the researchers observed her voice was tired and she lacked control and that she had bronchitis and tracheitis as she claimed, and that the dermatomyositis was already causing her muscles to deteriorate.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lastampa.it/2010/12/21/esteri/lastampa-in-english/opera-legend-maria-callas-didn-t-die-of-a-broken-heart-z9QHOp38idfnQIS50pStjI/pagina.html|title=Opera Legend Maria Callas Didn't Die Of A Broken Heart|website=[[La Stampa]]|first=Giangiorgio|last=Satragni|date=December 21, 2010|access-date=April 6, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203031933/http://www.lastampa.it/2010/12/21/esteri/lastampa-in-english/opera-legend-maria-callas-didn-t-die-of-a-broken-heart-z9QHOp38idfnQIS50pStjI/pagina.html|archive-date=December 3, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>