Editing Maria Callas (section)

==Main operatic career==
After returning to the United States and reuniting with her father in September 1945, Callas made the round of auditions.{{sfn|Petsalis-Diomidis|2001|p={{Page needed|date=September 2018}}}} In December of that year, she auditioned for [[Edward Johnson (tenor)|Edward Johnson]], general manager of the [[Metropolitan Opera]], and was favorably received: "Exceptional voice—ought to be heard very soon on stage".{{sfn|Petsalis-Diomidis|2001|p={{Page needed|date=September 2018}}}}

Callas said that the Metropolitan Opera offered her ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'' and ''Fidelio'', to be performed in Philadelphia and sung in English, both of which she declined, saying that she felt too fat for ''Butterfly'' and did not like the idea of opera in English.<ref name="downes" /> Although this offer is not documented in the Met's records,<ref name="scott" /> in a 1958 interview with the ''[[New York Post]]'', Johnson confirmed that a contract was offered: "...&nbsp;but she didn't like it—because of the contract, not because of the roles. She was right in turning it down—it was frankly a beginner's contract."{{sfn|Petsalis-Diomidis|2001|p={{Page needed|date=September 2018}}}}

===Italy, Meneghini, and Serafin===
In 1946, Callas was engaged to re-open the opera house in Chicago as ''[[Turandot]]'', but the [[Chicago Opera Company|company]] folded before opening. Basso [[Nicola Rossi-Lemeni]], who also was to star in this opera, was aware that [[Tullio Serafin]] was looking for a dramatic soprano to cast as ''[[La Gioconda (opera)|La Gioconda]]'' at the [[Arena di Verona]]. He later recalled the young Callas as being "amazing—so strong physically and spiritually; so certain of her future. I knew in a big outdoor theatre like Verona's, this girl, with her courage and huge voice, would make a tremendous impact."<ref name="artandlife">{{harvnb|Ardoin|1974}}</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2021}} Subsequently he recommended Callas to retired tenor and impresario [[Giovanni Zenatello]]. During her audition, Zenatello became so excited that he jumped up and joined Callas in the act 4 duet.<ref name="stassinopoulos"/>

[[File:Callas Meneghini 1957.jpg|thumb|Callas with her husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini in 1957]]
It was in this role that Callas made her Italian debut. Upon her arrival in [[Verona]], Callas met Giovanni Battista Meneghini, an older, wealthy industrialist, who began courting her. They married in 1949, and he assumed control of her career until 1959, when the marriage dissolved. It was Meneghini's love and support that gave Callas the time needed to establish herself in Italy,<ref name="artandlife" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}} and throughout the prime of her career, she went by the name of Maria Meneghini Callas.

After ''La Gioconda'', Callas had no offers, and when Serafin, looking for someone to sing [[Tristan und Isolde|Isolde]], called on her, she told him that she already knew the score, even though she had looked at only the first act out of curiosity while at the conservatory.<ref name="downes"/> She sight-read the opera's second act for Serafin, who praised her for knowing the role so well, whereupon she admitted to having bluffed and having sight-read the music. Even more impressed, Serafin immediately cast her in the role.<ref name="downes"/> Serafin thereafter served as Callas's mentor and supporter.

Lord Harewood stated "Very few Italian conductors have had a more distinguished career than Tullio Serafin, and perhaps none, apart from [[Arturo Toscanini|Toscanini]], more influence".<ref name="harewoodlondon"/> In 1968, Callas recalled that working with Serafin was the "really lucky" opportunity of her career because "he taught me that there must be an expression; that there must be a justification. He taught me the depth of music, the justification of music. That's where I really really drank all I could from this man".<ref name="harewoodparis"/>

===''I puritani'' and path to ''bel canto''===
The great turning point in Callas's career occurred in [[Venice]] in 1949.<ref name="ownwords">''Callas in her Own Words''. Audio documentary. 3 CDs. Eklipse Records. EKR P-14.</ref> She was engaged to sing the role of Brünnhilde in ''[[Die Walküre]]'' at the [[Teatro la Fenice]], when [[Margherita Carosio]], who was engaged to sing Elvira in ''[[I puritani]]'' in the same theatre, fell ill. Unable to find a replacement for Carosio, Serafin told Callas that she would be singing Elvira in six days; when Callas protested that she not only did not know the role, but also had three more Brünnhildes to sing, he told her "I guarantee that you can".<ref name="harewoodlondon"/> [[Michael Scott (artistic director)|Michael Scott's]] words, "the notion of any one singer embracing music as divergent in its vocal demands as Wagner's Brünnhilde and Bellini's Elvira in the same career would have been cause enough for surprise; but to attempt to essay them both in the same season seemed like ''folie de grandeur''".<ref name="scott"/>

Before the performance actually took place, one incredulous critic snorted, "We hear that Serafin has agreed to conduct ''I puritani'' with a dramatic soprano&nbsp;... When can we expect a new edition of ''La traviata'' with [male baritone] [[Gino Bechi]]'s Violetta?"<ref name="scott"/> After the performance, one critic wrote, "Even the most sceptical had to acknowledge the miracle that Maria Callas accomplished&nbsp;... the flexibility of her limpid, beautifully poised voice, and her splendid high notes. Her interpretation also has a humanity, warmth and expressiveness that one would search for in vain in the fragile, pellucid coldness of other Elviras."<ref name="lowe">{{cite book|editor-first=David A.|editor-last=Lowe|title=Callas: As They Saw Her|publisher=Ungar Publishing Company|location=New York|year=1986|isbn=978-0-8044-5636-4|url=https://archive.org/details/callasastheysawh00lowe}}</ref> [[Franco Zeffirelli]] recalled, "What she did in Venice was really incredible. You need to be familiar with opera to realize the size of her achievement. It was as if someone asked [[Birgit Nilsson]], who is famous for her great [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]] voice, to substitute overnight for [[Beverly Sills]], who is one of the great [[coloratura soprano]]s of our time."<ref name="documentary" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Levine|first=Robert|title=Maria Callas: A Musical Biography|page=46|publisher=Black Dog & Leventhal|year=2003|isbn=978-1-57912-283-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|first=Arianna|last=Huffington|author-link=Arianna Huffington|title=Maria Callas: The Woman behind the Legend|page=79|publisher=Cooper Square Press|year=2002|isbn=978-1-4616-2429-5}}</ref>

Scott asserts that "Of all the many roles Callas undertook, it is doubtful if any had a more far-reaching effect."<ref name="scott"/> This initial foray into the bel canto repertoire changed the course of Callas's career and set her on a path leading to ''[[Lucia di Lammermoor]]'', ''[[La traviata]]'', ''[[Armida (Rossini)|Armida]]'', ''[[La sonnambula]]'', ''[[Il pirata]]'', ''[[Il turco in Italia]]'', ''[[Médée (Cherubini)|Medea]]'', and ''[[Anna Bolena]]'', and reawakened interest in the long-neglected operas of [[Luigi Cherubini|Cherubini]], [[Vincenzo Bellini|Bellini]], [[Gaetano Donizetti|Donizetti]] and [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]].<ref name="documentary"/><ref name="artandlife" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}}

In the words of soprano [[Montserrat Caballé]]:
<blockquote>She opened a new door for us, for all the singers in the world, a door that had been closed. Behind it was sleeping not only great music but great idea of interpretation. She has given us the chance, those who follow her, to do things that were hardly possible before her. That I am compared with Callas is something I never dared to dream. It is not right. I am much smaller than Callas.<ref name="artandlife" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}}</blockquote>

As with ''I puritani'', Callas learned and performed Cherubini's ''Medea'', [[Umberto Giordano|Giordano]]'s ''[[Andrea Chénier]]'' and Rossini's ''Armida'' on a few days' notice.<ref name="artandlife" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}}<ref name="ardoin"/> Throughout her career, Callas displayed her vocal versatility in recitals that juxtaposed dramatic soprano arias alongside coloratura pieces, including in a 1952 RAI recital in which she opened with "[[Macbeth (Verdi)|Lady Macbeth's]]" letter scene, followed by the "Mad Scene" from ''Lucia di Lammermoor'', then Abigaille's treacherous recitative and aria from ''[[Nabucco]]'', finishing with the "Bell Song" from ''[[Lakmé]]'' capped by a ringing high E ''[[in alt]]'' (E6).<ref name="ardoin"/>

===Important debuts===
Although by 1951, Callas had sung at all the major theatres in Italy, she had not yet made her official debut at Italy's most prestigious opera house, [[Teatro alla Scala]] in Milan. According to composer [[Gian Carlo Menotti]], Callas had substituted for [[Renata Tebaldi]] in the role of ''[[Aida]]'' in 1950, and La Scala's general manager, Antonio Ghiringhelli, had taken an immediate dislike to Callas.<ref name="documentary" />

Menotti recalls that Ghiringhelli had promised him any singer he wanted for the premiere of ''[[The Consul]]'', but when he suggested Callas, Ghiringhelli said that he would never have Callas at La Scala except as a guest artist. However, as Callas's fame grew, and especially after her great success in ''[[I vespri siciliani]]'' in Florence, Ghiringhelli had to relent: Callas made her official debut at La Scala in [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi's]] ''I vespri siciliani'' on opening night in December 1951, and this theatre became her artistic home throughout the 1950s.<ref name="documentary" /> La Scala mounted many new productions specially for Callas by directors including [[Herbert von Karajan]], [[Margarete Wallmann|Margherita Wallmann]], [[Franco Zeffirelli]] and, most importantly, [[Luchino Visconti]].<ref name="artandlife" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}} Visconti stated later that he began directing opera only because of Callas,<ref>''The Callas Conversations, Vol. 2'', EMI DVD</ref> and he directed her in lavish new productions of ''[[La vestale]]'', ''La traviata'', ''La sonnambula'', ''Anna Bolena'' and ''[[Iphigénie en Tauride]]''. Callas was instrumental in arranging [[Franco Corelli]]'s debut at La Scala in 1954, where he sang Licinio in [[Gaspare Spontini|Spontini's]] ''La vestale'' opposite Callas's Julia. The two had sung together for the first time the year previously in Rome in a production of ''[[Norma (opera)|Norma]]''. [[Anthony Tommasini]] wrote that Corelli had "earned great respect from the fearsomely demanding Callas, who, in Mr Corelli, finally had someone with whom she could act."<ref name="NYT">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/30/arts/franco-corelli-italian-tenor-power-charisma-pillar-met-dies-82.html?scp=4&sq=Franco%20Corelli&st=cse|title=Franco Corelli, Italian Tenor of Power and Charisma, and Pillar of the Met, Dies at 82|work=The New York Times|first=Anthony|last=Tommasini|author-link=Anthony Tommasini|date=October 30, 2003|access-date=May 16, 2009}}</ref> The two collaborated several more times at La Scala, singing opposite each other in productions of ''[[Fedora (opera)|Fedora]]'' (1956), ''Il pirata'' (1958) and ''[[Poliuto]]'' (1960). Their partnership continued throughout the rest of Callas's career.<ref name="Opera News">{{cite news|url=http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/issue/article.aspx?id=99&issueID=5&archive=true|title=Obituaries: Franco Corelli|work=[[Opera News]]|first=Ira|last=Siff|date=January 2004|access-date=May 16, 2009}}{{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

[[File:Callas Sirmione.jpg|thumb|left|The Villa in [[Sirmione]] where Callas lived with Giovanni Battista Meneghini between 1950 and 1959]]
The night of the day she married Meneghini in Verona, she sailed for Argentina to sing at the [[Teatro Colón]] in Buenos Aires. Callas made her South American debut in Buenos Aires on May 20, 1949, during the European summer opera recess. ''Aida'', ''Turandot'' and ''Norma'' roles were directed by Serafin, supported by [[Mario Del Monaco]], [[Fedora Barbieri]] and Nicola Rossi-Lemeni. These were her only appearances on this world-renowned stage. Her debut in the United States was five years later in Chicago in 1954, and "with the Callas ''Norma'', [[Lyric Opera of Chicago]] was born."<ref name="vonrhein">{{cite journal|last=von Rhein|first=John|title=The Company That Works|journal=[[Opera News]]|date=August 2004|volume=69|issue=2}}</ref>

Her Metropolitan Opera debut, opening the Met's seventy-second season on October 29, 1956, was again with ''Norma'',<ref>[[Ross Parmenter]], "Maria Callas Bows at Opening of 'Met'", ''The New York Times'' (October 30, 1956), p. 1.</ref> but was preceded by an unflattering cover story in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, which rehashed all of the Callas clichés, including her temper, her supposed rivalry with Renata Tebaldi, and especially her difficult relationship with her mother.<ref name="stassinopoulos"/><ref name="ownwords"/> As she had done with Lyric Opera of Chicago, on November 21, 1957, Callas gave a concert to inaugurate what then was billed as the [[Dallas Opera|Dallas Civic Opera]], and helped establish that company with her friends from Chicago, Lawrence Kelly and [[Nicola Rescigno]].<ref name="cantrell">{{cite journal|last=Cantrell|first=Scott|title=And that Spells Dallas|journal=[[Opera News]]|date=November 2006|volume=71|issue=5}}</ref> She further consolidated this company's standing when, in 1958, she gave "a towering performance as Violetta in ''La traviata'', and that same year, in her only American performances of ''[[Médée (Cherubini)|Medea]]'', gave an interpretation of the title role worthy of Euripides."<ref>Davis, Ronald L./ Miller, Henry S., Jr., ''La Scala West: The Dallas Opera Under Kelly and Rescigno'', Texas A & M University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-87074-454-9}}</ref>

[[File:Maria Callas, Mirto Picchi (1957) - Archivio storico Ricordi FOTO003114.jpg|thumb|upright|Callas and Italian tenor [[Mirto Picchi]]; performers in [[Luigi Cherubini|Cherubini]]'s ''[[Médée (Cherubini)|Medea]],'' Milan, 1957]]

In 1958, a feud with general manager [[Rudolf Bing]] led to Callas's Metropolitan Opera contract being cancelled. Impresario [[Allen Oxenburg]] realised that this situation provided him with an opportunity for his own company, the [[American Opera Society]], and he accordingly approached her with a contract to perform Imogene in ''Il pirata''. She accepted and sang the role in a January 1959 performance that according to opera critic [[Allan Kozinn]] "quickly became legendary in operatic circles".<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/07/arts/allen-sven-oxenburg-64-dead-american-opera-society-founder.html|title=Allen Sven Oxenburg, 64, Dead; American Opera Society Founder|work=[[The New York Times]]|first=Allan|last=Kozinn|author-link=Allan Kozinn|date=July 7, 1992|access-date=August 12, 2009}}</ref> Bing and Callas later reconciled their differences, and she returned to the Met in 1965 to sing the title role in two performances as Tosca opposite Franco Corelli as Cavaradossi for one performance (March 19, 1965) and [[Richard Tucker]] (March 25, 1965) with [[Tito Gobbi]] as Scarpia for her final performances at the Met.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}}

In 1952, she made her London debut at the [[Royal Opera House]] in ''Norma'' with veteran [[mezzo-soprano]] [[Ebe Stignani]] as Adalgisa, a performance which survives on record and also features the young [[Joan Sutherland]] in the small role of Clotilde.<ref name="ardoin"/> Callas and the London public had what she called "a love affair",<ref name="stassinopoulos"/> and she returned to the Royal Opera House in 1953, 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1964 to 1965.<ref name="artandlife" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}} It was at the Royal Opera House where, on July 5, 1965, Callas ended her stage career in the role of ''Tosca'', in a production designed and mounted for her by [[Franco Zeffirelli]] and featuring her friend and colleague Tito Gobbi.<ref name="artandlife" />{{page needed|date=May 2021}}