REMINISCENCES…
(Callas could not sleep, called Bruna and they talked and talked.Bruna her maid sits at the foot of the bed and writes in a crapbook ).
Callas: Cara,let us do some writing… do you remember our years with Titta? I worked like a horse.A tough businessman, was he not?
Bruna:Oui, et il est devenu riche a vos depens!
Callas:C’est la vie!Les hommes sont tous des cochons!… Bruna,write down…The Meneghini Years…the greatest of my career, let me think…victory after victory and triumph !…… all Opera houses have surrendered.The world of Opera was at my feet.Contracts were pouring in,but the greatest singer in the world slep alone.Titta and I have separate bedrooms , for some time now, and rarely talked except about contracts and money.I worked lke a horse and lost my voice ,and health.I was already the greatest of my time and in a few years,after my retirement, acknowledged as the greatest in the history of music.
…Mother…she was a terrible woman,very unhappy with Dad … was as a manipulator,she likes to pull and push, like all frustrated women.Father had his pharmacy, and in his spare time was busy with other women.His wife was a failure, had no talent and was not that beautiful.He dumbed her!It served her right!
My sister Jackie was charming,pretty but weak.Mother pushed her into Milton’s arms because he was rich,very rick, Milton of the Embiricos dynasty. She had no ambition,no real talent in anything,like the other woman, the other Jackie.
I had the grace of an elephant but had talent and dreams. I was obsessed with my voice….No one could take that away from me.I had the certainty , the conviction of my own greatness.I shall be Maria Callas and will be on top of the world.
…Ari and I were to be married in London.I shall have a ring and people will stop talking.I will be the second Madame Onassis, a worthy successor of Tina Livanos Onassis.I will no longer be a concubine or his mistress.We booked a suite at the Claridge,and the night before we married, walked in and saw them,Ari and two high class call girls in bed! He did it on purpose, a set up.He never intended to marry me,it was only a game!So cruel!!That night I flew back to Paris, alone!
…I sang with Renato Ciotti at Covent Garden,not the best tenor in the world but surely one of the sexiest.I would not have minded a fling with him, it hurts like hell not to have him.
“Dance as though no one is watching you
Love as though you have never been hurt before
Sing as though no one can hear you
Live as though heaven is on earth ”
I sang like no other human has sung before, or after..Then I lost my voice.I was thirty seven.I wanted to die.
