the life span of maria callas

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1 The Life Span of Maria Callas Adreena Lind Psychology 300 October 1st, 2012 Shane Williamson

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Psychological perspective of the life of Maria Callas (American Opera Singer)

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Page 1: The Life Span of Maria Callas

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The Life Span of Maria Callas

Adreena Lind

Psychology 300

October 1st, 2012

Shane Williamson

Page 2: The Life Span of Maria Callas

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Maria Callas, is one of the most influential and world renowned operatic figures of all

time. Maria Callas was an extraordinary woman with an equally extraordinary life. She was

beautiful and was gifted with a voice like no other singer, but she also suffered a very sad and

emotional deprived childhood. Maria’s childhood strongly influenced her passions and life. She

rose from a troubled youth and poverty to become the most influential and powerful woman in

Opera. Maria was born in Manhattan, New York, to Greek parents on December 2, 1923.

Maria’s birth name is Sophia Cecilia Kalos; her last name was shorted by her father to make it

more tolerable and ultimately changes to Callas, but her christened name was Anna Maria Sofia

Cecilia Kalogeropoulou, (Sieglohr, 2012). Maria grew up in Astoria, Queens, New York with her

mother, Evangelia, her father, George, and her older sister, Yakinthi.

Callas’ mother had a preference for Maria’s older sister Jackie, who was also a talented

singer and very attractive. In fact, it is said that Callas’ mother refused to hold or even look at

Maria as an infant because wanted a son. Maria’s mother was the driving force behind her

singing and pursuing a career in music. Callas’ mother pushed her to sing from the early age of

five. After years of strain in her parents’ marriage Maria’s mother and father eventually

divorced. At age 13, her father stayed in the United States, and Callas moved back to Greece

with her mother and older sister. Callas’ mother tried to enroll her into to one’s Greece most

prestige’s music schools, the Athens Conservatoire. Maria’s voice was strong enough, but she

was only 13 at the time and was not allowed to attend the school.

This was the turning point for Maria Callas, after the rejection, her mother decided to

send her to audition for the Greek National Conservatoire. Her instructor, Maria Trivella, at the

Greek National Conservatoire, believed her voice was strong enough to be enrolled in the school,

even though it was still untamed, and wild. Maria Trivella, was so impressed that she Maria

Page 3: The Life Span of Maria Callas

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Callas on as a pupil for free. Callas had a beautiful voice, even at such a young age. Maria was

said to be a dedicated pupil, she spend hours and hours learning techniques to prefect her voice.

After further training Maria’s mother requested an audition at the Athens Conservatoire once

again. The second audition went much better than the first; Maria was accepted into the school

and also began sing for work, at the request of her mother.

The ambition that Maria’s mother and the events of her childhood would eventually tear

their relationship apart; she felt her childhood was taken from her, because she was made to

work and study music at such a young age, (Lambton, 2012). Maria’s mother insisted for her to

continue her studies in music and for her to support the family financially. Her mother’s

influence on her strongly impacted her self-esteem in later years, often thought she was

unwanted or uncared for by her mother, and in her craft she was unsatisfied with her own

abilities. According to Erik Erickson, when children are told they are not good enough by their

parents or care givers, in the stage known as industry versus inferiority, it will often be reflected

as negative feelings later in life, (Kowalski & Westen, 2011).

I think in this way Maria Callas fits both the cognitive-social theory of personality and

the humanistic theory of personality. Maria Callas had a strong work ethic; she self-regulated

every aspect of her vocal ability and physical appearance, (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Maria

Callas, had an amazing gift, but because she observed her mother’s negative feelings toward her

as a child, she was unable to see her own greatness. Maria needed the applause and approval of

the audience, and the people around her to feel confident and happy after her performances. On

the other hand, Maria’s motivation for singing rose becoming almost parallel to, if not

surpassing, her mother’s goal. Perhaps she did this in an effort to gain the approval of her

mother, which would explain her taking her mother with her on an Opera tour in Mexico, in

Page 4: The Life Span of Maria Callas

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1950, (Sieglohr, 2012). The drive of Maria’s mother, who also wanted to be a famous singer as

well as her negative views toward Maria and forcing her so intensely to be singer could be

applied in the humanistic category, (Kowalski & Westen, 2011).

Callas’ ability to sing, and learn quickly was inherited and paved her way to fame and

fortune, but her emotional environment drove her. Callas also always seemed to be reaching for

perfection; she often commented that she had to learn to accept the sound of her singing voice.

Maria was of acting out; a “Diva” with a fire temperament and overly dramatic personality,

(Sieglohr, 2012). The push of her mother to sing as a children and the strain of that and other

personal relationships reflected on her psychological development. For example, during her teen

years she had spent little time with her father, and in her adult years seems to flock toward much

older men. Her husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, was 28 years her senior, and years later

began a courtship with Aristotle Onassis. Both men were also very wealthy, which could have

also been the result of her mother’s influence and desire for wealth and the finer things in life.

Her ability to sing was not the only thing that was affected by her childhood, it also

seemed to cast a dark shadow over her personally life, as well. Maria seemed to a great deal of

herself as well as the people around her. In truth she was probably her biggest critic; going as far

as losing close to 80 pounds in a year, to be better suit for a particular role and because of

comments on her weight, (Lambton, 2012). Maria’s ability to sing was truly a gift, and she

worked diligently to perfect her craft. Maria was influenced in through her childhood; the best

theory to explain her personality would be humanistic. Sadly the pressure to perform eventually

caught up with her in the later years. She began to lose some of her magnificent ability to

perform and sing with the enthusiasm and in 1977 she died in alone in her Paris apartment of a

heart attack, (Sieglohr, 2012).

Page 5: The Life Span of Maria Callas

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References:

Lambton, S. (2012, March/April). The Young Maria Callas. Musical Opinion, Vol. 135 (Issue

1487), p53-55.

Sieglohr, U. (2012, May/June).Rapture. Film Comment, Vol. 48 (Issue 3), p50-55.

Staggs, S. (2012, October). Tropic of Calls. Opera News., Vol. 77(Issue 4), p32-35.

Robin, K., & Westen, D. (2011). Pscychology: The Study of Mental Processes and Behaviors

(6th ed.). Danvers, Massachusetts, John Wiley & Sons Inc.