Maria Callas The Woman behind the Legend

Maria Callas The Woman behind the Legend

Legendary soprano Maria Callas, whose singing was as sensational as her life, is the subject of this biography by author and columnist Huffington. Huffington tells of Callas’ transformation from a shy, chubby girl into one of the greatest opera singers of

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars A Legendary, Operatic Life!
Maria Callas~~ she gave everything for her art, and then, everything

for love. This fascinating, thoroughly researched biography feels like

a novel, it is riveting, and beautifully written.

You hear her voice and fall in love with it, you see her face in photos

and you are captivated. When you read her story you will begin to understand how much she gave to us, with such great love and sacrifice,

for her beautiful art.

She was a powerful spirit who lived every moment to the fullest.

A fabulous book by Arianna Huffington! Grazie Mille!

3 Stars Not a New Book
Isn’t this the same bio written several decades ago under Huffington’s maiden name? Has this been expanded?

Although that book had many interesting facts and a lot of rehashing of the same old same old story of Callas, the view of the woman and the career were from a feminists’s point of view. I’m not criticizing that at all. Certainly Callas totally screwed up her career and life due to Onasis and I believe it is widely known and understood that the only thing Callas could really do in life was music. Had she been truly self-actualized, she would have lived much longer and had a longer career. Her singing career was essentially over by 41. Everything that followed except for the Juilliard Master Classes was grasping for straws.

If this is the same book, I’m not putting it down and some of the insights are interesting but my god, how many biographies must we have on one single musician?

5 Stars To Err is Human…to Forgive, La Divina…
Don’t you think it’d be GREAT, if Amazon listed the book’s true author as Arianna Stassinopoulos instead of Arianna Huffington? I mean, really. Oy.

4 Stars Good beginning and ending - boring in the middle
The book is very good, but in some parts can be quite dull if you are not an Opera fan or musician. The beginning up to when she becomes famous is exciting, and the end as she is no longer quite so famous, is interesting. But the middle is redundant. Arianna goes through detail after detail of each and every performance. That to me is not exciting to read. But because I was curious about the whole Onassis/Kennedy/Callas triangle, I waited. It is important though to read everything to understand her personality. This woman was a wonderful person and a great legend, but she definitely suffered I would suspect from Histrionic Personality Disorder. Onassis is definitely a complete dick, not that this is a surprise, he reminded me a lot of Diego Rivera when it came to women as his possessions. They might have been friends had they known each other - although I suspect thier politics were different. I also purchased a CD to hear Maria sing and often played it while reading, quite a beautiful experience. I was not an Opera fan prior to buying this book. I only bought it after seeing the movie from Netflix - Callas Forever - a Historical Fiction. Curiosity got the best of me and now I am a fan - of Maria.

5 Stars Excellent biography. Read it when it first “came out!”
The number one recall I have about this book still haunts me to this day… her abortion. Onasis giving her the choice, him or the child.

Haunting. Horrible.

Above all, this book was a major “undertaking” for the author which she executed superbly! What a story! What a book!

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