Following the recent cinema experience of Maria Callas in concert, released to mark Maria’s centenary year, with the footage restored from the original reels in colour, 4K resolution and Dolby Atmos surround sound now a book looks back on her life.
A book on the singer has been 12 years in the making, The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography is a voluminous labour of love that juxtaposes the on- and off-stage personas of opera’s lyrical enigma Maria Callas — opening a window into the confounding double life of all performers while depicting Callas as she truly was: a relatable figure who had to balance real life with the creation of a stressful but exquisite art.
Author Sophia Lambton, a venerable classical music critic, mined 3,395 sources spanning 80 years and 21 countries (including never-before-seen correspondence and archival documents) to illustrate the complexity of Callas and her immeasurable talents. In doing so, Lambton closes in on Callas’ self-contradictions, self-descriptions, attitudes and habits like no one has before and with empathic scrutiny.
“If you love music truly you can only feel humble before its infinite potentialities and recognize one’s own limitations in serving it — perhaps at the cost of never knowing any lasting, consistent happiness.” — Maria Callas
The book features never-published letters between Callas and her manager as well as notes taken during their phone conversations to unveil the soprano’s inner workings from 1953 until her death in 1977. Also included are missives between Callas and her legal separation lawyer; messages between the singer and conductors and artistic directors; and new interviews with those who knew Callas — all of which reinforce Callas’ authorial contributions to the world of opera.
Ultimately, The Callas Imprint makes Maria Callas into a relatable human being. It’s an artistic journey through the rocky 20th century from the eyes of an inimitable genius.
“Seductress, villainess and victor, queen and crouching slave, Callas is a gallery of guises instrumentalists would kill to engineer … made by a single voice.” — Sophia Lambton
Sophia Lambton became a professional classical music critic at the age of 17 when she began writing for Musical Opinion, Britain’s oldest music magazine. Since then she has contributed to The Guardian, Bachtrack, musicOMH, BroadwayWorld, BBC Music Magazine and OperaWire, and has conducted operatic research around the world for The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography, the richly detailed account of Maria Callas published to coincide with her 100th birthday in December 2023.
The big screen concert CALLAS – PARIS, 1958 sees Maria Callas, the quintessential diva and the face of the opera in the 20th century, make her Paris debut with this legendary performance at the sumptuous Paris Opéra on December 19th, 1958, for one night only. The newly restored film of CALLAS – PARIS, 1958 – for the first time entirely in colour – will receive a worldwide exclusive theatrical run, releasing only in cinemas globally throughout this month and December 2023.
The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography. Release Date: December 2, 2023
ASIN: B0BRYPL5WN (Kindle), ISBN-13: 978-1739286323 (hardcover), ISBN-13: 978-1739286347 (paperback) Available from Amazon.com
