Maria La Divina
Jerome Charyn’s bracing biographical novel is about Maria Callas’s transformation from a New York daughter of Greek immigrants to a world-famous opera soprano.
When she’s a teenager, Maria’s ambitious mother brings her to Athens. Myopic and awkward, Maria nonetheless impresses Elvira de Hidalgo, a coloratura soprano, who accepts her as a pupil. Thus begins a reverent yet earthy tale in which Maria’s headstrong personality and powerful voice are forged by tough circumstances.
Dramatic vignettes feature Maria’s career highs and lows. Fairy tale flourishes, including Callas singing to her canaries and receiving tailored clothes, unfurl alongside harsher wartime incidents and backstage hostilities. In Athens, Maria debuts as Tosca. Her attempts to establish herself in postwar Italy and to sing at La Scala draw attention, including that of a former opera star who reigns from within a madhouse. Maria’s tenure at the Metropolitan Opera House proves tumultuous, too. Her entertaining encounters with opera insiders and the press build suspense about her eventual breakthroughs.
Maria’s characterization is built on contrasts. Onstage, her voice is lauded. Offstage, she can’t shake her Bronx accent. Her poor eyesight necessitates going to incredible lengths to memorize every stage’s layout in detail; her instincts concerning people are sharp. Her weight is remarked on, her appetites unabashed. She’s cultured, but not above fistfights. The result is a multifaceted view of a woman who sought to fill the part of an opera “diva.”
Later sections convey Maria’s challenges in the spotlight, her romantic affairs, and dynamic encounters, including meeting Winston Churchill and Aristotle Onassis. The decline of her career is covered in candid terms, and the book’s conclusion is fitting and aching.
In the spirited biographical novel Maria La Divina, the allure of an opera legend is rendered with humanizing grit.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
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