Maria Callas: La Scala e i sui protagonisti interview with Dora Ossenska (Paris, March 23, 1971)

[@flowercy17]

God, I love her. I wish I could give her a hug, if I existed during that time.

[@mf9560]

Same feeling here! This woman needed hugs, her sight is so sadly heartbreaking :(

[@youTuber08728]

¡Yo también la abrazaría!

[@ritapita1126]

@@mf9560 what do you mean sad sight?? She is extremely beautiful here, quite ravishing.

[@mf9560]

@@ritapita1126 She was beautiful, always radiant but in her private life María needed more affection and love.

[@giovic9802]

I feel the same

[@bejoyful]

I have only recently been re-introduced to Diva Callas and her fascinating story and gifts to us; she must be remembered!

[@Vision-yo8qx]

She looked so elegant and beautiful, and came across as a very sincere and personable lady. I could not believe that she died two years after this interview. I wish God had kept her on Earth for eternity! Rest in peace, Maria! We love you!

[@baronmeduse]

She didn't, she died almost 6 and 1/2 years later in 1977!

[@stephenfletcher6801]

I don’t speak Italian, at all, but I swear I find this interview more fascinating and interesting than any contemporary opera singer I can think of. She is so animated in this interview.

[@MST82]

I love her speaking voice. :) I wish there was translated text under the video.

[@DiomedesDioscuro]

Cada día siento más admiración por esta mujer.

[@chrismanavis4505]

MY BEAUTIFUL GREEK WOMAN........RIP..

[@mareforza9463]

ma vi rendete conto di cosa dice? a parte tutto il resto... "vado soltanto ad orecchio!..." un genio assoluto.aveva una liberta di movimento e grande autonomia dal maestro. fantastica...

[@diogene3913]

Aggiunga pure che Maria Callas parlava l'italiano meglio degli stessi italiani di quell'epoca e di oggi.

[@ОльгаИльина-ш5л]

Это интервью с Дорой Оссинской было 23 марта 1971г в квартире Марии Каллас.

[@LauraMonteson]

La Divina!

[@vitadalupi1655]

Che essere superiore!

[@tarzanpony]

Anybody knows if theres some interview where Maria speaks about Di Stefano? It seems odd to me that in the many interviews ive seen, she never mention him even when he was one of her greatest collegues...

[@gingin3919]

tarzanpony Look for: Maria Callas - the finesse of the French interview

[@Khalito22]

The most important is that it is sung in....

[@chrisgatchalian3725]

She actually seems surprisingly upbeat here, considering this interview was done around the time Onassis died (Spring 1975). So the oft-repeated description of her being a completely and utterly depressed recluse during her last two years is probably an exaggeration.

[@stefanodepeppo]

I am pretty much sure this interview was made in Spring 1976. It was part of a whole series of programs and interviews which was aired at Italian RAI (I watched this and others back then.,..) during the fall for the La Scala bicentennial.

[@tenisfin]

I agree wholeheartedly that her depression was exaggerated, mostly lazy reporting by biographers who repeated already published info.

[@stefanodepeppo]

tenisfin Possibly yes. But she looks depressed. And older. And there are no people who at the dime was close to her who would not say exactly the same.

[@Khalito22]

Of course exaggerated I think Maria had an accidental overdose and her "friends" and media spun it out into what it is today.

[@gingin3919]

Chris Gatchalian Onassis died in 1975. The interview happened in 1971

[@jamesmorrison2055]

To Italian speakers - did Maria Callas speak Italian with any sort of Greek accent or did she speak Italian just like native Italians? I’m just curious as an English speaker who doesn’t understand Italian.

[@Gabriel-hs9mv]

it was very Veronese in the 50s, she passed for a native speaker then. As she aged (and so in this clip) and left Italy her Italian acquired slight foreign undertones at times, but it was not specific to any country. Almost like her English, it just sounded bizarre and like she was from nowhere, but at the same time obviously excellent. Same with her Italian. You are left thinking she speaks very well in a way that you would expect only a native speaker to do, but at the same time with an almost imperceptible foreign something that you cannot quite pin down.

[@jamesmorrison2055]

@@Gabriel-hs9mv Wow, thanks for the detailed answer! That is super interesting. It really amazes me how she was able to speak four languages so fluently (she spoke better English than many Americans). What a fascinating and brilliant woman.

[@Gabriel-hs9mv]

@James Morrison oh yes, if you know anything about language and linguistics ( not too much myself but I have learnt a few languages so I am familiar with the process ), you can see straight away that she was a genius. Moving to Italy as an adult at 23, BEFORE there was any of today’s technology around, and being able to speak this fluently and with a native-like accent reveals, for those who know, a really *really* brilliant brain.

[@jamesmorrison2055]

@@Gabriel-hs9mv Yes, and also the fact that the four languages she mastered (Greek, English, Italian, French) are SO radically different from each other makes it even more impressive! I think I remember reading somewhere she could also speak some Spanish too.

[@lucete7240]

​@@jamesmorrison2055 She was very good at Spanish too! There is a interview of Maria in 1952 Mexico

[@stefanodepeppo]

yes

[@stefanodepeppo]

Yes, pretty much everything she sang in Greece was in Greek. I think only Tosca was performed in Greek and in Italian in two different seasons. And of course the concerts where she sang many arias (even Cenrentola!) were in the original language.

[@diogene3913]

She spoke Italian better than the Italians of that time and today.

[@Gabriel-hs9mv]

what’s her accent like?

[@diogene3913]

@@Gabriel-hs9mv the accent is slightly American. But there is also to say that the accent of the mother tongue is difficult to change. Often, there are those who succeed, as for the Italian-American presenter Mike Bongiorno, who spoke impeccable Italian without an American accent, even though he came from the USA. And for others it is more difficult. As for the Italian actress Edwige Fenech, who speaks Italian but with a strong French accent. In the case of Maria Callas, it can be said that she spoke Italian fluently, albeit with a slight American accent.

[@Gabriel-hs9mv]

@@diogene3913 I do not hear an American accent at all🤔 I hear a slight foreign tone, mixed with a lombardo-veneto touch as well. Her foreign accent in Italian became more obvious after she settled in Paris in the 60s, in the early 50s to me ear she had a veronese accent.

[@jenniferrodgers57]

Was this '71 or '74? I've seen another clip this video, with 1974 in the description....

[@stefanodepeppo]

She never sang in German. Her German operettas/operas were translated in Greek, during her Greek career.

[@stefanodepeppo]

L'intervista è del 1976, non del 1971!! Ma non avete anche il finale dove dice che vorrebbe che i giovani cantanti bussassero alla sua porta?..

[@ationation1370]

can i have English sub ?

[@cattillman7705]

BABE SPEAKS SO ELOQUENTLY ON GOD!!!!!!! I LOVE Y'ALL WIVES!!!!!!!🥰🌞🌝

[@chrisgatchalian3725]

callas did not speak german, or at least was not fluent in it. there are only two recordings i know of of callas singing german: the first has her singing passages from "fidelio" in one of her master classes at juillard, and the second is a bootleg recording of her singing a schumann lied shortly before she died.

[@123pailin]

You forgot":Der Hoelle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen", which she also did in german during the Masterclasses and she was at a loss when it came to the correct pronounciation. Callas did not speak german. Very interestin what you say about the Schubert Lied. Where can I find it????

[@laurecorbani9521]

De quand date cet interview svp 1971 ou 1977?

[@Faust075]

Très probablement 1974

[@Khalito22]

My Italian is weak

[@diogene3913]

I assume you’re not Italian, so you don’t have to worry at all. If anything, the Italians themselves should be, especially from southern Italy.

[@Khalito22]

@@diogene3913 wtf are you talking about.

[@Khalito22]

@@diogene3913 translate it

[@diogene3913]

@@Khalito22 What am I saying? That in southern Italy, even today that we are in 2022, many southern people or vulgarly in Italian called terrona, from the north, speak or with marked regional local accent incomprehensible to foreigners, or exclusively in strong dialect. But Maria Callas, as you can ask others, even though she is American, she spoke in Italian very, very well.

[@Khalito22]

@@diogene3913 oh Jesus…all I’m saying is that my Italian isn’t perfect can you please translate…sheesh. We know she speaks Italian, French, Greek, German etc well if not perfectly.

[@flyvanessa85]

How man languages did she speak?!

[@123pailin]

She was fluent in English, french, italian and greek...

[@gingin3919]

vanessa w. Greek, English, French, Italian

[@stefanodepeppo]

Incredibie to think that she was only 51-52 years old. She looks older. She definitely must have been depressed.

[@stefanodepeppo]

***** Really?...To me she looks like an elegant classy woman in her early 60s...52? No way!

[@stefanodepeppo]

?....

[@Distefano5]

+stefanodepeppo She does not look older for a Mediterranean woman, she is still very beautiful but indeed she look very depressed specially her eyes.

[@stefanodepeppo]

Di Stefano Of course, classy and still beautiful. But to me she looks like a very well kept woman around 60...Perhaps her depressed look....

[@stefanodepeppo]

***** ok...