MARIA CALLAS IN GREECE: 9 May 2007
Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Atene
Bruno Tosi Presidente dell’Associazione Maria Callas - Melita Palestini (direttore Dell’Istituto Italiano di cultura) - Il Presidente di 'Idrima' Stelios Papatemelis - Giampaolo Scarante (Ambasciatore d’Italia ad Atene) - il Segretario Generale del Ministero della Cultura Greca Christos Sakopoulos.
More than 1000 people (instead of the 300 invited public figures of the Greek Capital) have come to the Italian Culture Institute of Athens, which has promoted the Exhibition “Maria Callas, a woman, a voice, a myth”, claimed and sponsored by the Greek Culture Ministry, that, since last January, had announced that 2007 would be Maria Callas Year.
During the last months there were other projects but the most desired and outstanding one is the Exhibition organized by Callas Association, presided by Mr. Bruno Tosi, long ago invited to the special event.
Visitors have come not only from Athens but from all over Greece for what was told to be an “Extraordinary event”.
On the opening day, May 9th, since the morning, in the crowded conference hall. There were the Italian Ambassador, Giampaolo Scarante, the director of the Italian Culture Institute of Athens, Melita Palestini, the secretary general of the Greek Culture Ministry, Christos Sakopoulos, the president of “Idrima”, Stelios Papatemelis and Georghios Parisakis, director of the Megaron Musikis (Music Palace) of Salonicco, where the exhibition will be after May 28th till the end of June. The main TV broadcasters have given the maximum space to this event as well as the most reliable press has dedicated whole pages and special coloured inserts with clear references in the first pages. Enthusiastic remarks by the authorities attending the Exhibition opening.
COMUNICATI ANSA
CRO:EXHIBITION
2007-05-09 18:49
EXHIBITION: ITALY COMMEMORATES 'DIVINE' CALLAS IN GREECE
(By Furio Morroni) (ANSAmed) - ATHENS, MAY 9 - A unique collection of 517
objects which belonged to the 'Divine' Maria Callas or were connected to
her artistic career, will be put on display from this evening at the
Italian Culture Institute (IIC) in Athens as part of the exhibition named
"Maria Callas: A Woman, A Voice, A Myth." With its exceptional
documentary value, the event - organised by IIC led by Melita Palestini,
with the Maria Callas Association of Venice and the Greek Foundation of
Studies and Solidarity under the aegis of the Greek Culture Ministry - is
the highlight of the programme of international initiatives launched to
mark this year the 30th anniversary from the death of the soprano in
Paris on September 16, 1977. In the valuable setting arranged by the IIC,
admired this evening also by the secretary general of the Greek Culture
Ministry Christos Sakopoulos, the visitor will see the splendid stage
costumes of the many operas in which Callas sang, elegant evening gowns,
shoes, handbags, and colourful feather hats. Among the stage constumes,
especially beautiful are those she wore for 'La Vestale' (The Vestal
Virgin) at Milan's Teatro alla Scala in December 1954; for 'La Traviata'
at New York's Metropolitan in December 1958 and those in Sapporo, Japan,
in October 1974 on the occasion of the last concert with tenor Giuseppe
Di Stefano. Then, there are jewels, telegrammes, programmes and theatre
performances from 1938 to 1974, recipes (especially for sweets) written
in Italian with broad and clear handwriting, family photographs in New
York and Athens, those of the war years, of the successes at the Athens
Opera, of the return in the USA and the debut in Verona, of the following
roles in Venice, Rome, Florence. There are also images with her husband,
Italian industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini, as well as with Greek
ship owner Aristotle Onassis, and those of a meeting with Arturo
Toscanini, of which it is worth mentioning the parallel made by maestro
Riccardo Muti ('She was for singing what Toscanini was for orchestra
conducting"). The song which she, the diva with a 19th century style,
innovated by returning to the origins, as Bruno Tosi, president of the
Maria Callas Association, loves to recall. The public and the private
life of the same woman and the same myth, therefore, appear in this
exhibition demonstrating the uniqueness of person and artist, with many
documents showing what Maria Callas represented and what was her image
for those who were able to admire the singing and interpretative talent,
as well as the unequalled ability to stand out on the stage of famous
personalities, transformed by the mass media in the 1950s and 1960s into
a glittering fair for the readers and viewers in this still black and
white epoch. (ANSAmed).
RED-KUZ/ SAM SAM SAM ME24
con il sostegno del Casinò
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