| ROME “EMBRACES”
MARIA CALLAS
“Divina Callas”: from 1 July until 13 July
the shop windows of the elegant Via Giulia showcase
the unforgettable soprano’s costumes and stage
jewellery, her accessories and other memorabilia.
ROME – Via Giulia, one of the
most striking and elegant streets in Rome, will be the
extraordinary stage setting for a uniquely fascinating
exhibit dedicated to Maria Callas, the legendary “Divina”.
This exhibit, timed to coincide with Rome’s July
fashion shows, has been arranged by TCL (The Charming
Life)’s Art & Events Division, along with
the Associazione Internazionale Maria Callas, whose
president is Bruno Tosi. Sponsors for the event are
the Associazione di Via Giulia, Silverseas Cruises and
Dream Ventures.
From 1 to 13 July, the windows of thirty of Via Giulia’s
most stylish shops will showcase costumes from the opera
star’s most memorable performances, her evening
gowns designed by Biki, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian
Dior and Lanvin, among others, as well as her stage
jewellery, accessories and other memorabilia, in a tribute
to the greatest soprano of modern times. Maria Callas,
after astonishing the world with her voice and her art,
skilfully transformed herself into a symbol of glamour
and refinement; taking the sublime Audrey Hepburn as
her model, Callas, in fact, came to be known as one
of the most fashionable and fascinating women in the
world.
This extraordinary Roman exhibit follows previous editions
in Tokyo, New York, Mexico City and Paris, and features
costumes and other Maria Callas memorabilia seen here
for the first time.
TCL – Art & Events Division
Promoter of the event is the new division of TCL (The
Charming Life): TCL Art & Events, headed by Aurelio
Tarantino. The aim of the division is to create and
organize cultural and artistic events for a refined
public of cognoscenti and lovers of beauty and luxury.
The Maria Callas exhibit is a flagship event that embodies
TCL’s corporate mission, in which “content”
and “vehicle” are equally refined. It can
be argued that Maria Callas is the ideal “testimonial”,
since was a fashion icon as well as a great artist.
What’s on show in Via Giulia
There are roughly thirty outfits,
between stage costumes and items from Maria Callas’
personal wardrobe, on display in Rome, along with accessories
and jewellery from all over the world that Bruno Tosi
tracked down, some of which he acquired at auctions
held in Paris and New York. Among these are certain
outfits that have become legends in themselves, like
the red velvet costume with its long train designed
by Franco Escoffier for the production of Tosca directed
by Zeffirelli and performed in London, Paris and New
York, or the green velvet dress with black lace trim
that Callas wore for her return to the Metropolitan
in New York in 1958, to perform in La Traviata.
Also on show is the yellow costume decorated with black
gauze studded with pompoms, its sleeves adorned with
a cascade of white lace. This costume was created for
the production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia at La Scala
in 1956. Then there’s the red voile dress with
its butterfly sleeves Callas wore for her farewell to
the stage at her concert in Tokyo in October 1974, with
tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano.
The exhibit also features a large number of fabulous
concert and evening gowns designed for Callas by her
favourite couturière, the world-famous Biki,
among them the legendary black velvet gown photographed
by Cecil Beaton, embroidered with black pearls, and
with a flared skirt. Other interesting items include
the superb Christian Dior nightgown, two embroidered
blue and green caftans that Biki brought Callas from
India, which she wore in her dressing room, and the
antique silver-knit tunic from Syria that Onassis gave
Callas as a present, which she wore at the “Sirens’
Ball” aboard the yacht Christina.
Memorabilia include several poems and two pastel portraits
that Pier Paolo Pasolini dedicated to Callas in the
early Seventies that bear witness to their “impossible
love story”.
Rome “embraces” Maria Callas
Queen of La Scala for many years and
acclaimed soprano appearing on the world’s most
famous stages, Maria Callas had a special relationship
with Rome, a city she loved and often performed in until
2 January 1958. Callas caused a scandal when she broke
off her performance of Norma after the first act on
the opening night of the season at the Teatro dell’Opera
in Rome, with the then-president of Italy, Gronchi,
in attendance.
Callas was ill, with a tracheitis that stopped her from
finishing her performance, but the explanation she gave
was not believed, and her refusal to go on was considered
an unforgivable caprice. This awful evening and its
dire consequences were a terrible affront to Callas.
She was even prevented from returning to the stage for
the rest of the run in Rome, in the name of avoiding
further unruly protests. One lone voice rose to defend
her: Indro Montanelli, on the front page of the Corriere
della Sera.
For Maria Callas, a conciliatory gesture was clearly
in order: almost 50 years after these epic misunderstandings,
Rome now opens its arms to her, a gesture that is all
the more significant because the initiative does not
come from an opera house, as prestigious as that might
have been, but from one of the most beautiful and best-loved
streets in the city, where a larger public, strolling
from window to window past images, keepsakes and other
mementos, can admire the life and triumphs of this unforgettable
primadonna. Her recordings are still the world’s
bestsellers today, her fame virtually universal.
Maria Callas, “La divina”
This great artist truly left her mark
on our times. No other opera singer has been more adored,
or more detested. For two decades she dominated the
scene like a diva from the nineteenth century, yet her
interpretations were revolutionary: no other singer
had – or has had since – Callas’ charisma
or stage presence. She was a graceless, overweight woman
when she first appeared in Italian opera houses, but
when she left, she was the most elegant and sophisticated
lady. “Divine”, in opera, meant Callas and
Callas alone. In fact, she was to opera what Greta Garbo
was to cinema.
Courted, idolized, tormented to the point of desperation,
to the point of letting herself die in utter solitude.
Paris, 1977: it was a Friday afternoon; Callas was not
yet 54 years old. A fair amount of mystery surrounded
her death, as is de rigueur in the case of living legends,
who are never allowed to die as common mortals do. On
the other hand, every last detail of the life of the
twentieth century’s greatest and most passionate
opera singer is public knowledge. Her deepest secrets
have been revealed. No one who knew her has resisted
the temptation to recount her joys, her fits of rage,
her loves, her jealous furies.
The legend
She was Maria Callas, period. The
legend was created piece by piece, from her birth in
New York in 1923, the daughter of struggling Greek immigrants,
to her storming of Italy, a country seeking its lost
joie de vivre. Voluptuous, as the fashion of the times
dictated, and with a new surname – another custom
of those times – Callas was in good company, with
Loren, Lollobrigida and countless others. She was immediately
set against the other great sopranos, first and foremost
Renata Tebaldi. This was a common occurrence, also in
other fields. Remember Coppi and Bartali, Nuvolari and
Varzi, De Gasperi and Togliatti?
She stopped singing in 1974. Solitude was waiting in
the wings. Callas retreated to Paris, insecure, unhappy,
seeking affection she could not find. She was momentarily
saved from this state by her film venture: Pier Paolo
Pasolini’s Medea. Callas became very close to
Pasolini. It was a relationship of great tenderness
that proved to be a real meeting of souls, as Callas’
letters to Pasolini and his poems dedicated to her show.
When she died in 1977, Callas left a note for posterity:
it quoted the suicide in the last act of La Gioconda:
“In these proud moments”. The French radio
announced the death of La Divina with these words: “The
most celebrated voice in the world has fallen silent.”
Many, many years had gone by since Callas had chosen
one word as her motto: “I”.
TCL Art & Events Division and The Charming
Life
TCL, The Charming Life, grew out of
‘The Charming Hotels of the World Group, which
was founded in 1987 and has now reached international
dimensions in quality tourism. The evolution of the
company’s identity from that of a hotel chain,
strictly speaking, to a truly multi-dimensional concept
– The Charming Life – marked the turning
point in a corporate strategy that considers its new
division a most promising development.
In 17 years, TCL has created an impressive international
network with 170 affiliated hotels (91 in Europe, the
Middle East and Africa; 27 in the Asian Pacific, and
39 in Central and South America); 20 restaurants, 10
clubs and 30 shops all over the world, with a consolidated
position in 22 countries. This network attracts over
two and a half million guests a year: high-end tourists
who prize charm and discreet luxury.
The corporate goal is to reach a total of 3,000 affiliates,
between hotels and resorts, charming boutiques, restaurants
and clubs, in the next three years, to round out TCL’s
portfolio of the hottest international high-end tourist
destinations. Turnover for the businesses that are part
of the TCL-The Charming Life network, with its roughly
8,000 employees overall, reached 1 billion euros in
2004. TCL-The Charming Life is headquartered in Rome
and has branches operating in New York and Tokyo.
TCL S.p.A Art & Events Division, Via Cola di Rienzo
240,
00192 Rome. Tel.: (06) 68193165, Fax (06) 68193142
www.thecharminglife.com
Press Office Marina Tavolato, Travel Marketing –
Rome
Tel. (06) 822940. Fax (06) 822426. E-mail: martav@rmnet.it
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