Forgotten film reels bring Maria Callas’ Paris debut to colourful life
LONDON (Reuters) - A new film “Callas - Paris, 1958” is about to transport audiences back to the night 65 years ago when opera legend Maria Callas for the first time dazzled a Paris audience.
Celebrities including Charlie Chaplin, Brigitte Bardot and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, as well as then French president René Coty attended the three-hour performance at the Paris Opera.
It was also broadcast live on television to more than 30 million people, but until film-maker Tom Volf and his team meticulously restored film reels that had lain forgotten, it had only been seen in black and white.
Volf, who has dedicated the last decade to promoting Callas’ legacy, obtained the original 16-millimetre master reels of the broadcast in 2021 after hearing that the singer had kept them and stored them in a basement.
“It was a great surprise because as far as everyone knew, the only existing copy was the widely-known black and white, dusty, old, second, third generation copy,” Volf said.
The gala recital drew on Callas’ vast repertoire to include arias such as “Casta
Diva” from Bellini’s “Norma”, “Miserere” from Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” and a fully-staged performance of Act II of “Tosca”.
“The newspapers titled it ‘The Greatest Show in the World’,” Volf said.
Born in New York in December 1923 to Greek parents, Callas was credited with reviving almost single-handedly the Italian bel canto vocal technique. She died of a heart attack in 1977, aged 53.
Volf said the rediscovered reels give insight into Callas’ range as a singer and actress, and the colour restoration allows a closer look at her gestures, facial expressions and her form of “teatro musicale”.
He said the work of his team made the film “as vivid as if it was shot last month”. It will be released in cinemas in some 40 countries between November and December in celebration of the centenary of Callas’ birth.
“It (the film) is not something for experts who are knowledgeable about opera, but something as it was meant to be back in the day, something that anyone could watch and be thrilled to feel like they’re attending a Callas performance live,” he said.