2023-11-09 17:03:00
Time.news – There is the ‘private’, more ‘intimate’ Callas, the one off the stage, walking around the streets of Milan or Portofino, walking with her beloved poodle, at the restaurant, at the airport, in a bathing suit in front of the sea of Ischia, but also on Onassis’ yacht or in Court on the days when the case was being discussed separation from her husband.
Behind the scenes images of the life of the great opera singer, which on the occasion of the centenary of her birth are exhibited at the Gallerie d’Italia in Milan, from 9 November to 18 February, in the exhibition “Maria Callas, portraits from the Publifoto Intesa Sanpaolo archive”. The exhibition full of 91 images that the curator Aldo Grasso selected from the photographic agency’s archive, covering the years from 1954 to 1970.
Choosing was not easy, he admitted, “because the photographs were all significant, we used the criterion of choosing those that were ‘alive, subject to continuous rereadings. In the exhibition there are photos that ‘speak, beyond the data’ era still have incredible meaning today, especially for Callas’ life. They are photos of everyday life, with loves and tormentsthere is her life off stage”. Only two images portray the soprano at the theatre, and they open and close the exhibition.
© Photography by Franco Gremignani – Publifoto – Publifoto Intesa Sanpaolo Archive
Aristotle Onassis dances with Maria Callas at the New Year’s Eve party at the Hotel de Paris
The first is from December 1, 1954, and portrays the Callas together with the three great conductors Arturo Toscanini, Victor De Sabata and Antonino Votto after one of the rehearsals of La Vestale; her last one is from 7 December 1970 and represents her return to La Scala, as a spectator, alongside Wally Toscanini. All the others, 89 images, are of everyday life, certainly always of a star, therefore at the party in Monte Carlo, on the megayacht or in Capri.
The format is the original one, as he noted Giovanni Bazoli, Chairman Emeritus of Intesa Sanpaolo. “I found it right to leave the photos in their format. Today a rarity because there are such possibilities to enhance them. But these very small photos force the visitor to get closer and read the captions. It gave me a great emotion, I felt like I knew her.
On the other hand, it was precisely this agency that made the ‘scoop’ of the affair between Divina and Onassis on 3 September 1959 in Milan. On display is the evolution of Maria Callas, her ‘cobbler’ transformationas her sister-in-law had unkindly defined her, to swan which manages to fit into a tight sheath dress made by the most famous designer of the time, Biki. And that she emancipated herself from her husband, who remained somewhat provincial and who did not integrate well into the international jet set of which she was now part, also frequenting Princess Grace.
E her great love, the shipowner Onassis “which for her was revenge on the brutality of life”. The spark struck on the yacht Christina, of which there are several photos. But the relationship, as is known, did not have a happy ending. To console her she had her lifelong friends at her side, Antonio Ghiringhelli, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica, Franco Zeffirelli and of course Pier Paolo Pasolini, with whom she shot the film Medea.
Each photo is a piece of a mosaic that will never end, but “one struck me – says Aldo Grasso – it is from ’55. It portrays a dinner at Savini, at his side is Visconti, you can glimpse Ghiringhelli, Meneghini in a corner. And there is a gentleman who brings Callas a bouquet of roses, I am struck by the gesture, the homage, it was Valentino Bompiani. Callas resists over time because it becomes a myth, which is passed down fueled by stories”.
The Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto Archive is “the treasure island”, full of testimonies. In the years taken into account, among other things, TV was in its infancy, born in ’54. That was the period of the large magazines, for which Publifoto worked.
“We have both posed photos, including the only one in color, together with her husband, Giambattista Meneghini, who looks at her adoringly, in the living room of the Milanese house in via Buonarroti, or in the atelier while trying on clothes, whether stolen or captured photos – explains the curator Aldo Grasso -. They are photos that tell us about her life, with the characters that are part of it.”
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