Product Details

• Actors: Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Carlo Maria Giulini, Franco Zeffirelli
• Directors: Alan Lewens, Alistair Mitchell
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Angel Records
• DVD Release Date: October 26, 1999
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305614385
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,409 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Maria Callas - Life and Art" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Long before the media's obsession with celebrity scaled its current heights, Maria Callas commanded headlines and column inches equal to any of the jet-setting elite of her time. In those terms alone, and much as opera purists might flinch at the idea, she was the Madonna of her day. But that is only one reason why her legend extends well beyond her place in the pantheon of great sopranos and so long after her death in 1977.

An excellent companion to Tony Palmer's 1987 documentary La Divina, Maria Callas: Life and Art provides a well-rounded picture of an extraordinary talent who defended her art with the courage of a tigress, but whose turbulent private life gave her little except restless grief. It is crammed with concert footage and archive interviews. She was, as contributor Franco Zeffirelli says, a genius of hair-raising stature and one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. But she was also a rather fragile human being. The tension between the two makes the telling of her story utterly compelling. The DVD includes chronologies of Callas's life and the many roles she played during her career. --Piers Ford

Product Description

The most brilliant of all the documentaries about the legendary Maria Callas, Life and Art includes extensive interviews with her friends and colleagues, as well as priceless footage of "La Divina" in performance.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Songs of Her Own Fate, May 23, 2003

By 

BLee "bpslee" (HK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maria Callas - Life and Art (DVD)

If you are mad about Callas, this is something you don't want to miss. Like Busoni or else Heifetz, Callas is too much a legend to compare with: even someone with the stature of Schwarzkopf was obliged to give way.

For those who are not so mad about opera, they may also find this DVD interesting. As suggested by it's title, it's more concerned with her life than her art: things like where she came from, where she was brought up, who her parents were, what sort of musical education she had, and lastly but not the least, her love with the shipping millionaire...

Her life was told by those who had first hand knowledge of her, like her long time partner Stefeno (Italian tenor), her piano accompanist, conductor (Giulini), her director, an EMI producer, a critic plus, 2 or 3 clips of herself, one in an interview and the others when she talked to the press. We also have a lot of her photos too when we hear her sing.

Not much was offered in terms of her art by these contributors. Perhaps for a legend like Callas, it's not really necessary especially when there are clips (not in full, of course) of her acting/singing. Tosca came up twice, they are just marvelous, so did Norma, something that we can't afford to miss. The voice with it's force and drama are just amazing. All the more so for Rossini's "Una voce poco fa" which is virtually unsurpassable. The duets with Stefeno are perhaps filmed when she had past her very prime, which are nonetheless very appealing.

Callas once said she was sick of New York since her parts in the great operas are all so sad, either dying of consumption or else with a broken heart, something she sang so beautifully and acted so well as though she was really one of those characters herself: this ironically turned out exactly to be her own portrait. Such being her fate of, the fate of a great artist who probably is the greatest opera singer of all times. So, this is life...

4 stars mainly because of the short running time: only 76 minutes. Recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommend!, March 12, 2001

By 

"andres_a" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maria Callas - Life and Art (DVD)

This is an outstanding documentary! You will learn all about Maria Callas' biography. It starts beautifully as the first scene shows Maria Callas singing "Visi d'arte, visi d'amore" (Tosca act II) - to show an analogy between Tosca and Callas: two divas who lived for art and love... This video is mostly a collection of interviews of colleagues and friends of Maria Callas. It also includes some interviews with Callas herself in which one may see her charming and magnetic personality. The timeline is explained very clearly and with good use of historical sources. There is also some footage of Maria Callas singing a few arias like Casta Diva (10+), Una Voce Poco Fa (Outstanding!) and others. Definitely one to buy!

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must for fans of Maria Callas, March 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Maria Callas - Life and Art (DVD)

This is a "must" for fans of Maria Callas, but not necessarily so for fans of the arts of Maria Callas. It covers a lot of Maria's life, but not too much of her art. I would have given it 5 star if it had given the full footage of her singing of Norma's Casta Diva (they show only seconds of it). She was very elegant even at her fifties. Can any one tell me how many sopranos are there (or have ever been) who are pretty, slim,can sing AND can act very well at the same time? Maria Callas is the only one I know (hmm, may be I am ignorant...) who can live up to the very high expectation of most opera fans. The DVD also shows her as a young woman when she was still fat. But she was indeed not very fat. I don't think Cecilia Bartoli is slimmer than she was. It was such a great loss to opera fans that she should be born so early. Otherwise we should have many more of her art to enjoy through these visual material.