Anxious performers sing too fast. In a new biopic (“Maria”, StudioCanal) the opera singer Maria Callas, beautifully played by Angelina Jolie, is tortured by the fear that her voice and talent are gone. She sings ahead of the piano’s beat, rushing, jumpy, fretful. But when the film flashes back to her live performances with a full orchestra at, say, the opera house in Milan, and as she grows in confidence later in the movie, the timing rights itself and she sings perfectly on the beat. But there is a darker anxiety in Callas – that of psychiatric illness. For me the film carefully left open the question of whether this was brought on solely by her heavy use of drugs and alcohol or by underlying psychosis. Either way, she both hallucinates and self-medicates.
The genius of this ambiguity is that it enables some absolutely sublime cinematography. For Callas, the stage exists in her head. In a Paris bathed in gorgeous yellow light she walks alone and, while recalling the old glory of the performance, orchestra, chorus and extras appear to accompany her memories, real excerpts of real opera. But the stage has also been very convincingly set for us, the audience. A number of early scenes are shot through open doors, glimpses of the private “set” behind them, and beautifully recapitulated by a line near the end “it’s time to close the door.”
Callas says she “lives [her] life looking back”: not just to her role as leading lady of the opera but also to a relationship with Aristotle Onassis, who is portrayed as grotesquely obsessed with his wealth. How many rich men of our own era could perhaps come up with his line “I’m ugly but I’m rich!” But Callas also knows her power. Power to both say no to him and to abruptly end a conversation with none other than John F Kennedy, telling him she is no friend of his and walking away. She lives in an apartment which is framed once again by the past, busts of Ancient Greek figures, vast numbers of costumes worn once, and a piano which is never played but constantly moved around by a butler and housekeeper at her slightest change of mood.
The piano intrigued me. Opera singers don’t perform with pianos in opera houses. They are accompanied by often huge orchestras and choirs (demonstrated, for instance, in the scene in the film framed by the Eiffel Tower, of the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore by Verdi.) But they do learn the part with a specialist pianist, a repetiteur, who intimately knows the inner difficulties they faced while learning their part. And it is a repetiteur who plays as Callas sings ahead of time, full of anxiety. He knows the secret. But towards the end, the secret is exposed as a journalist has secretly recorded her and intends to release the tape to the world which he believes will be shocked at how far the great diva has fallen.
A generation or two later and the world of releasing a secretly taped recording, or catching an unsuspecting minute on camera, the gotcha of contemporary paparazzi, the media using the star, is familiar and quite boring. But the movie also deliberately shows the opposite, what is now the Instagram moment, the photoshop, the control of the image – Callas photographed close up, every blink perfect, every moment controlled, photoshoots for the cover of glossy magazines; the exemplar of the star using the media, the tiresome obsession with projecting image and fakery.
The one frustration I had with “Maria” was that it would have been good for us to be told what music was being played as we went along. It is surely an assumption that the average member of the audience would recognise the music. And one is really none the wiser after reviewing the credits. True, the music that was played throughout is listed, but which credit relates to which excerpt? There is an associated glaring lack of context. For instance, extracts from the role of Violetta in La Traviata, also by Verdi, are played as is the overture to the opera. According to Welsh National Opera, “ [La Traviata] is the most performed opera worldwide … During the 2015/2016 season, Verdi’s masterpiece was performed a staggering 4,190 times, across 869 separate productions.” It would be exceptional for any singer to be considered distinctive in the role. Many, many people have seen the opera (including me, several times) but likely don’t remember the name of the star who played Violetta. But Callas became very famous for precisely this role, amongst others. This matters because much of the audience will leave the film hungry to give opera a go, or dip in more enthusiastically. (For something really accessible, I would recommend the upcoming live broadcast of Puccini’s Turandot, which is famous for the tenor aria “Nessun dorma”, at the Playhouse in the spring.)
It is perhaps a bit too obvious to use minor-key Italian opera, so classically associated with a sense of impending doom, as an amplifier, but the film works exactly as it is without feeling hammy. The crisp screenplay by Steven Knight and ultra-clear diction by the whole cast is a delight and Angelina Jolie plays Maria with affection and mesmerising control. Take the scene with her sister in a cafe towards the end. The camera stays completely still. The first shot is perfectly symmetrical – a view of the two sisters at a table, with an unoccupied chair in the foreground (perhaps for us to take a seat and listen.) Then the second, close up, the camera simply the witness to her pitch-perfect facial muscles: fearful, determined and shocked all at once. Incredible moment.
I visited on a cold icy Saturday in January. It felt as if the Playhouse is at the top of its game, screens thoroughly deep-cleaned after Christmas and today showing no fewer than 12 movies. How about asking one of the team to make you a great cup of Brechin-roasted “Playhouse Blend” Maison Dieu coffee to take into the movie and enjoy a couple of hours’ immersion into the wonderful world of opera?
Adam Poole
11 January 2025“Maria” is showing at the Montrose Playhouse now – there are limited screenings left so catch it while you can; “Turandot” live from Royal Opera on 1 April 2025, tickets on sale now.
