Maria Callas : sacred monster / Stelios Galatopoulos.

Includes discography and videography (pages 483-514).

Includes bibliographical references (page 540) and index.

Prologue : Conversations with Callas -- Roots -- First flights -- America revisited -- The two gentlemen of Verona -- Success and squabbles in Latin America -- The passionate pilgrim attains La Scala -- Crusade to the new world -- The years of triumph and Visconti -- The Metropolitan -- Rivals and recriminations -- Scandals -- More scandals : the break with Rome and La Scala -- At war with the Metropolitan -- A fated Greek cruise and Onassis -- Divorce and return to the stage -- Decline and retirement -- Remembrance of times past -- The making of the artist -- Twilight of a sacred monster -- Discography -- Chronology of performances -- Select bibliography.

This is the authoritative biography of one of the great icons of the century, Maria Callas, the most brilliant and controversial singer-actress of modern times. Written by a music scholar, opera critic, and, toward the end of Callas' life, a close friend, Sacred Monster is an account of the singer's triumphant and tumultuous public career and her private life. Sacred Monster is not only the definitive portrait of one of the greatest artists of the century, it corrects the many misguided books about Callas that have appeared since her death in 1977 at the age of fifty-three. Galatopoulos writes about Callas objectively - recognizing her flaws, her temperament, and the signs of premature vocal deterioration. Galatopoulos attended more than a hundred of Callas' performances and he describes not only the brilliance of her many triumphs, the disappointments of her setbacks, and the poignance of her premature decline, but also her legacy, which resides in her continuing influence and her extensive and valuable discography. Callas chose to share many of her most frank judgments about her professional problems with Galatopoulos. Perhaps most dramatically, in this book, which might almost be called "Callas Has the Last Word," Galatopoulos sets straight the soap opera portrait some have drawn of a shattered and reclusive woman abandoned by her lover, Aristotle Onassis. In fact, Callas and Onassis resumed their friendship shortly after his marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy. This portrait of Callas shows her in retirement every bit as forceful and engaged as she was on stage. - Publisher.