MARIA CALLAS: A UNIVERSAL ICON. Talk/Reading

2nd December 2023 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of La Divina, the name by which Maria Callas is universally known. She was an opera singer who transcended that artistic sphere to become a cultural icon with millions of followers around the world, giving rise to the mythomania that all modern-day sopranos must face in one way or another.

After her tragic death, Maria Callas has left a trail of fascination that, far from being extinguished, is generating new questions for the world of culture. Her figure elicits reactions that range from admiration to controversy, from recognition of the artist to fetishism towards the person. What prevails today, Maria or Maria Callas, the fashion icon or the diva of all divas?

On the occasion of this anniversary, the CGAC proposes an approach to the paradigm of the soprano assoluto, from different but complementary angles. To do so, we will approach her most emblematic characters by means of an audiovisual journey through her career. We will focus on those roles that she revived from oblivion and incorporated forever into the great operatic repertoire, rediscovering in this way bel canto and establishing the canonical way of interpreting it.

Unknown photographs, videos with her most noteworthy interviews, a review of the most surprising tributes—including the show with her hologram—and, of course, some of the arias she immortalised make up the core of this activity directed by Rosa María Fernández.

The programme, which is somewhere between a talk/reading and a meet and greet, also includes a live performance by the young Galician soprano Lucía Iglesias, accompanied by the pianist Ludmila Orlova. Together they will perform three of La Divina's most evocative and moving arias.

A meeting with the public will mark the end of this celebration, the purpose of which is to promote the figure of a singer who has marked the 20th and 21st centuries.

PROGRAMA

• “Benedette queste carte… Della crudele Isotta”, da ópera L’elisir d’amore, de Gaetano Donizetti
• “Non si da follia maggiore”, da ópera Il Turco in Italia, de Gioachino Rossini
• “O mio babbino caro”, da ópera Gianni Schicchi, de Giacomo Puccini

ROSA MARÍA FERNÁNDEZ (Ponferrada, León, 1969) holds a PhD cum laude in Musicology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She obtained her degree in Geography and History from the University of Oviedo and is a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando for the province of Barcelona.