Having been fortunate enough, when I was very young, to have heard live at the Covent Garden Opera House, the most wonderfully sublime voice in the entire world, I was intrigued to hear that Greece is attempting to bring the Maria Callas collection of paraphernalia home to what they consider to be its rightful place, Her relationship with Greece may have been as tempestuous as her love affair with Aristotle Onassis, but three decades after her death Greeks, it seems, cannot get enough of Maria Callas. So much so, that the cash-strapped Athens government has unprecedented plans to snap up the last great collection of paraphernalia associated with the singer when it goes under the auctioneer's hammer on December 12. At stake is a fabulous array of intimate letters, jewels, evening dresses, furniture, paintings, photographs, unseen stage notes and annotated musical scores released by the estate of Callas's husband, the late Italian industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini. The material, which allegedly unlocks every aspect of the soprano's life with the much older Meneghini, whom she was to drop in 1957 for Onassis, is expected to fetch well in excess of £500,000 when it is auctioned in Milan. If I had half a billion... I'd be there bidding. But, I guess I'll just have to make do with her wonderful recordings!
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Incredible!
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