With the release of Pablo Larin’s new biopic MariaStarring Angelina Jolie, the world is once again drawn into the life of Greek-American Opera legend Maria Calus, whose artistry, ambition and separation were inseparable with their myths. The film’s premiere took place on August 29, 2024 at the 81st Venice International Film Festival and has been streaming Lionsgate Play in India since 9 May 2025.
A childhood marked by conflict
Maria Anna Cecilia Kalogeropolos was born in New York in 1923 at the Greek immigrant parents. His childhood was married to family discord and poverty. When his parents separated, his mother Maria and his sister were taken back to Athens just before World War II. Life was foggy in Greece at the time of war, but within that scenario, a remarkable voice came into existence.
Maria trained at Athens Conservatoire under Soprano Elvira de Hidalgo, who saw the cruelty not only in capacity but in their voice. She practiced her mother’s ambition and greatness, isolated, isolated, isolated, isolated, isolated, isolated. She later says that her youth was stolen by music.
A meteor
His professional begins at Athens in the 1940s, but it was in Italy that his legend began to be crystallized. By the age of 25, Maria conquered the major Italian stages, singing with an intensity that the audience had not seen in decades. At Milan’s Titro Alla Skala, he redefined the operative acting.
Maria Bell Canto Opera – long has been considered decorative and old – back in cultural prominence. In the work of Belini, Donizatti and Early Verdie, she found emotional depth. Her Norma was torn between motherhood and priest duty. His lucia got into madness with devastating realism. These were not just performances. They were revelations.
His voice was unusual: expansion in the range, unstable in color, both lyrical humility and capable of volcanic force. Critics sometimes called it uneven. But even those who questioned his technology, they admitted that they could not see far away.
Glamor and grit
He sang and won. Photo Credit: Getty Images
By the 1950s, Maria had become a global celebrity. Her harsh weight loss changed her physically and visually, paired with her with ‘fashion elite’. Designers like Dyer and Biki dressed her, photographers chased her, And tabloids ate every detail of her life.
But change was not without cost. Many people believed that his voice became delicate after physical change. Others pointed to a sheer emotional toll, which corrected his performance. In any way, his career slowed down in the early 1960s.
His relationship with offstage, Greek shipping magnets, Aristotle Onasis made headlines. When she left her for Jacqueline Kennedy, Maria was devastated. Those who knew Maria said that she never recovering emotionally, although she rarely talked about it in public.
Jolie Ki Maria
In her last years, Maria moved away from the limelight, living in her Paris apartment in solitude. Friends referred to him the growing cheating (physical and emotional). She had become dependent on a particular sedative that was determined for insomnia and anxiety during the 1960s and 70s.
According to many biographers, Maria’s dependence on prescription drug intensified the marriage of Jacqueline of Onasis. She was allegedly struggling with segregation, irregular heartbeat and ups and downs in the early 19’70s. Although they were rarely accepted publicly, Maria also hid her pain behind dark glasses, sewn suits, and carefully silence.
It is a delicate, human side that director Pablo Larin discovered his introspection biopic in Maria, starring Angelina Jolie. Set completely in the last years of the singer’s IF, the film avoids the grandeur of its career, and instead, gender on cool rituals of memory: letters, old videos, applause echoes. The depiction of Angelina informed by the months of archial research is inward and distinguished. She plays the role of Maria, not as a legend, but as a woman, who once commanded the stage, but now, wrestled with silence.
Whatever emerges is not a picture of a diva, but a woman has to face the ghosts of her former self.
Etched in a heritage sound
Maria died in 1977 at the age of 53. His ash was scattered in the Aegean Sea, not far from the land that shaped his identity. Even in death, in life, she was elusive – no autobiography, no farewell interview, only a echo of her voice. In 2023, Athens inaugurated the Maria Calus Museum, which marks the centenary with a collection of personal items, costumes, recording and letters. The museum not only reflects its artistic heritage, but also its permanent relevance to opera, theater and performance.
His recording is widely studied and sold. Even today, no one can sing Toska, Norma or La Traviata without comparison of Soprano Maria. But its effect is not measured only in sound. He changed the expectations of what an opera singer could be: not only an singer, but an actor, an thinker and human stage.
Jwala that was tolerated
Angelia Jolie still from the biopic. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Maria never had material to praise from far away. He demanded engagement. His artistry was dirty, raw, sometimes painful. She reached the roles and opened them. His voice torn. She missed the notes. But she was never boring. He felt the audience.
In the era of perfection, he has a voice that reminds us of something else. He did not hide his pain, but replaced it. In doing so, he changed Opera’s face.
Perhaps this is why Maria Calus still matters. Not because she was innocent, but because she was fearless.
Published – May 21, 2025 08:21 PM IST
