Description
Seductress, villainess, and victor, queen and crouching slave, she is a gallery of guises instrumentalists would kill to engineer … made by a single voice. But while her craftsmanship has stood the test of time, Callas’ image has contested defamation at the hands of dirt-diggers and opportunists: saboteurs of beauty. Twelve years in the making, this voluminous labour of love explores the singer with the reverence she dealt her heroines. The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography reaps never-before-seen correspondence and archival documents worldwide to illustrate the complex of their multi-faceted creator – closing in on her self-contradictions, self-descriptions, attitudes and habits with empathic scrutiny. It swivels readers through the singer’s on- and offstage scenes and flux of fears and dreams … the double life of all performers.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Permissions
List of Illustrations
Prologue: Break normality
1. Volupuous intoxication
2. A sort of straitjacket
3. Strings of the heart and the mind
4. Thick as molasses
5. Like going to church
6. In a room with little light
7. Everything seems a dense fog
8. Extreme poetry
9. Chantilly
10. A human note
11. Pure stage
12. Being conscientious
13. Little checking machines
14. Like a signature
15. Consciously watching
16. Redimensioning
17. The ‘intangible’
18. Espèce de vapeur
19. Inside is your mirror
20. Calculate in the dark
21. The illusion of a better world
22. Carte blanche
23. Beauty is truth
Legend
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Sophia Lambton became a professional classical music critic at the age of seventeen when she began writing for Musical Opinion, Britain’s oldest music magazine. Since then she has contributed to The Guardian, Bachtrack, musicOMH, BroadwayWorld, BBC Music Magazine and OperaWire, and conducted operatic research around the world for The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography. This richly detailed account of Maria Callas’ life was published to coincide with her one hundredth birthday in December 2023.
Reviews
2024 ARSC AWARDS FINALIST: BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED CLASSICAL MUSIC
A dense, well-organized narrative… Tells you everything you’ll ever need to know about Callas in impressive detail.
BBC Music Magazine
[A] fascinating, well-written and interesting centenary biography… Lambton’s lovely use of the English language helps bring the page alive, something Callas, the perfectionist, would, I am sure, have enjoyed… This biography will be enjoyed by those new to opera as well as those who are long-term fans. It is a story told in a compelling way with a narrative that holds the reader’s attention.
Andrew Palmer, The Yorkshire Times
Of all the biographies of La Divina, this one is for sure the most complete… A masterpiece of scientific rigour.
OperaLife, Italy
[Lambton’s] level of profound insight, illustrating a vast knowledge and passion for Callas as a human being, expands the looking glass of The Callas Imprint into an internal mirror that reflects the very essence of what it is that makes us all human… [Her] unique approach to Callas’ trajectory illuminates her as more than a beloved singer. In fact, the recordings that Lambton transcribes throughout this book reveal Maria in her highest, lowest, and most banal moments of life. The spectrum that Lambton captures in doing so is the most honest approach to Callas’ reality that one might hope to find in a biography. It seems there is no one bias or interest to serve here: instead the main point is to make Callas as real as possible… The Callas Imprint is a revelation: a book worthy of anyone who is interested in learning more about how to live, and live as freely as they will their life to be.
Jennifer Pyron, OperaWire
A book for opera fans and music lovers in general, The Callas Imprint is a multi-faceted, in-depth examination of an extraordinary woman and an important contribution to the literature and legend of Maria Callas, presented in elegant, informative, and candid prose.
Frances Wilson – Interlude.hk
There’s no padding in this deeply researched book. It surveys what feels like every twist and turn in the great operatic soprano’s life and career.
Dr. Ralph P. Locke, Professor Emeritus at the Eastman School of Music – The Arts Fuse
Is it fair to measure a biography against its subject? In this case, yes. This book resembles Callas’ masterful ease on stage, the artistic precision-passion balance she manifests, a reward of the many overtime rehearsal hours for which Callas was often criticized by co-stars … The result archives nearly everything ever documented about and is as full-bodied, that is, polished as well as unvarnished, as Maria Callas.
Mari Carlson – Midwest Book Review
A triple decryption – biographical, artistic and psychological … This work is not just one more book about this overexposed subject; quite the opposite – it finally completes our understanding.
Christophe Rizoud – Forum Opéra
Sophia Lambton’s meticulously researched, intense, lyrical magnum opus challenges the myths surrounding Maria fabricated by the press. This erudite biography doesn’t just explore her life. Lambton shines a spotlight on Callas’ craft critically evaluating the opera star’s singing with consummate care and precision down to the minutest detail and vocal technique behind each aria and dramatic role.
Good Night to Read Blog
After being initially daunted by the size of the book, I can now say, hand on heart, that I enjoyed learning about this incredible woman. I must also praise the author for her painstaking dedication in bring this story into print.
Milly Reynolds – Author
