2 December: Maria Callas

Maria Callas (Maria Kalogeropoulos), Opera singer, was born on this date in 1923. Here are ten things you might not know about her.

1. Her singing ability was noticed at an early age. Her mother pushed her into singing lessons at the age of five.
2. Most of her musical education took place in Greece, where she moved with her mother after her parents split up. She threw herself into her studies, working for five or six hours a day, so that she quickly became proficient at the most difficult arias.
3. She first appeared on stage professionally in 1941, and the following year, had her first lead role, in Tosca. Her breakout role, however, didn't happen until 1949 when she was called in to cover the soprano role in I Puritani in Venice, with just six days to prepare. She aced it.
4. While she might be known as one of the greatest opera singers of all time, during her lifetime, she wasn't always appreciated. There was one note in one aria in the opera Norma, at which her voice wobbled, every time, and audiences at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York booed her for that, every time. At times, they even threw vegetables at her.
5. The fact that she once told an interviewer that her mother could throw herself off a roof before Maria would help her financially, and her bitter rivalry with Renata Tebaldi, didn't help her reputation.
6. In the 1950s it was pointed out to her that she was eating too much. Not only did she need to lose weight to look good on stage, but her weight was beginning to affect her singing. So she lost 36kg (80lb). Rumours as to how she managed it abounded, including that she swallowed a tapeworm. However, her new svelte figure came at a price. Her singing suffered from being too thin, too, giving her vocal strain.
7. She once walked out of a performance after the first act. She'd warned producers of Norma at the Rome Opera House that she was unwell the night before, and told them to have an understudy ready, but on the day of the performance, she felt a little better, and went ahead, but her voice got worse and so at the end of the first act, she cancelled the performance. The President of Italy was in the audience that night, and the press accused Callas of walking out on him in a fit of pique.
8. Her love life wasn't free of scandal, either. She left her husband for Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who in turn left her for Jacqueline Kennedy - but Onassis later met up with Callas in Paris and had another affair with her while he was still with Jackie.
9. Her final stage role, in 1965, was also Tosca.
10. She died at the age of 53 from a heart attack. She was cremated. Her ashes were stolen but later recovered and scattered over the Aegean Sea, according to her wishes.

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle