CALLAS, PARIS 1958, a documentary film that captures the legendary soprano’s performance in colour and 4K Ultra HD, will screen at select Cineplex movie theatres beginning August 31.
The film, directed and produced by Tom Volf, co-produced and restored by Samuel François-Steininger, captures the iconic opera singer at the height of her fame and skill. She is in full flower of her immense gifts as both a vocalist and operatic actress.
The Film
The film has been newly and lovingly restored for modern big screens. The recordings were recovered from the original 16mm reels which, along with a sound source, were only recently discovered. The feature was produced in French, with English subtitles.
The filmmaker restored the Dolby Atmos sound from Callas’ own archive of recordings, preserving her voice in all its colours and range for posterity.
As filmmaker Tom describes it in a statement, the project really began back in 2017 making his film Maria by Callas, which led to a host of connections within the opera community who had known the renowned opera singer. He continued to research archives and documentation that had previously escaped wider notice, and in 2021, it led to a real treasure trove.
“One such call came in 2021, when a friend of Maria’s came forward to say that in her basement she had a number of boxes containing archive footage,” he explains. “There, among dozens of reel-to-reel tapes (with numerous previously unknown recordings) and super8 or 16mm films, I discovered by chance the original film reels of the historical Paris ‘58 performance — and not just the film but also the reel-to-reel audio tapes. It was an incredible discovery. Callas was one of the biggest collectors of herself — she kept everything: concert footage, pirate recordings, scrapbooks full of articles as well hundreds of pictures. So, it made sense that, after the performance was over, and before leaving Paris, she would have brought with her the film reels to keep them.”
Maria Callas in 1958
Like many of today’s celebrities, Maria Callas was almost as famous for her personal life and its tragedies as she was for her spectacular singing.
Born in 1923 to Greek immigrants in Manhattan, NYC, Maria Anna Cecilia Sofia Kalogeropoulos aka Maria Callas rose to become what many consider the finest, certainly among the most influential, opera singers of the 20th century. While her personal life took many of the headlines, she was revered as an artist by people like Leonard Bernstein, and remains one of the best loved opera stars today, with more than 600K listeners on Spotify each month, and millions of streams for her most popular tracks.
She was a diva through and through, and a media sensation. Her debut at the Paris Opéra on December 19, 1958 for a one-night-only concert became a legend. She sparkled with more than a million dollars worth of jewellery, and wore a couture wardrobe for the performance.
French President René Coty, writer Jean Cocteau, the Duke & Duchess of Windsor, actress Brigitte Bardot, and many other of the era’s glitterati were in attendance.
She sang works that showcased her superb technique and mastery of her voice, including “Casta diva” from Bellini’s Norma, Act I, the “Miserere” scene from Verdi’s Il Trovatore, contrasted by the lighter, playful “Una voce poco fa” from Il Barbiere di Siviglia. That concluded the first half. For the second half of her concert, she presented a fully staged performance of Tosca, Act II.
In the carefully restored film and audio, it’s a chance to experience a historic performance today.
- Search [HERE] for a ticket at a Cineplex cinema near you.
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