The 100th anniversary of legendary opera singer Maria Callas' birth (Dec 2, 1923) is being celebrated around the world.
New York Times bestselling author (and creator of the PBS Masterpiece series Victoria) Daisy Goodwin has written an engaging new novel, Diva (available January 23 from St. Martin's Press), that is centered around the love affair between Maria Callas and Aristotle Onasis.
Goodwin spoke to WBGO News Director Doug Doyle about the novel she wanted to write for quite some time.
"I think she is often portrayed as a kind of tragic heroine who was undone by men and love, but actually there's a much more interesting story about Callas, which was that she was the greatest opera singer of the 20th Century and had this incredible career. The real tragedy in her life was not the fact that she met Onassis and had this passionate love affair which ended when he married Jackie Kennedy, but the fact that her voice began to go long before it should have done. Most opera singers can sing well into their 40's at their best, but Maria really began to lose her voice in her late 30's. I think that for me was the real sadness of Maria's life."
Callas grew up in Washington Heights in New York City, until her mother took her and her sister to Greece. Maria was 13 at the time. Callas had a troublesome relationship with her mother through the years and would eventually refuse to see or speak to her.
"Her mother was a very difficult figure in Maria's life. Maria hated her and blamed her for taking away her childhood and making her feel useless unless she was singing, but on the other hand, her mother was completely invested in Maria's talent, even though she didn't believe in Maria herself. So, it's a very tricky one. When I was writing the book I was very much on the side of Maria but now I'm coming out of the book thinking that was a difficult relationship and am I write to condemn the poor mother who maybe was just doing her best. You could argue that being like that the mother gave us Maria Callas because would Maria have become the diva that she was if she hadn't had that early unhappiness.
Daisy Goodwin has written three other novels: My Last Duchess or The American Heiress, The Fortune Hunter, Victoria, all of which have been New York Times bestsellers and have been translated into more than ten languages.
What's Goodwin's secret to success?
"I can only write books about things I'm really interested in. The things that really interest me tend to be about women who are struggling with their destiny. So it could be Queen Victoria, it could be Maria Callas and that's what I find fascinating. If you're going to write well about something you could to be completely fascinated. You have to write a book that you would like to read. Diva is certainly a book that I would enjoy reading. I've tried to make it page-turning to some extent because I wanted to kind of give it a structure so you want to know what happens next. I hope you can read it, even if you know nothing about opera and feel really involved with what's going on and think maybe maybe I'll go and listen to music now. I want readers to think about what is it like to be a woman who is a genius."
You can SEE the entire interview with Daisy Goodwin here.
