Mary, Marianna, Maria: The Unsung Greek Years of Callas in cinemas on 13 February

Mary, Marianna, Maria: The Unsung Greek Years of Callas

To be released in cinemas on 13 February 2025, by CINOBO

Conceived, researched, and written by Vasilis Louras
Directed by Michalis Asthenidis, Vasilis Louras
Produced by Stella Angeletou
Research consultants: Aris Christofellis, Sophia Kompotiati

The documentary Mary, Marianna, Maria: The Unsung Greek Years of Callas, a co-production of the Greek National Opera and Escape Productions, will be released in cinemas on 13 February 2025 by CINOBO.

The full-length documentary (103 minutes), which received acclaim from both Greek and international media, explores Callas’ lesser-known relationship with Greece, focusing on her coming-of-age years during the Axis occupation and the period following 1957, when she returned to her home country as the world’s leading opera star.

The documentary, conceived, researched, and written by Vasilis Louras, directed by Michalis Asthenidis and Vasilis Louras, and produced by Stella Angeletou, brings to light valuable archival material and reveals, for the first time, the last rehearsal recording that Maria Callas made at her home in Paris a month prior to her passing.

Mary, Marianna, Maria: The Unsung Greek Years of Callas was first presented by the Greek National Opera during a special screening event held on 2 December 2023 as part of the GNO Year of Callas tribute programme under the artistic direction of Giorgos Koumendakis, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Maria Callas’ birth. The audience’s rapturous applause was followed by glowing reviews in leading Greek and international media outlets.

Among others, the French newspaper Le Monde described the documentary in one of its front-page pieces as “a fascinating, as well as moving film, bound to be a revelation for many people”. The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) speaks of a “wonderful documentary that not only weaves together innumerable stories from directors, maestros, and colleagues who collaborated with her into a cohesive narrative thread, but also uncovers two previously unknown audio recordings”, while the French magazine Diapason talks about “an exemplary, thrilling documentary that features rare material and sheds light on one of Callas’ least known periods”.

Following a remarkable international journey through film festivals in Germany, Australia, and America, as well as on French television (France 5), the documentary Mary, Marianna, Maria: The Unsung Greek Years of Callas will meet the Greek audience for the first time in cinemas starting on Thursday, 13 February 2025, distributed by CINOBO.

The documentary seeks to shed light on the years in which Callas came of age as a woman and as an artist –that is, in Athens during the Second World War– but also on the years after 1957, when the diva, by then renowned internationally, reconnected with Greece. Her foremost artistic achievements and little-known debuts, the figures who so influenced her, and the major landmarks in her development as an artist, but also the prevailing social and political circumstances in Greece during World War II, the Greek Civil War milieu of the 1940s and ’50s, and the unjust attacks she endured – these are the key narrative threads used to tell the story of the troubled, novel-like life of Callas, who always walked the line between tragedy and triumph.

Making use of rare archival documentation, never-before-released recordings, interviews, and other audio materials, this documentary seeks to tell the story of Callas’ early years – the story of a triumph achieved through strength of character and talent, hard work and dedication, a story that saw her defy every difficulty and all the abusive behaviour she faced.

While the 14-year-old Kalogeropoulou, on arriving in Athens back in 1937, would first introduce herself to her fellow students at the Greek National Conservatoire as Mary, she would go on to sign her first contract with the Greek National Opera in 1940 as Marianna. In March 1945, a little before leaving Athens for New York, she would make a concert appearance as Mary Callas – an artist ready to spread her wings and soar into the heights of a great career that would bring her fame across the entire globe as Maria Callas. When she next returned to Athens, in 1957 as a fully-fledged star of the opera world, she would appear at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus as Maria Meneghini Callas.

New interviews were conducted specially for the purposes of this documentary, with such figures as John C. Bastias, son of the GNO’s Founding Director; Giorgos Koumendakis, Artistic Director of the GNO; the opera artist Aris Christofellis; Konstantinos Pylarinos, President of the Maria Callas Scholarships Programme; Stephan Hörner, son of the maestro Hans Hörner, who conducted Callas in a 1944 production of Fidelio; mezzo-soprano Kiki Morfoniou, who took part in the performances Callas gave of productions of Norma and Medea at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus; Hara Kalomiri, Head of the Greek National Conservatoire; Stella Kourmpana, head of the Athens Conservatoire Archives; the musicologist Sofia Kontossi, expert on the Leonidas Zoras Archive; Philippos Tsalahouris, expert on Manolis Kalomiris; and others.

In addition, beyond archival interviews with Callas herself, the documentary also draws on existing interviews with her Athens Conservatoire teacher Elvira de Hidalgo; her colleagues Zoe Vlachopoulos, Marika Papadopoulou, and Arda Mandikian; the author Nikos Petsalis-Diomidis; the conductor Leonidas Zoras; Callas’ friend, the British soldier Ray Morgan; and others. Last but not least, the documentary features invaluable testimony left by people who worked with Callas during the Axis occupation of Greece, including: the Founding Director of the GNO, Costis Bastias; the director of her first Tosca performance, Dino Yannopoulos; former GNO Chorus mistress Elli Nikolaidi; the pianist (co-répétitrice) Irma Kolassi; fellow singers Spyros Saligaros and Mitsa Kourachani; and others.

A recording of the recital she gave at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in 1957 forms the backbone of the documentary’s music script, supplemented by other breath-taking studio and live recordings of Callas. The documentary also features two invaluable never-before-released recordings of Callas: one from Lefkada island in 1964 and the other from her home in Paris in 1977.

This documentary is dedicated to Nikos Petsalis-Diomidis and Polyvios Marchand, whose work first brought Maria’s early years in Athens to light.

This documentary was included in the Greek National Opera tribute programme marking the centennial of Maria Callas’ birth – part of the 2023 UNESCO Maria Callas Anniversary proposed by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. The GNO Year of Callas tribute programme was curated by its Artistic Director, Giorgos Koumendakis.

Film distribution
CINOBO

Documentary sponsorship support
The Ulysses & Florica Kyriakopoulos Family 

Documentary sponsor
PPC

Lead Donor of the GNO & Documentary donor
Stavros Niarchos Foundation