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...Then Maria Callas performed in Barcelona -
"The audience wouldn’t stop clapping and seemed to leave the room with regret"
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A warm welcomeThe only time soprano MarÃa Callas (1923-1977) performed in Barcelona was on May 5th, 1959 at Gran Teatre del Liceu (city’s opera house). The press highlighted that public had given her a "cordial and warm" welcome at La Rambla ’s auditorium. She interpreted arias by Verdi, Rossini and Puccini, among others. It was not an easy night for the diva, especially if we consider that Barcelona fans were more into the voice of Renata Tebaldi, her rival on stage. -
Escorted and polemical
This New York singer born in Greece had a restless social life. She was always accompanied by her husband, her inseparable poodle and feared American journalist Elsa Maxwell. The opera house made a truly economic effort to bring Maria Callas to Barcelona: $6,500 were paid for her performance. Hence, some critics wrote that the most remarkable point of her show was her cachet and not her voice. -
Her best counselorAt the end of the show, MarÃa Callas greet the public accompanied by her singing teacher: Elvira de Hidalgo. She had studied at the Conservatorio del Liceu and became a highly demanded teacher in Turkey, Italy and Greece. What many people don’t know is that Callas returned to Barcelona anonymously in 1974. The reason was the recording of an album by his friend Giuseppe di Stefano with the Catalan soprano Montserrat Caballé. She stayed at Hotel Manila in the Rambla (nowadays Le Méridien) just a month before guitarist Frank Zappa did it.
