{"id":89636,"date":"2024-06-25T00:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T04:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/operawire.com\/?p=89636"},"modified":"2024-06-24T11:45:56","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T15:45:56","slug":"book-review-sophia-lambtons-the-callas-imprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/operawire.com\/book-review-sophia-lambtons-the-callas-imprint\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Sophia Lambton\u2019s ‘The Callas Imprint’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sophia Lambton\u2019s<\/a> \u201cThe Callas Imprint\u201d is a comprehensive biography of Maria Callas<\/a> as explored through Lambton\u2019s uncovering of various private letters, recordings, interviews, the late Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis\u2019s<\/a> studies of her early years, Renzo Allegri\u2019s<\/a> descriptions, and Stelios Galatopoulos\u2019s<\/a> analyses. Ultimately, it is the result of Lambton\u2019s own self-determination and evocative of her power to will something like this into existence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beginning at the age of 19, Lambton took on the role of \u201cnew Callas biographer,\u201d allowing curiosity to guide her on the 10-year journey of a lifetime \u2013 the lifetime of Maria Callas. Not many can say they have studied Callas in as much depth as Lambton, especially as a female writer. Her level of profound insight, illustrating a vast knowledge and passion for Callas as a human being, expands the looking glass of \u201cThe Callas Imprint\u201d into an internal mirror that reflects the very essence of what it is that makes us all human.<\/span><\/p>\n

Connecting the Parts<\/b><\/h3>\n

Maria Callas led a cultural movement within opera that created a bandwidth enveloping both opera lovers and non-opera lovers alike. There was something about her that was intoxicating, making so many believe in whatever it was she was doing, saying, or singing. The art of living her life as a diva was not entirely her choice, however, and it is this duality between public and private life that Lambton examines in detail through every step of Callas’ career. This humanness that shakes her, grounds her, and eventually releases her back into the womb of the universe is how Lambton connects readers to \u201cthe voice.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lambton\u2019s unique approach to Callas\u2019 trajectory illuminates her as more than a beloved singer. In fact, the recordings that Lambton transcribes throughout this book reveal Maria in her highest, lowest, and most banal moments of life. The spectrum that Lambton captures in doing so is the most honest approach to Callas\u2019 reality that one might hope to find in a biography. It seems there is no one bias or interest to serve here: instead the main point is to make Callas as real as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One can feel the deepest thoughts of Callas thanks to Lambton\u2019s gift for processing and writing exact details simultaneously. This insight proves to be consistent and conscious all throughout. \u201cAt rare moments in her life one caught a glimpse of all of her: the contrasts that had fused to make an alloy and the human meshing with the superhuman,\u201d writes Lambton in the prologue, titled \u201cBreak normality.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Deeper and more fraught than most words can penetrate are the scenarios Lambton presents where Callas must fight for her health and, tragically, surrender to the misfortune of its decline. It seems that one may never have known in Callas’ lifetime how much she struggled to infallibly exert the strength and \u201cworkforce\u201d that her art required. Every time she got sick she suffered, and every time she suffered she got sick. This wheel seemed to spin irrepressibly throughout her life before she \u201cphoenixed\u201d in her final decade \u2013 up until her own death.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her Heart for the People<\/b><\/h3>\n

\u201cSometimes Maria\u2019s words were elementary to the point that listeners believed she struggled to identify her source of power\u2026 ‘I don\u2019t know its source but it keeps me going on and on. There are certain things you can\u2019t explain even to yourself,\u2019 was how Maria described her devotion. \u2018Miraculous things happen when one is onstage; one is in a second state; hypersensitive,\u2019\u201d writes Lambton in the final chapter, titled \u201cBeauty is truth.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On September 16th 1977 Maria Callas suffered a heart attack and died at only 53-years old. When reading the final chapter of \u201cThe Callas Imprint\u201d one may feel they have lost a most beloved friend. After treading the rough waters of her slowly failing health and vocal issues throughout all the 500-plus pages, any reader might feel the need to take a moment of silence. And this is how Lambton uses her voice best \u2013 to permeate the time and space of one\u2019s very existence, to penetrate to the heart of all that makes this life human.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

After traversing the catalytic and impulsively misguided abuse of her lovers-turned-leeches, and the fans that decided to turn on her when she needed them to understand her the most, it is no wonder Callas’ heart could not take on any more feelings to process. Maria Callas, in the light of Sophia Lambton\u2019s gaze, lived because she decided to live, and breathed all of her life force into her art. There was no amount of energy wasted between publicly being the \u201cdiva\u201d of her age and in her own, private world, where she dwelled liberated by the will of her choices and owned by no-one other than herself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Callas Imprint\u201d is a revelation: a book worthy of anyone who is interested in learning more about how to live, and live as freely as they will their life to be.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sophia Lambton\u2019s \u201cThe Callas Imprint\u201d is a comprehensive biography of Maria Callas as explored through Lambton\u2019s uncovering of various private letters, recordings, interviews, the late Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis\u2019s studies of her early years, Renzo Allegri\u2019s descriptions, and Stelios Galatopoulos\u2019s analyses. Ultimately, it is the result of Lambton\u2019s own self-determination and evocative of her power to will something like this into existence.\u00a0 {…}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":83876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[193,22910,22909],"class_list":["post-89636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-review","tag-maria-callas","tag-sophia-lambton","tag-the-callas-imprint"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBook Review: Sophia Lambton\u2019s 'The Callas Imprint' - OperaWire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sophia Lambton\u2019s \u201cThe Callas Imprint\u201d is a comprehensive biography of Maria Callas as explored through Lambton\u2019s uncovering of various private letters, recordings, interviews, the late Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis\u2019s studies of her early years, Renzo Allegri\u2019s descriptions, and Stelios Galatopoulos\u2019s analyses. Ultimately, it is the result of Lambton\u2019s own self-determination and evocative of her power to will something like this into existence.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/operawire.com\/book-review-sophia-lambtons-the-callas-imprint\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review: Sophia Lambton\u2019s 'The Callas Imprint' - OperaWire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sophia Lambton\u2019s \u201cThe Callas Imprint\u201d is a comprehensive biography of Maria Callas as explored through Lambton\u2019s uncovering of various private letters, recordings, interviews, the late Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis\u2019s studies of her early years, Renzo Allegri\u2019s descriptions, and Stelios Galatopoulos\u2019s analyses. 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