A Unique Night at the Opera

Even if you’re not a fan of classical music, you’ve probably heard the voice of Maria Callas. As opera’s defining diva and one of the greatest performers of the 20th century, she is omnipresent in our culture, nearly 50 years after she died.

Now Callas is the subject of “Maria,” a film starring Angelina Jolie, which opened this week in select theaters and goes to Netflix on Dec. 11.

“You’ve been hearing Maria your whole life,” Jolie told me. “You just didn’t know it was her.”

As The Times’s classical music reporter, I wanted to understand how a Hollywood A-lister prepared to play an opera star. So I invited Jolie to the Metropolitan Opera in New York one recent night for a performance of Puccini’s “Tosca,” a signature opera for Callas. You can read my story about the experience here.

Jolie’s every move is tracked by the tabloids, especially since her 2016 divorce from Brad Pitt, which is still playing out in court. She at times seemed uncomfortable with my questions. But she spoke candidly about living in the spotlight; the loneliness she sometimes feels; and why she took seven months of voice lessons for “Maria,” which is directed by Pablo Larraín.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll tell you more about Callas and examine the parallels between Callas and Jolie.

La Divina

Callas was born in New York to Greek immigrants in 1923, and became renowned for her silky voice and her ability to give her characters the nuances of real people. Known as La Divina to her admirers, she inspired cultish devotion, and fans would sometimes wait in line for days to get tickets for her performances.