The true story of Angelina Jolie's “Maria”: What really happened to Maria Callas’ voice?

All great divas deserve to have their stories told. Certainly, that’s one takeaway from Pablo Larraín's new Maria Callas biopic, Maria.

Maria stars Angelina Jolie as the famed Greek American opera singer who rose to fame in a flash and burned out just as spectacularly. It’s the final installment in Larraín’s unofficial trilogy profiling powerful and misunderstood women in history.

He previously helmed the psychological biopics Jackie (2016), about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Natalie Portman); and Spencer (2021), which starred Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana. Both films generated Oscar nominations for Best Actress, and Jolie may be primed to follow in their footsteps.

Although Maria eschews some of the more baroque trappings of Jackie and Spencer, it chronicles Callas’ final years in a similarly ethereal and haunting manner. The film picks up years after the singer's peak, seeing her living in seclusion in Paris, working in vain with a vocal coach to repair her lost voice.

"It is Jolie's ability to depict a woman owning everything she is that makes her performance truly sing," Entertainment Weekly's review raved. "After enduring the cruelty of her mother and controlling men, Maria, at the end of her life, is finally saying her own thoughts out loud. It's a remarkable portrait of a woman reckoning with herself, even as her body fails her."

But who was the real woman behind the biopic? Here's the true story of Maria Callas' life.

Related: Maria star Angelina Jolie hopes there isn't a biopic made about her life: 'That gets the most insane question award'

Who was Maria Callas and how did she begin performing?

Callas was one of the most acclaimed opera singers of all time.

She was born on Dec. 2, 1923, in New York City to Greek immigrants Evangelia “Litsa” Dimitriadou and George Kalogeropoulos. By all accounts, her mother was cold, having desired a son instead of a daughter. In 1937, Callas fled to Athens at age 13 with her mother and sister Jackie after their parents split.

Soon after, Callas was mentored by Elvira de Hidalgo, a celebrated soprano singer at the Athens Conservatory. In 1941, Callas performed in her first starring role at age 18 — the titular character in Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca.

She appeared in several other celebrated productions during this time, earning round-the-board raves for her singular voice. Once she returned to New York in 1945 to see her father and expand her career, Callas had already performed 56 separate roles in seven operas.

What did Maria Callas do after she left Greece?

Callas may have lived in America, but she didn’t spend much time there. She returned to New York as one of the most celebrated and in-demand opera singers in the world, earning particular praise for her performance of bel canto operas, which are designed to accentuate the singer’s vocal dexterity.

She continued to perform all over the world at some of the most iconic and prestigious opera venues: La Scala in Milan; Covent Garden in London; the Lyric Theatre in Chicago; Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; and Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. But her success couldn't last forever.

How did Maria Callas lose her voice?

During the peak of her fame in the 1960s, Callas began experiencing issues with her voice. She could no longer hit the wide range of notes she used to with ease, and fans were quick to point this out.

There isn't a consensus as to why Callas' voice faltered, but there are several theories that historians and opera experts believe could've contributed to its decline.

It's possible that her exacting technique was to blame. “Some types of singing went on records better than others, and she was searching for more nuance that would come across well on recordings," opera critic Conrad L. Osborne told History. "She tamed and slimmed her voice down to the point that it was counterproductive.”

Others say overuse of her skill likely impacted Callas' range. Author Lyndsy Spence, who penned the biography Cast a Diva: The Hidden Life of Maria Callas, told History that she believes Callas "sang too much too soon — like an athlete or engine that worked too hard." Osborne explained to NPR in 2010 that "it's very unusual to combine those two ways of singing and to extend the range over that wide of a compass. And if your structural technique...isn't true all the way up and down that very wide range, then you're inviting some trouble."

One tangible explanation for Callas losing her voice was her dermatomyositis diagnosis in 1975, a somewhat rare disease that causes, muscle inflammation, difficulty swallowing, shortness of breath, weight loss, and more. “It explains the loss of her singing voice and cut her career short,” Spence told History.

What happened in the later stages of Maria Callas’ singing career?

Callas began dropping out of engagements with increasing regularity, refusing to perform if she could not give fans her best. Nonetheless, she recorded some of her most iconic music and gave some of her most memorable on-stage appearances during this period. This included a celebrated iteration of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, which she performed with the Greek National Opera at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in 1960.

Following what The New Yorker described as “a flurry of troubled performances in 1964-65,” Callas starred in her last full opera production at age 41, reprising Tosca at Convent Garden on July 5, 1965.

Was Maria Callas really in a love triangle with Jackie Kennedy?

During this time, Callas was romantically linked with the wealthy Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, a coupling which ended Callas’ marriage to Giovanni Batista Meneghini, whom she wed in 1949.

Though Callas was now single, Onassis was not. He married Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968, who was later the subject of Larraín’s 2016 film Jackie. They exchanged vows five years after the former first lady's husband, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

But Callas and Onassis continued seeing each other even after he wed Jackie O. According to Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos, Onassis' personal secretary who coordinated the couples' meetings, the two were deeply in love until his death in 1975 at age 69. “Maria was a piece of his soul, of his body, of his brain,” Moutsatsos told PEOPLE in 2024. “That’s why they never believed that they could be separate.”

What did Maria Callas do after she stopped performing opera?

Following their split, Callas began instructing operatic masterclasses at Juilliard in Manhattan.

In 1973 and 1974, along with tenor Giuseppe di Stefano, Callas undertook a series of recitals that would be her last. As Callas and Stefano were far past their vocal peak, the performances were marred by difficulties. However, audiences flocked out in droves to see the legends, and each show was sold out. Still, The New Yorker called the duo’s tour “disastrous.”

Related: How Angelina Jolie moved Maria director to tears by 'burning herself' raw with emotion (exclusive)

How did Maria Callas spend the final years of her life?

Following her and Stefano’s final performance in November 1974, Callas never performed in public again. She retreated to Paris, “a city that never knew her in her prime," The New Yorker lamented, where she lived alone in a modest apartment that she rarely left. Despite several efforts to revive her career, Callas was “unable to rehabilitate herself as a performer” and became “an overmedicated recluse."

Callas died in Paris in 1977 at age 53. Her cause of death was officially listed as a heart attack, but there are other theories. According to The New Yorker, some of Callas' inner circle believed she committed suicide, while others believe her death was caused by a drug overdose. She was quickly cremated, and no autopsy was performed. “By the time she died there,” The New Yorker states, “her career had long since ebbed into fitful and mostly unfulfilled comeback projects.”

Nevertheless, Callas maintains a towering reputation not just among opera singers but all kinds of artists. Her immense devotion to perfecting her craft has inspired innumerable creatives across all art forms. She is remembered as one of the most talented opera singers of all time and an icon of glamor and grace.

Maria is now streaming on Netflix.

Related: Maria is an exquisitely crafted tone poem with Angelina Jolie enacting Maria Callas' final days

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