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This Epic Love Story Is Being Set To Music

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It was a love story which kept tongues wagging and the media in a frenzy – now it is being made into an opera.

The tempestuous love affair between global opera superstar Maria Callas and billionaire shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis is coming to New York City. The epic love story is being set to music. The legendary tragic tale which eventually became a triangle with Jackie Kennedy Onassis is a saga for the ages. Now, new opera writer Elizabeth Coppinger has transformed it into an opera. After a career in technology and community activities, she decided this story needs to be framed in the grand, dramatic setting of opera to allow it to be memorialized in the perfect setting.

The story tells of Maria Callas and her scandalous relationship with Aristotle Onassis, then one of the world’s richest men. Tragically, their ill-fated affair collapsed in betrayal and heartbreak with Onassis’ surprise marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968. Their romance was during the height of the glamorous “jet set” and played across the world in locations like Rome, Athens, London, and New York.  This was the era when large yachts, titled guests, private planes and more were all new, and set the very rich apart. The papers ate it up and broke Callas heart.
In a clever twist, Coppinger tells the timeless tale via the Greek gods, Zeus and Hera.  They mythical couple are also the main stars in the new Netflix series Kaos starring Jeff Goldblum and Janet McTeer.

This new English-language opera by award-winning composer, Clint Borzoni, and new librettist Coppinger, is being workshopped in NYC.  Borzoni has created for La Callas a lush, melodic score evoking the sweeping passion and drama of Callas’ legendary life and career. Her story is contemporary. The story highlights the diva’s struggle with society’s bias against strong women and she was cast by the press as an egotistical diva rather than the dedicated and brilliant artist like her male contemporaries. She was expected to choose between her career and personal happiness, still a familiar dilemma for women today. The new film, Maria, starring Angelina Jolie, and the recent worldwide centenary celebrations of Callas’ birth show the public’s continuing fascination with Callas’ life and legacy.

The Act I workshop performance of La Callas will be on Thursday, October 10, 2024, at the Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall in New York City.   Tickets are available from the Merkin Hall Ticket Office.

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Sarah Johns

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