Maria Callas was born on 2 December 1923, 100 years ago.

Maria Callas was born on 2 December 1923, 100 years ago. 🌟✨

Marcel Proust 🤵🏻‍♂️ would certainly have admired the exceptional lyricism of “la Callas” 🫀, having written such beautiful passages about “la Berma”, the great tragedienne he had admired since childhood, a character inspired in part by Sarah Bernhardt and Réjane. 👏🏻👏🏻

“Even those who did not know her were alerted by something peculiar and excessive — or perhaps by a telepathic aura, like those that would spark applause from the uninformed crowd at moments when La Berma was at her most sublime — that she must be someone famous. They wondered, ‘Who is that?’, sometimes asking a passer-by, or resolving to remember her outfit as a point of reference for more knowledgeable friends who would tell them straight away. Other passers-by, pausing briefly, would say:
— Do you know who that is? Mrs Swann! Does that ring a bell? Odette de Crécy?
— Odette de Crécy? I thought as much – those sad eyes…”

Marcel Proust, the final pages of “Swann's Way”, Part 3, 1913 📚🖋️

In a short clip from the @ina.fr archives, filmed and broadcast during the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest by French television 📺, Maria Callas performs the aria “Casta Diva” from “Norma”, composed by Vincenzo Bellini. 🎚️

#MarcelProust #MariaCallas #centenaire #Bellini #Norma #Berma #proustagram