Maria Callas

• 1937: Moves to Greece, where she studies singing at the Athens Conservatory.
• 1940: Member of the Lyric Theatre company.
• 1947: La Gioconda at the Verona Festival. Afterwards some engagements in Italy.
• 1949: Causes a sensation when she takes over the role of Elvira in I puritani at short notice at La Fenice in Venice.
• 1949: Marries the wealthy Italian industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini, and over the next two years continues to consolidate her career in Italy and abroad.
• 1951–58: Her career is centred on La Scala, where she has her greatest triumphs.
• 1954: Loses about 30 kilos and begins to enter the spotlight as a glamorous and photogenic celebrity.
• 1959: Begins a liaison with the wealthy Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; she drastically curtails her stage appearances.
• 1964: Director Franco Zeffirelli persuades her to return to the stage in his productions of Tosca at Covent Garden and a few months later of Norma in Paris.
• 5 July 1965: Last appearance on the operatic stage with Tosca at the Royal Gala at Covent Garden.
• 1971–72: Teaches in a series of masterclasses at the Juilliard School in New York.
• 1973–74: World concert tour with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano; last public performance, in Japan on 11 November 1974.

Just over a century after Callas’s birth, Angelina Jolie brought La Divina’s larger-than-life personality to the silver screen in Pablo Larraín’s 2024 biopic Maria.