Doctor Alma Halbert Bond, Ph.D. The Autobiography of Maria Callas: A Novel

Doctor Alma Halbert Bond, Ph.D. The Autobiography of Maria Callas: A Novel Review: The story begins on the second of December 1923, with the birth of a girl was born at the Flower Hospital in New York. Christened, Cecilia Sophia Anna Maria Kalogeropoulos, her name was just the beginning of her problems. Her mother totally rejected her for the first four days of her life.

This rejection was brought about by Litza, her mother, wanting another son to replace the one she lost to typhoid when he was three. In later life Maria understood he mother's pain in losing her son. But she never forgave her mother for rejecting her. She believed she had a mother who never really loved her.

Maria felt that her mother saw her as a commodity because of her singing talent. Her older sister Jackie was much more attractive than Maria. This fact not only got Jackie plenty of boyfriends, but she received much attention from Litza.

All through her developing years as a singer and a person, Maria was fat and pimply. This did not give her great confidence in herself and was to hold back her development as a human being. Not until she shed 62 pounds, between 1952 and 1954, did she begin to blossom into her true self.

At the age of 26, Maria married Giovanni Battista Meneghani in Veron on April 12 1949. It heralded a period of relative stability in her life that lasted until their divorce in 1966. By that time her need for Giovanni waned and another man became the center of her world.

That man was none other then the Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis. They led a tempestuous life together until his death in 1975. He allowed her to be the woman she felt she always was, but could never escape from her cage.

Although she needed Aristotle to exist he never felt the same way. His ego demanded other conquests and she was faced with periods of extreme depression and loneliness. It hurt her to her very core when he turned his attention to other women, yet she needed him still.

The book gives great insight into the world of opera. How the politics of the art ebb and flow as individuals preen their egos. All the glitter and the romance portrayed on the stage, hides the uglier side of opera.

Despite her great success in an activity she just loved with all the fiber of her heart and soul, Maria Callas never found the internal peace she craved. The early rejection by her mother tortured her existence.

Doctor Bond has produced a memorable book about a very talented lady. It lays bare the soul of Maria Callas, as none other has done before.

For a riveting reading one could do no better.

Review by Warren Thurston