--- title: Who Was Maria Callas, the subject of Netflix's Maria? description: What to know about the opera singer Maria Callas before watching the Netflix biopic Maria, starring Angelina Jolie canonical: https://time.com/7201366/maria-callas-angelina-jolie-netflix-maria/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-12-11T13:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:51:46.888Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: What to Know About the Real Maria Callas og:description: What to know about the opera singer Maria Callas before watching the Netflix biopic Maria, starring Angelina Jolie og:url: https://time.com/7201366/maria-callas-angelina-jolie-netflix-maria/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90c39f7ed1b42f69/698a9c5f011682436a98cd26/maria-movie-new-netflix.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: MARIA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About the Real Maria Callas twitter:description: What to know about the opera singer Maria Callas before watching the Netflix biopic Maria, starring Angelina Jolie twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90c39f7ed1b42f69/698a9c5f011682436a98cd26/maria-movie-new-netflix.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About the Real Maria Callas, the Soprano Played by Angelina Jolie in Netflix's _Maria_ > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Dec 11, 2024 1:00 PM UTC  Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in the Netflix movie Maria. Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in the Netflix movie Maria.Pablo Larraín/Netflix  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Dec 11, 2024 1:00 PM UTC Maria Callas (1923-1977) is often hailed as one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century. She’s best known for her performances in the operas _Medea_, _Tosca_ and _La Traviata_, and when TIME put her on the cover of the Oct. 29, 1956, issue, the magazine dubbed her “the undisputed queen of the world’s opera.” But _Maria,_ the Netflix biopic starring [Angelina Jolie](https://time.com/7034724/angelina-jolie-sudan-aid-refugees/) as Callas out today (Dec.11) does not take place at the height of her career. Rather, it takes place at the lowest point. Set in the last week of Callas’s life, she’s living in Paris and doing a lot of looking back because she feels like she has nothing to look forward to.  The Oct. 29, 1956, cover of TIME HENRY KOERNER A biopic examining her life would perhaps be a dream come true for the New York-born singer, given she loved to be the center of attention, according to Callas's biographers. But the film doesn’t glamorize Callas, and instead portrays her as sad and withdrawn. TIME explored why she was in a very dark place at the end of her life. ## **Callas’s mental health** Callas was known for having a big ego. In one scene she proclaims, “I come to restaurants to be adored.” She tells everyone she’s writing an autobiography and an aria—neither of which she did in real life. At her performances, she tended to create a scene. “She was known for leaning over and shaking her fist when people were hissing or booing,” says Lyndsy Spence, author of _Cast a Diva: The Hidden Life of Maria Callas_. She had a terrible temper, and there are plenty of scenes in _Maria_ where her character has little patience with people. Throughout the movie, Callas hallucinates that TV cameras are follow her, and behaves as if she is being interviewed although no one is there. In the film, she’s periodically popping Mandrax, a highly addictive sedative that can cause hallucinations, and she was indeed addicted to the drug in real life. After talking to the daughter of Callas’s neurologist, Spence believes the singer may have had a neurological condition on the [multiple sclerosis](https://time.com/6199310/multiple-sclerosis-improve-care-diagnosis-symptoms/) spectrum. Toward the end of her life, Callas “physically can't command her voice and get the strength to sing, and that obviously builds up to a point where she can no longer live with it,” Spence says. “In the late 1970s, she started to self medicate to try and ease the symptoms, and unfortunately, became addicted to prescription drugs, one of which is Mandrax.” Paul Wink, a professor of psychology at Wellesley College and author of _Prima Donna: The Psychology of Maria Callas,_ argues that she would probably be diagnosed today with [depression](https://time.com/5190291/anxiety-depression-college-university-students/) and [drug addiction](https://time.com/4117199/one-in-10-people-in-u-s-have-abused-drugs/). “She died addicted and in despair,”he says. ## **Callas and Aristotle Onassis** Callas’s relationship with [Aristotle Onassis](https://time.com/5427682/jacqueline-kennedy-wedding-jackie-o/), the Greek shipping mogul, could be the plot line of an opera. He actually hated opera, but loved the scene and the glamour of it all. “What he liked was the party afterwards, when he and she would be the center of attention backstage,” says John Louis DiGaetani, author of _The Definitive Diva: The Life and Career of Maria Callas_. Callas wanted him to marry her, but he left her for [Jacquline Kennedy](https://time.com/6974279/jacqueline-kennedy-onassis-anniversary-surprising-facts/), the widow of slain President [John F. Kennedy](https://time.com/4763638/jfk-covers-life/). As the movie shows, Callas really did find out by watching television news in Paris. “He’s a collector of rich and famous women,” Spence says. Callas was rumored to be pregnant with Onassis’s child at one point. The biographers that TIME spoke to say there is no proof that that was the case, but that if she carried anyone’s child, it would be Onassis’s. In the movie, Callas is told, “[Jackie ](https://time.com/3878253/jackie-kennedy-in-the-sixties-classic-photos-of-an-american-icon/)was his wife but you were his life.” The marriage between Onassis and [Kennedy](https://time.com/4740714/jfk-birthday-avedon-portraits/) was not a happy one. By the time Onassis realized Callas was the love of his life, it was too late to rekindle their relationship. He died in 1975\. Callas never recovered from that loss. ## **Callas at the end of her life** Callas was “lonely, disillusioned, basically fed up,” as Spence describes the singer in her final days. In the movie, as in real life, she spent most of her time playing cards with her butler and her maid and tending to her dogs. She was estranged from her family. Her mother was a stage mom who pushed her into the opera, desperate to make money off of her daughter’s voice. In one scene in the movie, her mother asks her for money, and there’s some truth in that. According to Spence, her father once pretended he was dying of cancer and needed her help paying his medical bills. She struggled to find purpose in her life beyond the opera. “When she developed a relationship with Onassis, opera was no longer her life—Onassis was her life,” Wink says. “It would have been nice for her to find her own sense of identity, but she couldn't do it. That's why she was living in despair. That's why she was taking Mandrax and became a recluse.” Callas was found dead in her Paris apartment at the age of 53\. The cause of death was a heart attack. 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