in 1958 Madame Callis was interviewed by Edward R morrow at her suite at the Waldorf in New York uh Madam Callis uh much has been said and written about your temperament what do you have to say are are you really temperamental what do you mean by temperamental Mr marrow I quite haven't understood well I I suppose uh Tantrums throwing things screaming I have never thrown anything at anyone though sometimes you feel like it no Tantrums it's not even true it's just certain situations that uh turn up you know nothing about it and you just react
as any normal human being but callus was not just any normal human being in that same year 1958 she walked out on the Rome Opera was barred from appearing at lascala in Milan broke up with her husband began an affair with Aristotle Onasis and was fired from New York's Metropolitan Opera by its director Rudolph Bing there came the point where I had to decide now is Madame cull running the met or am I running the met and at that time I was still running the met and said so and canceled our agreement so you really
did fire Maria Callis from the Metropolitan if you want to use that ugly word that is so yes callus was again on CBS with Ed Murrow when the famous British conductor Sir Thomas beum asked her about the firing can I ask Madam callisa most important question please do it's agitating all the Social Circles of London and rumors and rumors are flying around about it it concerns the little disagreement it is supposed to have taken place between Madam Callas and a misguided director of Opera in New York now one of the most Starling rumors is that
Miss Madam Callis is supposed to have hit the gentleman on the head with a bottle of brandy I want to know if that's true or not the newspapers have written so much and so much God only knows I would advise whoever reads those newspapers not to believe either the half of the half but I don't believe anything because when I read it I have the shocks of my life but was it a bottle of something else Madam but I never threw anything at anyone unfortunately I wish I did did it would be a shame for
the bottle you know really 15 years later in November of 1973 a very different Maria callus met Mike Wallace in her apartment in Paris for a rare interview on 60 Minutes Madam Callis why is it that the world of Opera is so passionate so fraught with jealousy and drama ah isn't uh every field that way no oh I'm sure yes look your whole life has been constructed given that superb voice the rest of it professionally has been constructed on drama ah well maybe the other people make drama well what's the drama well you know as
well as I it's it's uh walkouts and sicknesses and Affairs and anger and jealousy and watch the drama have you ever walked out on your work I'm sure you have Furious one day well I've yes but only you're not in the newspaper that's correct now anger uh if you don't get angry sometimes even not really essentially you never obtain the results during performances if I really didn't get angry and they were not afraid the other people would not work more than the necessary you mean they're afraid of you afraid yes afraid afraid of what uh
I would have to sort of whip them with my anger if you don't whip them into working twice as hard either morally or by your uh shall we say tantrum which is also sometimes false they would never be able to come at that uh date shall we say three four days as I prepared operas in three or four days if I didn't really start uh screaming and yelling you wouldn't have the result we would not have gone on stage all right you have not really sung in public in public not since' 65 for 8 years
no why well one of those things I needed a rest I needed to detach myself also cuz every now and then I think an artist has to sort of feel distant take her distance but 8 years well years go by very quickly well then tell me how does it feel to sing again now after8 years very nice I wish I was what I was 20 years ago but nobody is what he was 20 years ago what aren't you today that you were 20 years ago well the acrobats and the uh top notes as they used
to be and uh you know the fireworks that a young person has when the notice is for instance after hurg where you opened on this new tour when the notices are better for the personality than for the voice is that a matter now of much concern to you uh Madam K well first of all no uh first of all I uh I don't really read the critics during my full Glory I've always had bad critics but you yourself know that your voice is not what it was the fact that I have made a career without
having public relations without having having to bribe uh certain newspaper men or to build up an image of mine that has made things more difficult who bribes newspaper men oh many artists no oh yes how do you mean bribe well sort of you know they give them uh either an invitation or they send a certain amount of money and I have always resented that since I was very young you mean oh yes operatic artists or you know others as well all others as well to have a job you have to be nice to some person
or another very very few persons reach the peak with no help at all but your own uh Talent yes but you're not talking about help you're talking about bribes now well if the if the help has to come through bribery or through uh giving yourself up to someone or this and that it amounts to the same now we're being technical you've said I need to be constantly boosted because I am a born pessimist that is true really that is true and you need somebody always puffing you up yes because my my bad the the the
weapon that is against me is exactly that whatever I do is never good enough a perfectionist perfectionist unfortunate and perfectionists are miserable to live with mhm that is true are you a lonely person uh not really we have to be alone I I feel the necessity to be alone frequently it's our work I don't fear loneliness because I'm never alone I have friends I have uh I have my own interior world that uh I can live with myself for weeks I don't need other people but I know that other people are willing to uh to
be with me when I want so I'm not really alone obviously you've had a great success in your professional life your private life has not perhaps been as successful no no no why why well why probably uh I became a bit too famous for my own good and uh while I maybe also I put men on a pedestal who uh well for instance my husband he wanted so much that I be L Divina for instance he was taking things on out on people as he was nothing special if your husband was nothing special why did
you marry him in the first place he was a good person I thought and uh if you have a per as my home family was not with my mother I was not well off and I was alone and I felt that this person really loved me but uh I'm afraid that he loved uh what I represented it was a very unfortunate uh episode of my life that I prefer not to discuss because you are quoted as saying that your fear has always been to live your old age in poverty nope I've never said that misquotation
misquotation you know you talk about uh misquotation Madame Callis one of the most famous of the quotations and I I suppose it's a misquotation or maybe not no I have the courage to tell you if it's not all right all right and that has to do with your mother you said mother can go to work she is young enough because no I never said that you did not say that no certain people dishonest people took advantage of her uh battle against me to uh be put in the newspapers or to have her print stories and
they would gain money she claimed of course that there was no money that she needed money and that you refus refusing because at a certain moment uh she used blackmail unfortunately and I don't like blackmail by anybody how do you mean blackmail well I mean she says you either give me this and that and that or otherwise I'll plaster you against all the newspapers and that she did there's no use in seeing each other and being false when they're I don't think that blood really ties you that much I think I have good friends are
have helped me more than my mother but the fact is that that your father your mother and your sister somehow have left your life along the way shall we say uh we frankly did not uh agreed too much they had a way of living that was not my way your your country you saw fit in 1966 to my country to discard your US citizenship yes
