Maria Callas – Living and Dying for Art and Love
60 minute documentary for BBC2 – 2004

2005 New York Festival - World Medal International TV Programme
2004 Vienna TV Award - Best Film Documentary
2004 Worldfest Houston - Silver Award
2004 US Int'l Film and Video Festival - Gold Camera

Maria Callas’s appearance as Tosca in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1964 Covent Garden production is legendary. Her portrayal of Puccini’s tragic heroine and the electricity she generated with Tito Gobbi as Scarpia live on in operatic memory as incomparable. Callas could not have known how crucial this Tosca would prove to be. It was remarkable, a huge success but turned out to mark the beginning of the end for the diva. It was the last role she performed on stage. Loss of nerve, voice and love were to follow.

This documentary focuses on Zeffirelli’s Tosca to give an insight into Callas as a performer and to tell the tragic story of the end of her career. It illuminates the resonance that exists between Callas’s life and the fictional life of Floria Tosca. “I have lived for art, I have lived for love” sings the passionate Tosca in the great aria ‘Vissi d’arte’. Her words can never have rung truer than when sung by Callas.

Film of Act II of Zeffirelli’s Tosca survives – the only footage of Callas in a dramatic role – and other rare gems have been unearthed for this documentary, including a section of Act I, pirated audio of Maria Callas’s final performance, an interview with Tito Gobbi, and a wealth of documents and stills. The whole soundtrack is taken from live recordings.

Franco Zeffirelli looks back on the experience of working with Callas on this production and how she instinctively knew how to bring to life his idea of Tosca as fragile, feminine and young, a girl who finds the strength to kill through love. He talks about what was happening to Callas in her personal life at the time, as do Alan Sievewright, who knew her personally, and Nicholas Gage, author of the book Greek Fire: The Story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis . Grace Bumbry describes Callas’s performance, how she “bared her soul”. Actress Judi Dench describes the revelatory effect it had on her. It is one of Placido Domingo’s great regrets that he was not able to sing with Callas. In substantial contributions he elucidates Puccini’s opera from an artist’s point of view. Other comments come from conductor Antonio Pappano and stage director John Copley, who assisted Zeffirelli on the 1964 production.