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PROBLEM LIKE MARIA
From the Chicago Sun-Times’ photo archives, highlights of which are available in a fine new book:
The bewildered-looking fellow is federal marshal Stanley Pringle, who has just served a summons on shrieking Maria Callas in 1955. Press agent Danny Newman had earlier alerted local media.
UPDATE. Richard McEnroe:
Wait a minute! This touchstaff, this common catchpole, got screamed at by Maria Callas—FOR FREE?!
What a bargain!
Nine months later, Dick Butkus was born?
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 04 24 at 02:07 PM • permalinkTrying to muscle in on Mark Steyn’s territory, eh?
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 04 24 at 02:10 PM • permalinkReminds me of a joke I heard Belle Barth (anyone remember her?) tell in her Vegas lounge show on the occasion of the Kennedy/Onassis nups: So, the Most Famous Woman in the World has to settle for an old organ with a Callas on it?
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 04 24 at 02:10 PM • permalinkheheh, that’s pretty good, Kyda.
Man, what a snarl she’s got on there! Sadly, all of her colorful italian phrases were lost on Mr. Pringle…
Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2006 04 24 at 03:03 PM • permalinkMaria Callas ...? Isn’t she the uber-diva on whom was played the classic “trampoline prank,” at the Met, in the 1960s? Memory’s a funny thing…
And I’ve probably got this wrong, but ...
The same charming disposition she shows above was more or less habitual w/ M.C., and SUPPOSEDLY, if this tale is true, she made quite an impression on some of the stage-hands at the Met. In fact, the stage manager would have to have been in on this.
In the last act of Gotterdammerung, where Brunnhilde fearlessly-yet-poignantly leaps to her doom on the funeral pyre, actually landing on a big airbag directly at the back of the stage, some irresponsible (person or persons unknown) allegedly substituted a trampoline for the airbag. ksnksnksnksnk so anyway, there’s Ms Callas, shrieking in fury, bouncing back into the picture three or four or twelve times before finishing her exit.
Ahhhhhhh, maybe ya hadda be there.Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 04 24 at 03:18 PM • permalinkSDD, the trampoline story belongs to ``Tosca’’ - the heroine leaps to her death from the battlements of Castel Sant’Angelo. I suspect the trampoline story is an urban legend but I don’t have the heart to check Snopes for it right now. I don’t think LaCallas ever sang Brunnhilde anyway.
And yeah, stage makeup in close-up is pretty scary stuff.
Posted by Sonetka's Mom on 2006 04 24 at 03:35 PM • permalink“The tale of the bouncing Tosca: This supposedly occurred at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and involved an American soprano. As Tosca, she was supposed to leap to her death from the walls of Castel Sant’Angelo. Usually, the actress lands on a mattress. But the stage workers had thoughtfully improved her safety by replacing the mattress with a trampoline: and so Tosca appeared two or three times from behind the wall.”
(Wikipedia)I’d just read about this in a very good book called Fortissimo, about a year in the life of the Chicago Lyric Opera.
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 04 24 at 03:57 PM • permalinkWell, aside from getting the wrong diva, the wrong opera, and the wrong city ... hmmm ... d’you think the Guardian has any openings for an American stringer?
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 04 24 at 04:35 PM • permalink“Shrieking” and “Callas” became pretty synonymous eventually.
Posted by tree hugging sister on 2006 04 24 at 04:57 PM • permalink#10 SDD - I’d think “getting the wrong diva, the wrong opera, and the wrong city” would make you a shoe-in for working for that
always on the wrong side of historyleftist rag.Solid credentials, y’know. ;-p
Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2006 04 24 at 04:58 PM • permalinkWhat husband hasn’t felt like that guy. “No reservation? What do you mean you forgot to make a reservation? It’s our anniversary and you forgot to make a reservation?”
Well maybe not Nick, being married to Myrna Loy and all.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 04 24 at 05:48 PM • permalinkMaria has been eating the Choo Choo Bars again.
Wait a minute! This touchstaff, this common catchpole, got screamed at by Maria Callas—FOR FREE?!
What a bargain!
Stoop—Under the circumstances, I think we won’t ask you to tell the story about Talullah Bankhead, the glue, and the wine glass…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 04 24 at 08:14 PM • permalink“I’ve tried several varieties of sex. The conventional position makes me claustrophobic and the others give me a stiff neck or lockjaw.”—Talullah Bankhead
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2006 04 24 at 09:32 PM • permalinkThis is all fluff. Maria Callas had a magnificent voice. My favorite is the Queen of the Night aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute. Listen to some of her recordings and you will see. You won’t be sorry.
Posted by Mystery Meat on 2006 04 24 at 10:39 PM • permalinkI believe “freeze like that” is the key phrase. Spend too much time with a rose clenched between your teeth….
Posted by Paul Zrimsek on 2006 04 25 at 12:12 AM • permalinkAnd then, children, Princess Dracula screamed,
“Whyee have you %@$^ing lousy &!=@s made mee wait so long for my maenn course?”Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 04 25 at 04:31 AM • permalinkShe had just finished performing Madama Butterfly at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was backstage celebrating her triumph. As the audience continued to applaud, Maria was approached by Marshal Stanley Pringle, who presented Maria with a summons to court. She was being sued by a former manager, Eddie Bagarozy, on behalf of a 1947 contract that named Bagarozy as Maria’s sole representative. Though the two had not been in contact for several years, Bagarozy claimed that he was entitled to a percentage of Maria’s fees and the expenses he was supposed to have incurred on her behalf - a total of $300,000. The case was settled out of court on 7 November 1957.
Given those circumstances, I think she was actually pretty entitled to scream.
Posted by David Morgan on 2006 04 25 at 05:55 AM • permalink22 MM
Listen to some of her recordings and you will see.
It’s a pretty good world, all in all. The opportunity to enjoy her work still exists, and the opportunity to hang out in her, um, volatile company does not.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 04 25 at 09:29 AM • permalinkShe’s faking an expression that’s not real, which is why it looks so strange to us. Either she simply wants to simply portray a viciousness that’s not there or else she doesn’t want to look unattractively angry and is hiding her real emotions, which are probably mostly hurt from the look on her face. That’s my read of it.
DeliLama — Try pissing off a real Sicilian girl, and that expression will look like Mother Theresa giving a blessing. It’s real, and the beadle got off easy.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 04 29 at 12:51 AM • permalink
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Zounds! That mouth looks like something a fur trader would use to trap bears!