A view of the permanent exhibition at the Kalamata Cultural Center. [Courtesy of the Maria Callas Alumni Association of the Music School of Kalamata]
The Cultural Center of Kalamata in the northwestern Peloponnese unveiled a permanent exhibition on Maria Callas on December 2, the day that, had the great Greek opera diva been alive, she would have turned 101 years old. It was a good day for the capital of Messinia and for the region, a homecoming of sorts, of a world-celebrated artist whose humble roots lay in the village of Neochori.
The exhibition is the passion project of the Maria Callas Alumni Association of the Music School of Kalamata. Among other mementos, it brings together letters written by the great soprano, magazine covers and rare magazines, a pair of her gloves, photographs from her landmark performance in “Medea” from the collection of Richard Copeman that were salvaged from her last place place of residence, and a silver medal designed by engraver Nikos Perantinos.
“The journey to this moment began in 2013,” says Giorgos Iliopoulos, spokesperson for the association that created the exhibition. “A decade ago, when we celebrated the 90th anniversary of Maria Callas’ birth with an exhibition in the foyer of the cultural center – which more than 7,000 people visited within three months, not including school groups – we set a goal as the alumni association to prepare, voluntarily, for the 100th anniversary.”
The association managed to secure a number of letters from the archive of the Athens Municipality’s Technopolis Cultural Complex, which were part of its Maria Callas Museum. “That was the spark. We had seen the love, interest and inspiration that the great diva evokes in people and we were determined,” says Iliopoulos, describing the effort to secure more interesting objects as a “safari” that included attending auctions, researching archives and reaching out to collectors.
The second “safari” related to the hunt for an appropriate space to house the growing collection and this too began in 2013, when interest in Callas exploded among Kalamata’s local authorities and institutions, prompting them to take an active interest in the alumni association’s endeavor. The space was eventually found on the third floor of the Kalamata Cultural Center. At 40 square meters, Iliopoulos describes it as “small in area, but big in soul.”
Members of the association, with the help of filmmaker Babis Tsokas – director of documentaries on archaeologist Petros Themelis and on George Zorbas, the inspiration for Nikos Kazanatzakis’ iconic Alexis Zorbas – went on the hunt in Paris, Milan, Athens and the island of Skorpios looking for anything related to the opera star. These forays also resulted in Tsokas’ docudrama “Our Own Maria Callas,” which was presented in 2017 on the 40th anniversary of her death.
Iliopoulos, who works as an actor and translator of theatrical plays, also reached out to Andrew Visnevski, founder and head of postgraduate programs at the legendary Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and also a teacher at the drama school of the National Theater, who, along with his partner, Colin Deane, donated 80% of the items featured in the Kalamata exhibition.
The show also includes audiovisual material, digitized archives that are also available in translations, and a record player playing Callas’ operas, while a program of educational events is also being planned.
“The exhibits will be rotated every so often, because the archive is growing,” says Iliopoulos.
