Production Information
Characters
Maria Callas, Lyric Soprano
World renowned Greek - American opera singer
Aristotle Onassis, Baritone
Greek shipping magnate, Callas’ lover, later Jackie Kennedy’s husband
Giovanni Battista Meneghini, Tenor
Italian industrialist, Callas’ husband and manager
Tina Onassis, Lyric Soprano
Greek shipping heiress and socialite, Aristotle’s wife
Zeus, Bass Baritone
Greek deity, ruler, and protector of gods and humans
Hera, Mezzo Soprano
Zeus’ wife, goddess of women, marriage, and family
Ensemble of 4 singers, Soprano, Mezzo, Tenor, Bass
Chamber Orchestra
Single winds and brass, Strings and Percussion
Creative Team
Composer
Clint Joseph Borzoni is an award-winning composer known for his lyrical music, praised for its "natural gift for melody and harmonic structure" (The Huffington Post) and "sweeping melodies and emotional and dramatic range" (Opera News). His operas and songs have been performed internationally, with notable collaborations with librettist John de los Santos. Their first opera, When Adonis Calls, set entirely to poetry by Gavin Geoffrey Dillard, premiered at Asheville Lyric Opera and had a subsequent production in Chicago. Their second opera, The Copper Queen, won Arizona Opera’s SPARK commission, premiered as an award-winning feature film, and has had multiple workshops, including one at Opera America. Their third opera, The Christmas Spider, developed with The American Opera Project, has been produced by Opera Louisiane, Ovation West, Marble City Opera, and Skylark Opera Theatre.
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Borzoni has also collaborated with Judith G. Wolf on the opera In Love Alone and the oratorio After, which focuses on the period between the crucifixion and resurrection. His earlier oratorio, The Wife of Lot, commissioned by the Gavin Dillard Poetry Library & Archive, is part of the Senator John Heinz History Center’s collection. His other operatic works include Margot Alone in the Light, an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s All Summer in a Day, and Antinous and Hadrian, commissioned by operamission. The orchestral suite from Antinous and Hadrian won the Queer Urban Orchestra’s 2018 composition competition and was recently performed by the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra.
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Borzoni has composed songs and song cycles for leading vocalists, winning BARIHUNKS Best New Song (2015), Best New Solo Work for Baritone (2017), and multiple prizes in Sparks & Wiry Cries’ songSLAM. He has been honored with the Morton Feldman Award and the Boston Metro Opera Festival Award, and served as Resident Composer for Musica Marin from 2016 to 2020.
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Beyond opera, Borzoni’s musical My Life as a Bald Soprano had an Off-Broadway run at the Midtown International Theater Festival, and he has scored three films for JR VISION, which were featured at the Take Two Film Festival, Miami Short Film Festival, SeriesFest, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, and Anthology Film Archives.
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His music has been presented by Minnesota Opera, the Merola Opera Program, Glimmerglass Festival, the Bay View Music Festival, the Wintergreen Festival, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Symphony Space, La MaMA, and many other venues and universities.
Librettist
Elizabeth Coppinger drawn to creating stories about powerful women who have struggled against the constraints of their societies, has written the libretto of La Callas in the belief that the depth and passion of the story of Maria Callas could only be fully captured in an opera. Though she is a first-time librettist, she is no stranger to storytelling, having been Executive Director of TEDxSeattle, one of the largest and longest running TEDx events in the US. A former media and technology executive, in 2022 Elizabeth was honored to have been selected as a resident at Hedgebrook, the Northwest’s preeminent women writers’ community.
Synopsis
The opera begins as two Greek gods, Zeus and Hera, place a wager on whether a man of action or a powerful woman can have the greater impact on the world.
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At the Paris Opera after a Maria Callas performance, the gods watch as Maria, the world’s most famous soprano, enters a room filled with her fans alongside her elderly husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. She sings of the beauty of true art. Aristotle Onassis, the world’s richest man, is there with his young wife, Tina. He speaks to Callas about their shared Greek heritage and invites her to join them on his yacht. After Maria leaves, Ari declares that such a vibrant, beautiful woman should be with a true Greek hero; she must be with him. Zeus and Hera are delighted that they have found their two worthy mortals.
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​On the Onassis yacht, a few months later, Maria and Ari have fallen deeply and passionately in love. Maria feels truly alive for the first time in her life. They decide to leave their spouses to be together. Zeus and Hera give the couple their greatest gift, true love as Callas and Onassis pledge their eternal love to each other.
Five years later, cracks are showing in the relationship, Ari wants her to give up performing. Maria is angry that Ari is still philandering. Ari says that he only loves Callas and she softens and is ready to give up her career for marriage and children. Ari does not want children and gives her an ultimatum; she must give up her dream of becoming a mother or he will leave her. Callas decides that she will sacrifice everything for love.
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Three years later, on the morning of Ari’s’ surprise marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy, Callas asks the gods for strength to survive this betrayal. Hera allows Maria to see what the future holds and Callas enters a dream state and is joined there by Ari. The gods show them that his future will be full of terrible pain and loss. She comforts him that they will always love each other; the gods have united them for life. Her vision ends. Alone on stage, Callas sings of her future, sustained by art and her own strength. Zeus congratulates Hera that she has won the wager. Unlike Onassis, Callas will be remembered by generations to come.
Act One Workshop
Elizabeth Coppinger Librettist
Clint Borzoni Composer
Laura Soto-Bayomi, soprano ~ Jeremy Chan, pianist
Laura Soto-Bayomi, soprano ~ Brian Cheney, tenor ~ Jeremy Chan, pianist
A Workshop of Act I of La Callas was held in New York City in October 2024 at Merkin Hall.
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Conductor, TYSON DEATON; Pianist, JEREMY CHAN, Dramaturge, CORI ELLISON
CAST
Maria Callas, LAURA SOTO-BAYOMI
Aristotle Onassis, DAVID ADAM MOORE
Giovanni Battista Meneghini, BRIAN CHENEY
Tina Onassis, KATE JOHNSON
Zeus, NATE MATTINGLY
Hera, KRYSTY SWANN
ENSENBLE,
MICHELLE TROVATO, PERRI di CHRISTINA, CRISTÓBAL ARIAS, JONATHAN HARRIS
My Child
Elizabeth Coppinger Librettist
Clint Borzoni Composer
Felicia Moore, soprano ~ Jeremy Chan, pianist
The aria My Child from the opera La Callas ends the third scene. Maria Callas realizes that to stay with Ari Onassis, she must abandon her dream of being a mother. In this aria she sings of her sorry and grief to her child who can never be. My Child had its world premiere in November 2024, at New York City's Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in a production of THE 10 FACES OF MARIA CALLAS produced by Teatro Grattacielo in collaboration with The Consulate General of Greece to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Maria Callas.
