‘Without a voice, she had no self’: who was the real Maria Callas?

“Madame is the greatest star of them all.”

The words are spoken by Max Von Mayerling, butler to fading star Norma Desmond, in the film Sunset Boulevard. They could just as easily be uttered by Ferruccio Mezzadri, butler for 20 years to diva Maria Callas who, after retiring from the opera stage, lived a largely reclusive life in Paris.

Related: Maria review – Angelina Jolie plays the diva in magnificent stroll around the cult of Callas

Mezzadri remained her devoted and trusted servant to the end – and beyond. Nearly half a century after Callas’s death, he has never spoken ill of her nor revealed her secrets. He lives a quiet life in Italy in a memento-filled home that is like a shrine to the late soprano. But now, at the age of 93, Mezzadri finds himself unexpectedly back in the spotlight.

He shared memories of Callas with the British screenwriter Steven Knight for Maria, a Netflix biopic that explores Callas’s final days in Paris in September 1977 as she reflects on her past and attempts to reclaim her voice. The film depicts a singular bond between Callas and Mezzadri, who at one point is depicted assaulting a journalist in an attempt to defend her.

In another scene, Angelina Jolie’s Callas says: “When I write my autobiography, I will title it The Day Ferruccio Saved My Life.”

Mezzadri, played by Pierfrancesco Favino, asks: “And what day was that, madam?”

Callas replies: “Every day. Every single day. That’s why I hate you. I fall into a river and you always fish me out.”

Mezzadri says softly: “Yes, madam.”

Callas then instructs: “Book me a table at the cafe where the waiters know who I am. I’m in the mood for adulation.”

Maria is directed by Pablo Larraín and the third in an unofficial trilogy following his earlier works Jackie, about Jacqueline Kennedy in the aftermath of her husband John F Kennedy’s funeral, and Spencer, focused on Princess Diana during a visit to one of the Queen’s country estates. But whereas those women came to prominence through marriage, Callas, the ultimate diva – the word means “goddess” in Italian – often seemed to be flying solo.

She was born in New York to Greek immigrant parents in 1923. At the age of 13, she moved to Athens with her mother and sister and enrolled in the Athens Conservatory, where she underwent rigorous vocal training in the Italian “bel canto” tradition. She began her professional career at 17, performing in the Royal Opera of Athens.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Callas’s career blossomed in Italy. Her breakthrough came in 1949 with a performance of La Gioconda at the Verona Arena, where she met her future husband, Giovanni Meneghini. Her international reputation was solidified with performances at La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Known to her fans as La Divina (the Divine One), Callas was renowned for her vocal agility, ability to convey a wide range of emotions and commitment to dramatic realism. She was a trailblazer who broke down barriers for women in opera, demanding equal pay and challenging the status quo.

She was also a fiercely independent and often controversial figure, known for temperamental outbursts and exacting standards. “I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best,” she was quoted as saying.

But in the mid-1950s she began to experience vocal difficulties that led to cancellations – in the film, Callas scolds a fan for daring to question that she faked sickness to miss a performance. Theories about the cause of her decline ranged from overexertion to a drastic weight loss. Medical evidence suggests she may have suffered from dermatomyositis, an autoimmune disease that can affect muscle function, including vocal cords.

In production notes provided by Netflix, Knight observes: “Maria had the most maddeningly complex relationship with her voice, as if she felt her voice was indistinguishable from her soul. In other words, without a voice, she had no self, or perhaps her self became invisible.

“She was always judged on her voice and most cruelly, on her physical appearance. It was a true tragedy in the literal sense that when her appearance was acceptable to herself, her voice weakened. When she felt ugly, her voice was stronger. How does anyone deal with that if your voice is you?”

Callas’s marriage to Meneghini ended in 1959 and she began an affair with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Their passionate, tempestuous relationship was tabloid fodder for years, ending in heartbreak for Callas when Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968.

Larraín comments via Netflix: “I think Aristotle Onassis was the love of her life, and I think they had different moments through their relationship. They were very often close in the 70s after he split with Jackie, but it was somehow a toxic relationship, I think, as well.

“She could just disconnect with the world and let every thing be under his control. I do think there were moments of the relationship that weren’t very healthy. But I also think they came to a peaceful understanding of who they were as individuals and as a couple by the end of their lives.”

Callas never found a man as faithful as Mezzadri, who grew up in poverty and, due to a heart defect, was unable to serve in the military. He was required to do social service instead and ended up working for the wife of a leading composer. Soon after, his path crossed with Callas and he was hired. He started working for her in Milan then followed to her to Paris, where he learned to speak French.

Mezzadri has already been the subject of a stage monologue, Maria Callas, the Black Pearl, written by Federica Nardacci and performed by Marco Gambino, both of whom met him at his home in 2018. Gambino, an Italian actor, remains in touch with Mezzadri and says he is still fiercely loyal to Callas.

Speaking by phone from his home in London, Gambino, 67, explains: “He has this form of protection towards her and so whoever attempted to alter her divine state is sort of thrashed, starting from Mr Onassis and ending with Jacqueline Kennedy. Whenever you start talking about these people, he’s: ‘No, no, no, no, they were bad, they were bad. My lady was so sensitive and they destroyed her.’”

After retiring from opera, Callas gave master classes at the Juilliard School in New York and attempted brief comebacks with concerts and a film role. However, her voice never fully recovered and she lived in an exquisite apartment in Paris until her death from a heart attack in 1977 at the age of 53. Suddenly Mezzadri had to start his life all over again.

Gambino continues: “The most interesting things he said were about himself and how spending 20 years with this lady made his life special but difficult to start again when she died. She died basically in his arms and after that, when you spend 20 years with someone like that, where do you go, what do you?

“He was 40, so half his life. He tried to become a butler for some actor but he just couldn’t. With the money she left him - I don’t think it was that much - he bought this new place in the same grounds where his parents lived in a little house close to Piacenza and that’s where he’s been living since.”

Larraín’s film is the latest addition to the Callas legend. Her dramatic interpretations, vocal versatility and striking stage presence changed the face of opera. Her recordings including interpretations of Norma, La Traviata and Tosca are still revered today.

Gambino reflects: “From her it all started: now opera singers have to know how to act and not just how to sing. It’s important and it makes opera much more attractive because you go to the opera because you see some acting on top of the singing. She wanted to be an actress on top of being a singer.

“For the young generations, I always think that someone like Maria Callas could be a vessel to meet opera in a different and more exciting way because she’s like a rock star. I was watching snippets of when she went back to the Metropolitan in the 50s and people were queuing for 24 hours. The average age of these people is like 15, 16 years old because she was she was a diva but not just that. She was an immense performer.”

He adds: “Her voice was not the beautiful voice of people that would guarantee you an amazing performance. Her voice was actually even more interesting than that because she could fail. What I like about Maria Callas is the unpredictability, the flaws that alternate to supreme moments of being divine. When you are like that, those moments of being superb cannot be matched by any other performance. You’re unique.”

• Maria is now available on Netflix and is released in the UK on 10 January