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Angelina Jolie says ‘everyone should learn to sing’ after playing Maria Callas
6 January 2025, 18:06 | Updated: 6 January 2025, 18:08
Angelina Jolie on becoming Maria Callas - ‘It was a gift’ | Classic fM
Hollywood sensation Angelina Jolie told Classic FM about how ‘freeing’ it felt to undergo vocal training ahead of portraying opera star Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s new biopic.
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Angelina Jolie, star of the new Maria biopic on the life of opera’s ultimate diva Maria Callas, has told Classic FM of her ‘freeing’ experience learning to sing, and the newfound role opera plays in her life.
Few stars have dominated the opera and world stages quite in the same way as Maria Callas did. Born to Greek parents in Manhattan in 1923, the soprano achieved the heights of success that many can only dream of, over the course of an all-too-brief career.
After years spent battling to retrain the voice that had made her a household name, Callas died in 1977, aged 53.
Read more: Who was Maria Callas, and what made her the world’s greatest opera diva?
Now the subject of a biopic, the monumental talent who earned the nickname ‘La Divina’ lives on through her music, and through a brilliant portrayal by Angelina Jolie.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Maria sees Jolie star as the legendary soprano during the final days of her life in Paris.
Read more: ‘Maria’: First clip of Angelina Jolie as opera star Maria Callas in new biopic
What did Angelina Jolie learn from singing opera?
Seven months before production began on the film Jolie was immersed in study for the role, which included singing lessons, Italian classes, and opera study.
“Certainly my relationship to opera has changed,” she told Classic FM. “It’s very much a part of my life. And for my own voice, I think it really did change me.“
Having never sung in public before stepping onto the set of Maria, Jolie expressed the profound effect that learning to sing has had on her, personally: “I think we don’t realise how much our voice, how much our body holds. Whatever we’ve been through in life, whatever we fear, whatever we feel, whatever has hurt us, whatever it is we hold – whether we know it or not, it affects our sound.
“To be forced to get past that and make a full sound again was almost like shaking me out from years of holding, and having to confront and release a lot.
“So it was really a gift,” she concluded. “It’s very freeing. That’s why I say everybody should do it. I’m encouraging everyone.”
Read more: Does Angelina Jolie sing in the Maria Callas biopic? Actress reveals her operatic training
Why was Maria Callas chosen as the film’s subject?
For director Pablo Larraín, making the film Maria presented an opportunity to re-introduce one of history’s most iconic voices to the world. Growing up in Santiago, Chile, he often visited the city’s opera house with his family and was first introduced to Maria Callas by his mother.
For him, one aim of the film is to break the ‘elitist’ stigma that opera can have for newcomers.
“One of the biggest aims of Maria’s work as she was singing was to put opera out there, and to put it back where it started, where it belongs – which is to the people,” he told Classic FM.
“I think Maria saw opera as an ‘elitist’ form of art. I think she saw it as something that could connect and relate to pretty much anyone. And that’s something beautiful.”
Telling the end of Maria Callas’ story
The film’s climactic moment comes at its end, as Maria Callas gives the performance of her life, and the one that will be her last.
The scene was also the final day of filming, and Angelina Jolie told Classic FM about the emotional experience of playing Callas in her final moments.
“I was allowed to give every single thing I had, and then drop to the floor,” she said. “And there was something about that, having lived the whole experience, through the months.
“Now thinking of her life and having been close to her and thinking of her last moments, because really, the heart of it too, you’re recreating a moment where someone passed away.”
Throughout the film, Jolie’s voice was artfully blended with Callas’ recordings, and it‘s in this final moment that Jolie’s voice comes to the fore. The actor arrived on set, believing she would be singing unaccompanied for the opera star’s swan song – but Larraín had a surprise up his sleeve.
“[Pablo] had the orchestra show up, which was a surprise! I thought I’d be singing alone,” she told Classic FM. ”And then suddenly this orchestra arrived and it was magic. A very emotional day for all of us.”
