I believe this was Callas. At the beginning of the video, the radio host brings up the singer's father's occupation as a chemist. Callas' father was in fact a chemist/pharmacist.
Of course it's her. She herself talked about this competition and said that she didn't win the first price. She won 2nd price. An accordion player won the top price. She went by the name of Nina Foresti.
It has been proven that this is NOT Callas, by Lyndsey Spence in her recent book on Callas. The singer is Annette Duval who also sang under the names of Anita Duval and Nina Foresti,. There is even a picture of Ms Duval.
When it is Callas at 12 years she already has the speaking voice of the adult later. However this is amazing, it makes you think it is authentic. "She feels responsible for money income (high ambitions she has) because her father got unimployed". Like young girls can copy adults, wanting to be an adult already, charming. Later she often told she was already at young age urged to make a career - for money income - by her mother. Her 'high ambitions' she talks of in this radio program was copying her mother like a child does, mixed with first desires of a teenager, wanting to be an adult. Although more copiing then own desire, like she later explained.
THIS IS NOT CALLAS AT ALL. Firstly, this doesn’t sound like a 12 year old girl at all. Number two callas developed her mid Atlantic accent when she was famous and this accent wasn’t spoken the New York City where she was raised. Secondly , her voice when she entered the conservatory was considered very dark to the point she was first thought to be a contralto and it was considered big and uncontrolled. The singer has absolutely none of those qualities. Also , where is there any indication that the singer in the video is even 12 years old? There’s no mention of any age. Last but not least. Where in the world would a 12 year old Greek American New Yorker like Callas would have learned how to sing an aria in Italian ???? She didn’t know anything but Greek and English at that point in her life. Fake.
I have no idea if this is Callas but the speaking voice is not the voice of a 12 year New York City girl. It is the mannered and cultivated voice that Callas acquired on her way to being famous.
So she lied? Big deal,most important people lie for their escalation to the top. In the first biography, after her death, that was mentioned...not big lies really, only things to promote herself: like when she claimed that the Met had offered her a role before she went to italy, the first time or when she pretended to Meneghini, who was in love with her,that she was in need of clothes... he was rich and bought her a new wardrobe. I read one interview,after her separation from Meneghini, where she accused her husband of infidelities and disturbing the La Scala dancers...she avoided admiting that her matrimony had actually been a happy one; he showed proof of some notes she wrote to him that were very affectionate and jokingly operatic...she never gave him credit for anything, while he was her support during the tremendous career in her fifties! Maybe because of the money he made on her and the money he asked Onassis to let her go without legal problems ...still he had been a good companion and she never divorced him, perhaps hoping to inherit his fortune....
If the person singing were only 12 years old, wouldn't the announcer have mentioned it? And what " large department store" would be knowingly employing a 12 year old - that would be illegal, yes? It sounds like an adult soprano to me.
From the notes of Divina Records DVN-1 CD: It is believed that a girl who participated at a 1935 Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio audition could have been the eleven-year old Mary Ann Callas using the false name of Nina Foresti. The recording made on that occasion is still controversial in that the singing voice of the contestant does not bear any resemblance to the great soprano’s (Foresti was given a “D” rating and the note “Faint possibility for future”). However, the girl’s speaking voice (which can be heard during the introductory dialogue with Major Bowes in its entirety here for the first time on CD) is strikingly similar to Callas’. The clue to the mystery may lie in the contestant’s tone when she describes herself as an Italian-American who is “employed in the toy department of a large department store.” Neither of these statements was true in Maria Callas’ case, and a slight hesitancy, discomfort and hurry to finish can clearly be heard on this recording. A pseudonym was probably chosen to deceive Callas’ father, who objected to his wife’s ambition regarding their younger daughter’s career, in case he or some acquaintances were listening to the radio. According to Nikos Petsalis-Diomidis, Mary Ann Callas had only two music teachers in New York from 1931 to 1937 - Signorina Sandrina, who taught Mary Ann the notes and gave her piano lessons once a week for a few months in 1931-1932; and a neighbor from Sweden, who gave her singing lessons without payment. Considering such modest training, it is possible that Mary Ann learned the music she performed in public between 1934 and 1937 mainly by listening to records and radio programs. Since Callas always had an impeccable ear, learning to sing “Un bel di” by imitating the singing style and timbral characteristics heard on a recording would have posed no difficulty. This might explain why neither Nina Foresti’s singing nor her timbre, curiously mature-sounding for an eleven-year old girl, resemble anything known to have been recorded by Callas from 1949 to 1977. Once merely a hypothesis, it is now generally accepted that Nina Foresti was actually Maria Callas, despite Callas’ denial that she ever sang under an assumed name. (She nevertheless admitted the fact to her friend and confidante Nadia Stancioff; the same assertion was made independently by Steven Linakis, Callas’ cousin who knew her in her childhood days.) (c) Milan Petkovic, 2000.
If this is Callas, it explains the vocal difficulties she experienced rather quickly in the mid fifties...what person who, at twelve, sings Butterfly's aria, and who knows what other heavy roles, full force, expect to last long? Other than that, how a twelve year old could sing this well is beyond me...genius!
It is not Callas, I will only say that this has been around for many years, I am 99, she was precocious for sure, I have really found it difficult to understand that people can believe this, the lady singing is 23 years old not 12, also I had the opportunity to speak to the lovely lady once in London in 1962, when I was a scribe for a Opera magazine of that time, I talked to her about her career when young, she never mentioned this recording, but I have it in good faith it is not this Great Artist. I had earlier had a talk with Giovanni Martinelli after one of his great Lectures, he admired Callas greatly, he did not admire the way the press was constantly on the back of this Lady, she had a beautiful speaking voice and was charming, but she was in my mind a living tragedy, this was played out in public , I have to say that I thought it was rather sad that Callas did those late Concerts with Di Stefano. I saw her in Opera many times , if you had not heard her live, you could not believe the power of the Chest notes, the amazing Coloratura and her acting skills with it, she was simply phenomenal. I had my first opera at 10 years of age in Covent Garden in 1931 , debut for me Tristan and Isolde with Lauritz Melchior and Frida Leider, from that day I was hooked on opera, right up to this day, I am three and a half months off my Century. I saw many great Soprano's Ponselle, Muzio in Italy in 1933, Scacciati, Giannini . Bruna Rasa ,Leider, Flagstad, Nillson, Lawrence, Easton. Austral, Muller, Reining. Dal Monte, Caniglia Tebaldi Mancini and many other all great artists. I can say that of the Italian, I include Ponselle in that, Ponselle Muzio Callas stood out, Tebaldi I also say stood out, not Scotto, Freni I also admired, there are none today that can come anywhere near all that I have mentioned above. Callas was simply a woman of incredible talent, musical sense, very straight talking and honesty, it is amongst my greatest memories that I witnessed her at her greatest and talked to this Great Soprano, may she rest in peace, with all the greats.
I hope you're still well! I just wanted to say that she used the Di Stefano concerts as a build up for her voice, indeed many progresses were made in that way and it's possibile that she could have return to the stage if she wouldn't have died in such a sudden way. Also she had a relation with di Stefano at the time
Her speaking voice sounds like Callas and as is said Callas's father was a chemist. Her singing voice has hints of having copied Ponselle, whom Callas admired, with unusual strength at the bottom. For a 12 year old it is amazing - how perplexing! Could it have been faked or is it the recording of a genuine broadcast, whoever the singer is?
I truly believe this is one of those things that will never be known 100% for sure, in either direction. The singing sounds nothing even similar to Callas, and yet the speaking voice sounds almost exactly the same. I think this will always remain a mystery. But how appropriate for it to be a mystery! After all, from start to finish, everything in her life was shrouded in mystery and controversy! Even 42 years after her own death, the very mention of her name stirs mystery and controversy. That is part of her greatness!
Peter Kroll :Callas entered the conservatoire at the age of 13! Though the âge minimum was 17, with the assistance of her mother, Maria was able to lie due the maturity in her young voice. Also as noted in the start of the recording, her father was a chemist (AKA pharmacist) I have no doubt that this is Maria :)
It's definitely Callas. I can hear it in her Italian pronunciation and in her speaking voice. Remember, her idol was Rosa Ponselle, and she sounded like she's doing an imitation of her. The voice wasn't even close to its full power yet. Little Mary Callas certainly proved herself later on.
Recién viaja a Grecia en 1937 y allí comienza sus estudios de canto con Elvira dé Hidalgo. Su maestra y mentora. Tenía 14 años, aunque es verdad que ella ganó un concurso de radio en Nueva York y creo que se ganó un reloj. En esos años eso era un verdadero triunfo. Pero igual, no creo que sea la que canta en la grabación.
Alberto Negron Elvira Hidalgo fez a estreia de Mário Del Mônaco nesta Ópera a seu lado. Durante a Guerra veio para o Brasil. Existe uma entrevista dela com o Maestro Valter Lourenço na Rádio Cultura FM.
No creo que sea la Callas. Su sonido era muy diferente. Además la que canta se nota que ya tiene una formación técnica. A los doce creo que recién viajaba a Grecia para comenzar sus estudios en el conservatorio con la de Hidalgo. No creo que ese sea el sonido de la Callas. Sonido por demás único y muy atrayente. La que canta es una excelente soprano, todo lo hace bien, pero para mí no tiene ese sonido raro y único de María Callas.
There is some dispute about whether this is Callas or not, but I believe it's her - not so much from the singing voice, but more from the speaking voice. The inflection (especially when she says "Yes, I would like to" in 0:29), the eloquence - they are so Callas.
this can't be her. it has none of the qualities of her actual recordings of this piece and I assure you that one does not simply gain all of that dramatic interpretation from studying. the instinct has to be there and this recording shows absolutely no signs of that. way too simple musically speaking
I believe this was Callas. At the beginning of the video, the radio host brings up the singer's father's occupation as a chemist. Callas' father was in fact a chemist/pharmacist.
Not her voice. And she wouldn't be working in a department store at 12.
Of course it's her. She herself talked about this competition and said that she didn't win the first price. She won 2nd price. An accordion player won the top price. She went by the name of Nina Foresti.
It has been proven that this is NOT Callas, by Lyndsey Spence in her recent book on Callas. The singer is Annette Duval who also sang under the names of Anita Duval and Nina Foresti,. There is even a picture of Ms Duval.
This is Maria callas. She went by the name Nina forestier bc her father was concerned about his chemist career. Why idk but... it's her
It is not her! This is already discussed. Nina Foresti is another person.
Μαρία Άννα Καικιλία Σοφία Καλογεροπούλου, (Κάλλας), only from Greece!!!!!!!!
The specaking voice sounds just like her, and the singing sounds like a imitation of Ponselle... Could be, but we will NEVER know hahaha.
We do know now. It is NOT Callas.
This is not 12 nor is Callas.
Maria said in a letter that it's not her in this recording 🤷🏻♂️
Impossible. This isn't a Child!
Not Callas.
When it is Callas at 12 years she already has the speaking voice of the adult later. However this is amazing, it makes you think it is authentic. "She feels responsible for money income (high ambitions she has) because her father got unimployed". Like young girls can copy adults, wanting to be an adult already, charming. Later she often told she was already at young age urged to make a career - for money income - by her mother. Her 'high ambitions' she talks of in this radio program was copying her mother like a child does, mixed with first desires of a teenager, wanting to be an adult. Although more copiing then own desire, like she later explained.
She was 12 lbs at birth. She got hit by a car and survived. She wasn’t the usual 12 year old. This could be her.
THIS IS NOT CALLAS AT ALL. Firstly, this doesn’t sound like a 12 year old girl at all. Number two callas developed her mid Atlantic accent when she was famous and this accent wasn’t spoken the New York City where she was raised. Secondly , her voice when she entered the conservatory was considered very dark to the point she was first thought to be a contralto and it was considered big and uncontrolled. The singer has absolutely none of those qualities. Also , where is there any indication that the singer in the video is even 12 years old? There’s no mention of any age. Last but not least. Where in the world would a 12 year old Greek American New Yorker like Callas would have learned how to sing an aria in Italian ???? She didn’t know anything but Greek and English at that point in her life. Fake.
RIEN dans cette voix ne permet de supposer qu'il s'agit de Maria Callas !!!!!!
I have no idea if this is Callas but the speaking voice is not the voice of a 12 year New York City girl. It is the mannered and cultivated voice that Callas acquired on her way to being famous.
Her voice was exceptionnal mature for singing logicly the speaking voice is the same precosly.
So she lied? Big deal,most important people lie for their escalation to the top. In the first biography, after her death, that was mentioned...not big lies really, only things to promote herself: like when she claimed that the Met had offered her a role before she went to italy, the first time or when she pretended to Meneghini, who was in love with her,that she was in need of clothes... he was rich and bought her a new wardrobe. I read one interview,after her separation from Meneghini, where she accused her husband of infidelities and disturbing the La Scala dancers...she avoided admiting that her matrimony had actually been a happy one; he showed proof of some notes she wrote to him that were very affectionate and jokingly operatic...she never gave him credit for anything, while he was her support during the tremendous career in her fifties! Maybe because of the money he made on her and the money he asked Onassis to let her go without legal problems ...still he had been a good companion and she never divorced him, perhaps hoping to inherit his fortune....
If the person singing were only 12 years old, wouldn't the announcer have mentioned it? And what " large department store" would be knowingly employing a 12 year old - that would be illegal, yes? It sounds like an adult soprano to me.
From the notes of Divina Records DVN-1 CD: It is believed that a girl who participated at a 1935 Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio audition could have been the eleven-year old Mary Ann Callas using the false name of Nina Foresti. The recording made on that occasion is still controversial in that the singing voice of the contestant does not bear any resemblance to the great soprano’s (Foresti was given a “D” rating and the note “Faint possibility for future”). However, the girl’s speaking voice (which can be heard during the introductory dialogue with Major Bowes in its entirety here for the first time on CD) is strikingly similar to Callas’. The clue to the mystery may lie in the contestant’s tone when she describes herself as an Italian-American who is “employed in the toy department of a large department store.” Neither of these statements was true in Maria Callas’ case, and a slight hesitancy, discomfort and hurry to finish can clearly be heard on this recording. A pseudonym was probably chosen to deceive Callas’ father, who objected to his wife’s ambition regarding their younger daughter’s career, in case he or some acquaintances were listening to the radio. According to Nikos Petsalis-Diomidis, Mary Ann Callas had only two music teachers in New York from 1931 to 1937 - Signorina Sandrina, who taught Mary Ann the notes and gave her piano lessons once a week for a few months in 1931-1932; and a neighbor from Sweden, who gave her singing lessons without payment. Considering such modest training, it is possible that Mary Ann learned the music she performed in public between 1934 and 1937 mainly by listening to records and radio programs. Since Callas always had an impeccable ear, learning to sing “Un bel di” by imitating the singing style and timbral characteristics heard on a recording would have posed no difficulty. This might explain why neither Nina Foresti’s singing nor her timbre, curiously mature-sounding for an eleven-year old girl, resemble anything known to have been recorded by Callas from 1949 to 1977. Once merely a hypothesis, it is now generally accepted that Nina Foresti was actually Maria Callas, despite Callas’ denial that she ever sang under an assumed name. (She nevertheless admitted the fact to her friend and confidante Nadia Stancioff; the same assertion was made independently by Steven Linakis, Callas’ cousin who knew her in her childhood days.) (c) Milan Petkovic, 2000.
If this is Callas, it explains the vocal difficulties she experienced rather quickly in the mid fifties...what person who, at twelve, sings Butterfly's aria, and who knows what other heavy roles, full force, expect to last long? Other than that, how a twelve year old could sing this well is beyond me...genius!
Callas, Callas, Callas ! Viva Callas !
It is not Callas, I will only say that this has been around for many years, I am 99, she was precocious for sure, I have really found it difficult to understand that people can believe this, the lady singing is 23 years old not 12, also I had the opportunity to speak to the lovely lady once in London in 1962, when I was a scribe for a Opera magazine of that time, I talked to her about her career when young, she never mentioned this recording, but I have it in good faith it is not this Great Artist. I had earlier had a talk with Giovanni Martinelli after one of his great Lectures, he admired Callas greatly, he did not admire the way the press was constantly on the back of this Lady, she had a beautiful speaking voice and was charming, but she was in my mind a living tragedy, this was played out in public , I have to say that I thought it was rather sad that Callas did those late Concerts with Di Stefano. I saw her in Opera many times , if you had not heard her live, you could not believe the power of the Chest notes, the amazing Coloratura and her acting skills with it, she was simply phenomenal. I had my first opera at 10 years of age in Covent Garden in 1931 , debut for me Tristan and Isolde with Lauritz Melchior and Frida Leider, from that day I was hooked on opera, right up to this day, I am three and a half months off my Century. I saw many great Soprano's Ponselle, Muzio in Italy in 1933, Scacciati, Giannini . Bruna Rasa ,Leider, Flagstad, Nillson, Lawrence, Easton. Austral, Muller, Reining. Dal Monte, Caniglia Tebaldi Mancini and many other all great artists. I can say that of the Italian, I include Ponselle in that, Ponselle Muzio Callas stood out, Tebaldi I also say stood out, not Scotto, Freni I also admired, there are none today that can come anywhere near all that I have mentioned above. Callas was simply a woman of incredible talent, musical sense, very straight talking and honesty, it is amongst my greatest memories that I witnessed her at her greatest and talked to this Great Soprano, may she rest in peace, with all the greats.
Thank you!
Thank you!!!!!!
No, she is not Maria Callas. You are absolutely right!
I hope you're still well! I just wanted to say that she used the Di Stefano concerts as a build up for her voice, indeed many progresses were made in that way and it's possibile that she could have return to the stage if she wouldn't have died in such a sudden way. Also she had a relation with di Stefano at the time
Her speaking voice sounds like Callas and as is said Callas's father was a chemist. Her singing voice has hints of having copied Ponselle, whom Callas admired, with unusual strength at the bottom. For a 12 year old it is amazing - how perplexing! Could it have been faked or is it the recording of a genuine broadcast, whoever the singer is?
No way did a 12 year old have employment in a department store. Not Callas.
Children worked in the 50's too I can attest to that
This is not Callas. What a waste of time...
Mistaken
Baby Callas))))...🐣🐛💐
I truly believe this is one of those things that will never be known 100% for sure, in either direction. The singing sounds nothing even similar to Callas, and yet the speaking voice sounds almost exactly the same. I think this will always remain a mystery. But how appropriate for it to be a mystery! After all, from start to finish, everything in her life was shrouded in mystery and controversy! Even 42 years after her own death, the very mention of her name stirs mystery and controversy. That is part of her greatness!
Totally disagree...that is her lower coordination as a mature younger talent...40 yrs working with voices aged 5-71
If the speaking voice is her the singing voice is her too
Angela Bender this isn’t her.
This voice - speaking or singing - is at least 15 or older.
Peter Kroll :Callas entered the conservatoire at the age of 13! Though the âge minimum was 17, with the assistance of her mother, Maria was able to lie due the maturity in her young voice. Also as noted in the start of the recording, her father was a chemist (AKA pharmacist) I have no doubt that this is Maria :)
It's definitely Callas. I can hear it in her Italian pronunciation and in her speaking voice. Remember, her idol was Rosa Ponselle, and she sounded like she's doing an imitation of her. The voice wasn't even close to its full power yet. Little Mary Callas certainly proved herself later on.
Very true
Recién viaja a Grecia en 1937 y allí comienza sus estudios de canto con Elvira dé Hidalgo. Su maestra y mentora. Tenía 14 años, aunque es verdad que ella ganó un concurso de radio en Nueva York y creo que se ganó un reloj. En esos años eso era un verdadero triunfo. Pero igual, no creo que sea la que canta en la grabación.
Alberto Negron Elvira Hidalgo fez a estreia de Mário Del Mônaco nesta Ópera a seu lado. Durante a Guerra veio para o Brasil. Existe uma entrevista dela com o Maestro Valter Lourenço na Rádio Cultura FM.
No creo que sea la Callas. Su sonido era muy diferente. Además la que canta se nota que ya tiene una formación técnica. A los doce creo que recién viajaba a Grecia para comenzar sus estudios en el conservatorio con la de Hidalgo. No creo que ese sea el sonido de la Callas. Sonido por demás único y muy atrayente. La que canta es una excelente soprano, todo lo hace bien, pero para mí no tiene ese sonido raro y único de María Callas.
Alberto Negron Ainda era uma menina.
There is some dispute about whether this is Callas or not, but I believe it's her - not so much from the singing voice, but more from the speaking voice. The inflection (especially when she says "Yes, I would like to" in 0:29), the eloquence - they are so Callas.
this can't be her. it has none of the qualities of her actual recordings of this piece and I assure you that one does not simply gain all of that dramatic interpretation from studying. the instinct has to be there and this recording shows absolutely no signs of that. way too simple musically speaking
Mistaken
not Callas surely?
imposter
Mistaken
the girl singing doesn't definetly seems to be Callas... but when she speaks at the beginning... it really sounds Callas...
It's her
Angela Bender ITS NOT.