Maria was the therapy I didn't realise I needed

FOLLOWING Maria Callas's death, aged just 53, many reflected on the life and career of the incredibly talented opera singer as one of great tragedy.

- ANGELA JOLIE TELLS RACHEL DAVIS

Born in the 1920s to Greek immigrants in New York, she had a difficult childhood marked by her father's infidelity and her parents' divorce.

At 13, she moved to Athens with her mother and sister and began to train as a soprano opera singer, earning the title role of the Royal Opera of Athens' production of Puccini's Tosca playing a 19th-century Roman prima donna driven to a tragic death by the schemes of a powerful man who desires her - just a year later.

It proved to be a role which defined Callas throughout her life.

As her career grew, she travelled the world Italy, London, the United States - and became known not just for her immeasurable talent, but for her exacting standards: for example, she famously demanded a salary equal to the male singers when she performed in Norma at the Met in New York, which shocked the music world.

By her 30s, however, her voice was becoming less reliable, despite being at an age where sopranos are usually in their prime. Even when she retired at 41, the spotlight followed her as she began a torrid love affair with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who went on to marry former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

By the time she died from a sudden heart attack in 1977, many thought they knew Maria Callas from the news stories and paparazzi photographs not least those which claimed she died from heartbreak after Onassis married Kennedy but it was her art, opera, that always mattered most to her, that was always her true love.