Monica Bellucci crosses the door of the press room, activating the triggers of the multiple cameras that await her. None could do justice to her humanity and beauty. Her first words are to evoke the emotion she felt the day before rehearsing with the GIO Symphonia conducted by Francesc Prat. "The letters and memoirs of Maria Callas are amazing but I was impressed by the music, it moved me a lot," admits the actress.
The Castell de Peralada Festival hosts this Friday, July 15, the unusual project in which the former model and actress, Giuseppe Tornatore's iconic Malena, gives voice to the mythical soprano of Greek origin referring to her letters and memoirs, the that the diva never got to publish despite the fact that she repeatedly asked for help to publish them.
It is the first time that Bellucci, a face that the movie camera has loved from all angles, goes on stage. And if he does it, it is to defend the private history of the greatest icon of opera. La Vanguardia subscribers have a 10% discount if they purchase tickets for Lettres et mémoires on the newspaper's ticket sales website.
“I came into contact with the figure of Maria Callas when I had to play an opera diva in the Mozart in the jungle series. But I never thought that Tom Volf [the director of the documentary Maria by Callas and specialist in the famous singer] would come to offer me this challenge”.
Sheathed in a red dress that combines with high black shoes, Bellucci handles herself with studied elegance, with slow movements. And she even gives the graphic press a moment of dark glasses, so characteristic of Callas's public image. If she has accepted this project, she admits, it is because emotions are very powerful, texts are powerful. She couldn't refuse.
"When Tom came home with the letters from Maria Callas, I was especially moved among the first ones I read, the one to Aristotelis Onassis, and also another one on faith. Even being scared, as it was my first time on stage, reading them I thought that I could touch the soul of the singer, because she was a great diva but also a woman with a simple heart, we must not forget that she died of sadness", says the actress.
Bellucci, who like Callas has led a nomadic life, speaks to the press in Peralada in soft English. And he sweetens it even more when he talks about how "deep" the soprano's acting ability was. "She was able to live her life to the full both on and off stage," he says.
"She sacrificed all her youth for her stage career and when she met Onassis she discovered her femininity, and she wanted to live it fully. You realize that she was a woman who wanted to live by letting herself go. So to speak of her having a tragic life maybe we should say it was a brave life."
For his part, Volf, a photographer and filmmaker who has been delving into Callas's private life for years, until becoming the great specialist, assures that from the first moment he detected a chemistry between Callas and Bellucci. They not only share Mediterranean origins, but also because in both he detected a duality. The difficulty of finding oneself in the public eye and at the same time trying to keep one's feet on the ground.
"In an interview, the singer admitted that there were two people in them, Maria and Callas, a character in which she had to live. Hence the title of my film -adds Volf-. I have explored that duality and I have realized that she had to confront her all her life. She sacrificed love and her private life for her career and success, but in the second half of her life she would have been willing to do the opposite. She was an icon, a world celebrity, with a sensibility and a way of experiencing emotions".
Bellucci agrees that he shares this duality of public and private with Callas. "But she was not a victim. She made her own decisions and took the risk of her own life choices. That is why she is so inspiring today, because she had the courage to live life with many emotions, following the impulse of the heart and chasing freedom." ".
If she had to choose between the letters she has read from Callas, the actress would opt for the one already mentioned to Onassis but also the one she writes to him at one point in her life and which she dedicates to her mother and sister. "Because we can perceive her loneliness and the importance of emotions in her life. In that we can see ourselves reflected, because everyone needs human warmth by their side. And although she had an audience that adored her and people who helped her, in the intimacy was alone".
The shipowner and tycoon, her eternal partner who never wanted to marry her -although he had no qualms about leaving her to marry Jackie Kennedy- was not, according to Bellucci, her great love or the cause of her great suffering. "I don't think so. Callas had no family, she had no children. And she often talked about her unhappy childhood and the difficult relationship she had with her mother and her sister."
The actress is aware of how delicate it is to delve into this aspect of the soprano's life. "Love is something very complex, we cannot reach conclusions about the relationship he had with Onassis. But we can interpret his letters and memoirs with respect. And what I say about his pain and his love for him is something I can understand Because I'm a woman. Callas was sensitive and vulnerable. She lived life with passion and feeling. And doing it was very brave."
The show in French -with subtitles- recreates Callas in her apartment in Paris, where she lived for the last few years until she died at the age of 53. At the end of her life she was ready to give up career and success for love. "She lived alone, in Paris, and all she had left was the house and the jewels," says Bellucci, who on stage even wears a dress that belonged to the singer, which, she admits, brings her closer to her. "One of the dresses I tried on was perfect for me, and I took that as a sign."
So far they have taken the project to stages in Rome, Paris, Venice, Milan, Lisbon or Istanbul, and the next thing is to land in the United States, the place where Volf discovered opera, a decade ago. It was a night at the Met, before mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato playing Maria Stuarda. Upon his return home, totally shocked, he began to search and found the figure of Maria Callas whose study he has not abandoned even today.
Francesc Prat conducts the GIO Symphony (former GiOrquestra) in musical interventions, with arias performed instrumentally. And sometimes he introduces arias until the moment Callas's voice comes on record, but never trying to put music to his voice. "The music musically illustrates all the emotion of the text and that which emanates from Monica. An ethereal and emotional layer that explains this biography", affirms the Catalan master.
The artistic director of Peralada, Oriol Aguilà, recalls that this project that unites cinema, music and opera is not unusual in Peralada. "Juliette Binoche has come here as Barbara or also John Malkovich. With this project we advance a year to the centenary of Maria Callas, the most legendary singer of opera. And we do it with a project in French that is still a nod to our usual public from the neighboring country".
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