7 Deaths of Maria Callas by Marina Abramović @ Coliseum Theatre
Succeeding years and years of wandering around the world, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas by Marina Abramović finally made it to London. A limited time spectacular, the much spoken-about opera welcomed the audience to the stage of the Coliseum theatre. The show did not sneak in quietly, widely advertised in public spaces and on social media in the preceding months.
Marina Abramović, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas (2023). Photo Courtesy: Lisson Gallery.
Marina Abramović is an internationally renowned performance artist of Serbian origins, creating body and endurance art since early 1970. She first heard about Maria Callas, who later became her inspiration and artistic influence, in Yugoslavia when she was only 14 years old. She was fascinated by their similarities; first in appearance but later in personal attributes and relationships. Maria Callas was one of the most famous opera sopranos of the 20th century, whose personal life was dramatic and always under a spotlight. The opera star and Abramović had various similarities including difficult relationships with their mothers and an unbearable time dealing with a heartbreak.
7 Deaths of Maria Callas is a celebratory opera project of thirty years in the making by Abramović. “If you’re intrigued by a mixture of performance art, meditative film and classic soprano arias, then we think this is for you,” says an introduction to the opera at The English National Opera website, who supported the production.
Over the course of the performance, the seven heroines of operas iconically performed by Callas, namely; Violetta from La Traviata, Tosca from Tosca, Desdemona from Othello, Cio-Cio-San from Madame Butterfly, Carmen from Carmen, Lucia from Lucia di Lammermoor, Norma from Norma, all die tragically, embodied in a series of films by Abramović, featuring Willem Defoe. The opera ends in a hotel room in Paris, with the eighth and final death of Callas.
The production was more down to earth and less philosophically charged than one might have imagined it to be, although packed with references that a true admirer of both, Callas and Abramović could easily locate. The full length of the performance was 90 minutes which is quite concise for a classical opera, but more suitable for the modern audience used to shorter formats of the visual information they perceive in everyday life.
In the first act, Marina Abramović was on stage in bed, covered with a blanket up to her chin, which created quite a struggle for the part of the audience whose primary concern of the visit was to catch a glimpse of the legendary artist. The most integral part of this particular act was the screen which took up the whole stage behind Marina’s bed. On the screen, seven short films were projected; “Burning”, “Knifing”, “Jumping”, “Hara-kiri”, “Strangulation”, “Consumption” and “Madness”, corresponding to the way the heroine faced death in each of them. The films referred to the death that the heroines face in their operas, which in juxtaposition with the second act of the death of Callas herself compare her life to many tragic lives she embodied. During the films, a corresponding aria was performed live by opera singers interchanging on stage between films, amongst pre-recorded narrations in Abramović’s voice.
It was very evident that the opera itself was secondary to the film. Rather an accompaniment, an addition. This was noticeable primarily in the contrast between the stunning outfits of Abramović and Dafoe and the special effects surrounding them in the video, in contrast to the grey maid's uniform in which the singers were dressed. Performing in the minimal settings, looking tiny compared to the vast scale of the screen. During this part, the audience had to remind themselves several times that what they were watching was proposed as an opera rather than a film screening.
Maria Abramović, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas (2021). Photo Courtesy: Plays International and Europe.
The first part of the opera was a reference to the sorrowful yet dramatic life of Maria Callas, in which Abramović found a resemblance to herself. The career of Callas was marked with many professional scandals, which later, after her death have been revealed to be miscommunicated by the press. Nevertheless, opera impresario Rudolf Bing describes Callas as the most difficult artist he ever worked with: "Because she was so much more intelligent. Other artists, you could get around. But Callas you could not get around. She knew exactly what she wanted, and why she wanted it." The private life of the singer was public and much spoken about; her infamous affair with Aristotle Onassis, ending tragically. The loss of love in life from which Marina recovered, while Maria did not, dying in the words of Abramović, from a broken heart. The revelation of the persona of Maria Callas was brief, symbolic, which is fair to the point that the production was not proposed as biographical in the first place. Rather, it was inspired by the fate of La Divina, an affectionate nickname given to her by her Italian fans, meaning ‘the divine’.
Marina Abramović, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, (2023) Photo Courtesy: Liceu+.
In the second act, which was separated from the first by a brief curtain close, a minimal stage setting turned into a very detailed replication of a luxurious hotel room. There, in a one-person act Abramović, once again embodying Callas, performed to her own pre-recorded narration, proceeding to shatter a vase and walk out through a wall, ending the life of the Callas character. The ‘death’ was confirmed by the opera performers coming back on stage to drape the room in black.
Marina Abramović, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas (2023), Photo Courtasy: ENO.
The opera concludes with Marina Abramović coming back on stage to the recording of Callas’ voice, in a bright gold dress, blindingly reflecting the stage lights. Abstract, like some details in the production, nevertheless it was a beautiful ending and a homage to both, Maria Callas and Marina Abramović, which was incarnated in hearing the truly divine voice of Callas through a spinning record and seeing Abramović as herself, the artist and director, simultaneously.
To find out more about 7 Deaths of Maria Callas please visit ENO website
Maya Kil
Interviews Co-Editor, MADE IN BED