Giuditta Angiola Maria Costanza Pasta ( née Negri ; October 26, 1797 – April 1, 1865 ), born in Saronno, Italy, was a soprano considered among the greatest of opera singers, to whom the 20th-century soprano Maria Callas was compared.

Joan Sutherland, Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Birgit Nilsson and Montserrat Caballe are considered such among their peers.

The culmination of this rivalry came in an article in Time magazine where Callas was quoted as saying that comparing herself to Tebaldi was like comparing champagne with Coca-Cola.

Because of her full, dramatic soprano sound, she also began assuming such roles as Norma, Medea, Abigaille and Gioconda — roles not coincidentally associated with Maria Callas.

The role of Rosina, although written for a coloratura contralto and most frequently sung by a coloratura mezzo-soprano, has, in the past and occasionally in more recent times, been sung in transposition by coloratura sopranos such as Marcella Sembrich, Maria Callas, Roberta Peters, Gianna D ' Angelo, Victoria de los Ángeles, Beverly Sills, Lily Pons, Diana Damrau, Kathleen Battle and Luciana Serra.

* 1923 – Maria Callas, Greek soprano ( d. 1977 )

* December 2 – Maria Callas, Greek soprano ( d. 1977 )

He learned more than 100 roles in his lifetime and was mostly known for his roles in Verdi and Puccini operas, including appearances as Scarpia opposite soprano Maria Callas as Tosca at Covent Garden.

* December 2-Maria Callas, operatic soprano ( d. 1977 )

Musicians of stature are the composers Nikos Skalkottas, Iannis Xenakis, and Mikis Theodorakis ; the conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos ; and the soprano Maria Callas.

Compassion !, with Lane and John Glover, which examines the relationships of eight gay men ; Master Class ( 1995 ); a character study of legendary opera soprano Maria Callas, which starred Zoe Caldwell and won the Tony for Best Play ; and the least-known of the group, Dedication, or The Stuff of Dreams, with Lane and Marian Seldes.

Gobbi famously sang the part of Scarpia in the legendary 1964 Franco Zeffirelli production of Puccini's Tosca at Covent Garden, with soprano Maria Callas in the title role.

In addition to four arias and ariosos for the principal tenor ( Un di all ' azzuro spazio ; Io non amato ancor ; Si, fui soldato ; and, Come un bel di di maggio ), the opera contains a well-known aria ( La mamma morta ) for the soprano heroine, which was featured in the film Philadelphia ( the Maria Callas version is used on the soundtrack ).

She then attended Juilliard School of Music in New York, where she studied with mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel and participated in master classes led by soprano Maria Callas.

Two years after his Metropolitan debut, Tucker was invited to reprise his success in La Gioconda at the cavernous amphitheater in Verona, Italy, for which the retired tenor and Verona native, Giovanni Zenatello, had also engaged a young, overweight, unknown Greek-American soprano named Maria Callas.

He was also known for his long-term performance and recording association and brief romantic episode with the soprano Maria Callas.

Elvira de Hidalgo began teaching in 1933, and later held a position at the Athens Conservatoire, where the young soprano Maria Callas became her student.

Aspiring to become an opera singer, Getty studied in the mid-1970s with Louise Caselotti, a mezzo soprano who had been Maria Callas ' voice teacher ( 1946-47 ).

Miss Pulova has a voice that Maria Callas once described as `` like chipping teeth with a screw driver '', and her round, opalescent face becomes fascinatingly reflective of the emotions demanded by the role of Rosalie.

After World War II, a small number of technically able sopranos, the most notable of whom were first Maria Callas ( with performances from 1952 and especially those at La Scala and Berlin in 1954 / 55 under Herbert von Karajan ) and then Dame Joan Sutherland ( with her 1959 performances at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 1959, which were repeated in 1960 ), revived the opera in all of its original tragic glory.

* July 5-Maria Callas gives her last operatic performance, as Tosca at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Maria Callas during her final tour in Amsterdam in 1973.

In 1929, Edward Weston nominated 10 of Cunningham's photographs ( 8 botanical, 1 industrial, and 1 nude ) for inclusion in the " Film und Foto " exhibition and her renowned, Two Callas, debuted in that exhibition.

Her performance was an overall success, although because the famous Zeffirelli production of 1964 was replaced by a new production ( which premiered with her ), there was comparison between the Toscas of Gheorghiu and Maria Callas, for whom the Zeffirelli production was designed.

He worked with Maria Callas on a number of occasions, and made recordings of Carmen and Tosca with her.

Even though the young Tebaldi successfully performed roles in operas and works by ( among others ) Rossini, Spontini, Mozart, Handel and Wagner she eventually centered her career on verismo and late Verdi roles, roles not as well suited to Callas ' voice.

After Tebaldi had inaugurated the 1968 Met season with Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur, Callas, who by that time had given her last opera performance, went backstage to congratulate Tebaldi.

Callas however declined to perform due to illness, saying that she had already appeared in the other performances against her doctor's orders.

Callas, though, would not acknowledge the shouts of the hecklers and instead gave Scotto a standing ovation at the end of her performance.

Fox, America's first female opera impresario at the age of 28, began her first season in 1954 by bringing Maria Callas for her American debut in the title role of Norma, the first of many electrifying Callas performances in Chicago.

Callas ' rehearsal, with Resigno conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, on 20 November 1957 was recorded, as was her performance in Medea on 6 November 1958.

In April 1957, the opera was revived at La Scala for Maria Callas ( who also recorded the whole opera ) in a lavish production directed by Luchino Visconti, and it proved to be one of her greatest triumphs.

In 1952 came an important step when, again at short notice, conductor Tullio Serafin chose her to replace Maria Callas as Elvira in i Puritani in the Teatro Communale in Florence.

At this time, she also came to Daniel Barenboim's attention when he saw her performing on a French television tribute to Maria Callas.

She appeared as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and made her recording debut for EMI as Nannetta ( Falstaff ) under Herbert von Karajan, and as Musetta in La Bohème with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano and Rolando Panerai.

Davis, Wright, and Forrest first adapted Baum's story in 1958 under the title At the Grand, changing the setting from 1928 Berlin to contemporary Rome and transforming the ballerina into an opera singer closely resembling Maria Callas to accommodate Joan Diener, who was scheduled to star under the direction of her husband Albert Marre.

Others who appeared on the show over the years include Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Meredith, Sam Sheppard, Mother Teresa, Jerry Rubin, Angela Davis, Madelyn Murray O ' Hair, Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Bette Davis, Gene Kelly, Gene Tierney, Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, Mark Hamill, Ginger Rogers, Ricardo Montalban, Howard Keel, Celeste Holm, Dorothy Lamour, Dana Andrews, Vincent Price, Natalie Wood, Joan Crawford, Cliff Robertson, Peter Lawford, Nanette Fabray, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Lee Marvin, Paul Newman, Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Carrie Fisher, Robert Wagner, Diahann Carroll, George Hamilton, Victor Buono, Peter Ustinov, Tammy Grimes, Valerie Harper, Richard Dreyfuss, John Travolta, Louis Armstrong, Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, Sammy Davis, Jr., Harrison Ford, Eydie Gorme, Jack Jones, Harry Belafonte, Liza Minnelli, Paul Anka, Robert Goulet, Carol Lawrence, Edie Adams, Debbie Reynolds, Gwen Verdon, Connie Francis, Olivia Newton-John, Ben Vereen, Joey Heatherton, Frankie Laine, Eartha Kitt, Sergio Mendes, Buddy Rich, Jerry Vale, Lola Falana, Frankie Valli, Pearl Bailey, Lou Rawls, Yank Barry, Tina Turner, Tom Waits, Eddy Arnold, Johnny Cash, Roy Clark, Kenny Rogers, Ray Stevens, Janis Ian, Bernie Taupin, Ian Anderson, Marcel Marceau, Muhammad Ali, Howard Cosell, Joe Namath, Mason Reese, Ralph Nader, Rex Reed, Martha Mitchell, Victor Borge, Kreskin, Imogene Coca, Phyllis Diller, Fannie Flagg, Lily Tomlin, Joan Rivers, Elayne Boosler, Milton Berle, George Burns, Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks, Alan King, Bill Cosby, Henny Youngman, Jack Carter, Redd Foxx, Rodney Dangerfield, Jan Murray, Shecky Greene, Buddy Hacket, Joey Bishop, Red Skelton, Steve Allen, Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, George Schindler, Marty Allen, Robert Klein, George Carlin, Sandy Baron, Artie Johnson, Frank Gorshin, Soupy Sales, Jonathan Winters, Charlie Callas, Norm Crosby, Rip Taylor, Foster Brooks, Irwin Corey, Leonard Barr, Pat Cooper, Rich Little, Stan Kann, Steve Landesberg, Andy Kaufman, Jimmie Walker, Jay Leno, Moe Howard of The Three Stooges, Gloria Parker with her Musical Glasses, Ruth Dickson, Jimmy Edmonson ( better known as " Professor Backwards " who appeared more times than any other guest ).

He sang Alfredo to Callas in the famous Visconti production of " La traviata " in 1955 at La Scala, as well as Edgardo to her Lucia under Herbert von Karajan at La Scala, Berlin and Vienna.

Beginning when he directed a production at Milan's Teatro alla Scala of La vestale in December 1954, his career included a famous revival of La traviata at La Scala in 1955 with Maria Callas and an equally famous Anna Bolena ( also at La Scala ) in 1957 with Callas.

During his Met career, in 1956, he appeared on Ed Sullivan's television program in an abridged version of Act II of Tosca, opposite Maria Callas, conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos.

By the late 1950s, Covent Garden was gradually abandoning its policy of productions in the vernacular ; such stars as Maria Callas would not relearn their roles in English.