{"id":1724,"date":"2026-10-22T17:38:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomvolf.com\/?page_id=1724"},"modified":"2026-10-22T17:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:48:19","slug":"academique","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tomvolf.com\/en\/academique\/","title":{"rendered":"Scholarly Reception"},"content":{"rendered":"

The work devoted to Maria Callas has moved beyond documentary into research \u2014 first as an object of study, and now as a contribution in its own right. Conferences, peer-reviewed journals, reference bibliographies: what scholars make of it, and what Tom Volf publishes in turn.<\/p>\n

A conference, an article<\/h2>\n

For the centenary of Maria Callas\u2019s birth, the University of Turin \u2014 UniVerso convened from 17 to 20 December 2023, with the Fondazione Teatro Regio Torino and the Consulta Universitaria del Cinema, the international conference Maria Callas at 100: Opera, Celebrity, Myth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Scientific direction: Giulia Carluccio (Universit\u00e0 di Torino), Massimo Fusillo (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa), Stefania Rimini (Universit\u00e0 di Catania) and Emanuele Senici (Sapienza, Rome). Four days of papers across the Teatro Regio, the Cavallerizza Reale and the Rectorate, devoted to a figure who left her mark on the history of opera and, more broadly, on the collective imagination of the 20th\u200b<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

Tom Volf gave a paper there on Norma<\/em> \u2014 the role Callas called her \u201cwarhorse\u201d, the one that opens and closes her stage career. The paper became an article, submitted to peer review and accepted for the collected volume arising from the conference, forthcoming from Il Mulino<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The article<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • Title<\/strong> \u2014 \u201cMaria Callas e Norma, 1948-1965: un percorso storico, visivo e musicale\u201d.<\/li>\n
  • Method<\/strong> \u2014 a transdisciplinary analysis, historical, visual and musical, of how the role of Norma evolved across Callas\u2019s career. The fruit of a decade of research in twelve countries, the study favours primary sources, and above all Callas\u2019s own words. Most of the material comes from the archives of the Maria Callas Endowment Fund.<\/li>\n
  • Corpus<\/strong> \u2014 ninety-two complete stage performances, fifteen concerts and recitals including Casta Diva<\/em>, two studio recordings and four masterclasses at the Juilliard School in 1971-1972 devoted to arias from Norma<\/em> \u2014 more than for any other opera.<\/li>\n
  • Outline<\/strong> \u2014 the bel canto lineage, from Pasta to Callas; the formative years (1948-1953); the peak and the fall (1954-1958); the last Norma<\/em> performances (1960-1965); devotion to Bellini and respect for the score; Maria and Norma, the convergence of two destinies.<\/li>\n
  • Review<\/strong> \u2014 peer-reviewed; revised version accepted in July 2026.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The article closes on transmission: the four Juilliard masterclasses devoted to Norma<\/em> bear witness to a wish to pass this knowledge on to later generations \u2014 a mission the Maria Callas Endowment Fund pursues today, in the hope that the academic world will continue to explore the many facets of Maria Callas\u2019s art and personality.<\/p>\n

    The conference had opened on 17 December with an inaugural round table \u2014 Callas Archives<\/em> \u2014 chaired by Paolo Gallarati. Tom Volf sat on it on behalf of the Maria Callas Endowment Fund<\/strong>, alongside the heads of the major Callas collections: Simone Solinas (Teatro Regio, Turin), Andrea Vitalini and Luciana Ruggeri (Teatro alla Scala), Pierluigi Ledda (Archivio Storico Ricordi), Caterina d\u2019Amico (Fondazione Zeffirelli and Fondo Luchino Visconti), Simona Segre-Reinach (Archivio Biki Jacques Reynaud) and Barbara Costa (Archivio Publifoto, Intesa Sanpaolo). On 19 December, the keynote was given by Jo\u00e3o Pedro Cachopo (Universidade Nova de Lisboa): The Callas Effect: Metamorphoses of Aura in the Digital Age<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Rather than discovering the truth about Maria independently of the Callas myth, the aim \u2014 at once more modest and more courageous \u2014 is to give back to Maria Callas the prerogative of speaking on both.<\/p>\n

    Jo\u00e3o Pedro Cachopo, Dramaturgias<\/em> no. 22, 2023 (our translation)<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    In the literature<\/h2>\n