When I first heard Maria Callas sing, I was only eight years old. My mother had bought an album of the soprano's most famous arias in the Oxfam shop and she put it on the record player, excited by her find.The first track was Casta Diva, from Norma, which I now know is about a priestess singing to the goddess of the moon, but back then I just knew it was a magical piece of music that made everyone in the room — my restless mother, my ferocious stepfather, my annoying little brother — go quiet, as we all fell under Callas's spell.Her voice is one I would recognise anywhere; it has an urgency that defies you not to listen. There are opera singers with more beautiful voices, but Callas makes you believe in the music.
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