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From:  Isabelle Bracamonte <ibracamonte@y...>
Date:  Mon Jan 28, 2002  5:09 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Callas question


> i have never heard the 'tape worm' story
> before. did she know she
> had it? did she do her best to get rid of it

I believe this story can be traced to the book "Maria
Callas: My Wife," written by her ex-husband Meneghini
(if I spelled that wrong, forgive me). He claims that
her weight loss was completely involuntary and
effortless and was caused by her losing a tapeworm
(which she only discovered upon passing it, according
to him).

This book is VERY suspect in many aspects; for one,
she had very publically abandoned him for Onassis
(whom Meneghini claims she never loved) and he was
very clearly attempting to paint himself in a
sympathetic and pitiful light; for another, there are
numerous inaccuracies in this book, ranging from her
performances to childhood stories refuted by other
friends. The tapeworm story is not given very much
weight by the majority of critical scholars at this
point, from what I have read.

But the book is good for another viewpoint of Callas,
even though much of it is thought to have been made up
(due to a combination of wishful thinking and hurt
revisionist history on the part of the jilted
husband). The picture it paints of Meneghini, still in
love with Callas years after her death, victimized by
circumstance, deeply injured and misunderstood by the
cruel world, is rather pathetic.

Isabelle B.

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