Diva is a novel that centres on the lives and times of what the blurb justifiably describes as, “the most celebrated opera singer of all time and one of the richest men in the world…” Indeed, if there is doubt, it only surrounds whether the gentleman in question was only “one of” the richest.
The singer is Maria Callas, whose centenary will be celebrated this year, and the tycoon, her long-time lover Aristotle Onassis. Many of the characters depicted really were larger than life and, for the most part, they are drawn in the broadest of terms, only Maria Callas’s personality explored in greater depth and then via extremes of emotion.
In this portrayal, she is constantly surrounded by vultures whose sole interest is to manipulate and feed off the star, commencing in Athens with a cruel, greedy mother. After cowering the shadow of her pretty elder sister Jackie, everything changes when young Maria Kalogeropoulos discovers rare talent.
By the time that the young Greek girl has achieved fame and fortune, thanks to a powerful combination of God-given genius, relentless determination and the support of an angelic teacher, she is married to Tita Meneghini, a colourless, unloved husband / manager 30 years her senior who insists on payment in the form of cash-filled suitcases.
He is far from the last unsavoury character who crosses the singer’s path. Society butterfly and gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell is portrayed as a duplicitous pander. Somehow, whenever she appears, the star singer ends up with a metaphorical knife in the back. Even so, Maria Callas masochistically keeps coming back for more punishment.
With flashbacks into childhood and a brief sally forward to what Graham Greene described as “The End of the Affair”, the main concentration covers half a decade from the late 1950s onwards. It starts with Elsa Maxwell’s fateful introduction of the two most famous Greeks of their era.
Both Callas and Onassis were married, but, like so many operatic heroines, the woman fell head over heels for a man so rich that he could chuck millions of pounds worth of diamonds off the side of the grandest yacht in the world.
As depicted here, the unscrupulous Onassis, for whom wealth was a weapon of power, constantly treated the diva as a plaything, while she risked health, career and so much more for what she believed to be the passion of a lifetime.
In the best and worst senses, the incident-packed plotting that is almost exclusively built around conflict and controversy could have come straight from the stage at La Scala, as it repeatedly depicts life via the emotional highs and lows commonly associated with operatic heroes and villains.
The highlight comes close to the conclusion with a thrilling recreation of Maria Callas’s epic Covent Garden Tosca, delving deeply into the emotions of both leading performer and titular character.
Daisy Goodwin’s popular, gossipy style means that Diva may not necessarily be the best source of information for those seeking to get an in-depth portrait of the great diva or, for that matter, the shipping magnate. However, it delivers a gripping page turner that might well make it on to bestseller lists and could also be a good source for a film adaptation.
As a very enjoyable bonus, Warner Classics has released a 20-track digital download featuring Maria Callas highlights chosen by Daisy Goodwin to complement scenes from the novel.