Panama City News-Herald from Panama City, Florida • Page 5

NEWS-HERALD, Panama City, Saturday, September 17,1977 Page 5A PARIS (AP) Maria Callas, the Ameiican-born prima donna famed (or her lyric soprano, her (lery temperament and her romance with Aristotle Onassis, died Friday at her Paris home. She was 53. Her longtime artistic director, Michael Glotz, said she sudered a heart attack in her apartment on the fashionable Avenue Georges Mandel and was dead when doctors arrived. Acclaimed as one of the foremost opera singers of the 20th century, Miss Callas had not appeared on stage since 1973, but had continued as a recording artist while living Fiery Prima Donna, Call as. Now Operatic Legend quietly in Paris.

"I have lust seen her on her bed. She is ttie image of La Travlata as she played the role in 1956 at La Scala in MUan. Her face doesn't have a wrinkle," Glotz said. Movie Actress Catherine Deneuve was one of the first to call at the apartment after the death became known. At Milan's La Scala Opera House, where Miss Callas first gained renown.

Superintendent Carlo Maria Badlni said: "Callas enters by right into the legend of opera." Bom in New York City to Greek immigrants, trained in Athens and propelled to fame in Milan, La Callas was worshipped by devotees as their "Regina del of the World) and their "Divina," and critics hailed her for bringing operatic acting to new theatrical heights. But the dark-eyed diva also gained famed as "opera's bad girl." She battled with managers and conductors including well-publicized duels with the Metropolitan Opera's Rudolf Bing. She walked out of performances, one time cutting short a gala performance of Bellini's "Norma" attended by the president of Italy, and she with other performers. "Of course I am difficult," she once said. "An artist who tries sincerely to meet the demands of operatic music must work under extraordinary tensions.

But I know and my friends would say this (or me that I am not a monster." The romance with Onassis followed the stormy breakup of her marriage to Giovanni Bat- tlsta Meneghini, a wealthy MUan industrialist 26 years her senior who discovered the overweight, near-sighted girl with a magnificent soprano and guided her to stardom. In Sirmione, Italy, friends of Meneghini, near 80, said he was bedridden after suffering a heart attack several months ago and was not immediately told of Miss Callas'death. Her nine-year romance with Onassis ended when the shipping magnate married Jacqueline Kennedy in October 1968. Miss Callas claimed she harbored no ill feelings for Jacqueline, but she never met her and continued to see Onassis untU his death in March 1975. "He is my best friend," she said in 1974.

"He is, he was, and AUTO, I CALLAWAY VILLAGE SQUARE I 785-0509 EXPERT AUTO SERVICE CHASSIS LURRICATION, OIL FILTER CHANGE Drain the crankcase! Fill with quality 10W30 motor oil! Install new oil filter for filtering protection and cleaner oil! Complete chassis lubrication for smooth, quiet performance! CALLAS SINGS Singer Maria Callas, who died Friday at her home in Paris at the Age of 53, is seen during rehearsal for the 1959 performamce of the three-act opera "Medea," at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London. (AP LASERPHOTO) Leftist Guerrillas Gun 3 In Early Morning Hit SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) Leftist guerrillas firing submachine guns ambushed and Itilied the rector of the University of El Salvador and two other men today, police said. A police report said the 52year-old rector, Carlos Alfaro Castillo, was instantly killed in the attack at 7.30 a.m. at the entrance of the university campus. His driver, Jose Antonio Argueta Lopez, 32, and Francisco Humberto Romero Benitez, a 28-year-oId bodyguard, were also slain.

The Farabundo Marti Popular Liberation Forces, a leftwing terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the triple assassination in leaflets strewn on the scene of the attack. reliable police sources said. Detectives quickly collected the pamphlets and would not disclose their contents. The police sources said the killings may be the signal for a new outbreak of terrorist violence in this tiny, troubled Central American nation. The PLF, as it is known by its initials, has been responsible for a number of political killings and kidnapings during the past two years, and at least 50 bomb attacks most of them without causing victims in the last month or so.

It claims it wants to launch a revolution in the country to set up a socialist regime. PLF members kidnaped Foreign Minister Mauricio Borgonovo in April and shot him When You Think Savings Think Security You've set your goals in life, settled into your work, and know some of the things you hope to see the future bring. At Security Federal, we want to see your dreams fulfilled, too. That's why you know you're secure when you save the Security Federal way. SCCURITV SAVINGS lOAN ASSOCIATION 800 HARRISON AVE.

3100 W. HWY. 98 dead three weeks later when the government refused to release 36 political prisoners in exchange for him. They also shot dead former President Osmin Aguirre Salinas, 86, two months ago In an act of political vengeance. Witnesses'said seven men and one woman riding two pick-up utility vehicles closed in from both sides on the rector's white sedan as it neared the university gates and ofiened fire.

The woman was seen at the wheel of one of the vehicles. Police said the terrorists used Ml rifles, 9mm automatic weapons and 12-gauge shotguns. The white Mazda-220 was riddled with more than SO bullet holes and morgue attendants counted "more than 15 bullet wounds on the rector's body." A dentist by profession, Alfaro Castillo was a member of a wealthy family traditionally linked with right-wing groups. His brother, Jaime, is general manager of the National Association of Private Businesses, an Influential organization of Ei Salvador business representatives. Alfaro Castillo himself has had repeated trouble with leftist student groups since he became rector of the university In 1974.

He was involved in a reorganization of the university ordered by then President Col. Arturo Arma do Molina two years ago to "clear it of leftist elements." Col. Molina closed the university for more than a year in 1972 claiming it was "a center of Communist subversion." Asked by reporters if the family planned a mourning Mass for his slain brother, Jaime Alfaro Castillo curtly replied: "No." lOOK AT THE BARGAINS! LOOK he always will be." She said she never married him because "I think love Is so much better when you're not married." In 1970, reports circulated that Miss Callas had attempted suicide and was taken to a hospital. But she denied it, suing a magazine that reported the alleged attempt and saying: "I have no idea where these rumors come from. I am very well." Miss Callas was bom on Dec.

4, 1923, and spent what she described as a miserable childhood as a fat, ungainly girl in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, beginning music lessons at age 8. In 1937 her mother took Maria years old and 200 pounds to Greece, where they were stranded by the outbreak of World War II. There, she won a scholarship at Athens Conservatory and began a serious study of music. A year later she made her debut in Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rustlcana." She cotinuea studying in New York after the war, and after two years the Met offered her the role of Madame Butterfly. But she turned it down because of her weight, and went instead to Verona, Italy, where she met Meneghini.

The industrialist spent vast sums and her career flourished. The break-through came in 1951 with a masterful "Aida" at Milan's famed La Scala followed by a contract with the opera house. At the same time she slimmed down to a shapely style-setter and soon left Meneghini for Onassis. Her fame established, the doors of the world's great opera houses opened before her. She made her American debut in 1954 singing "Norma" at Chicago's Lyric Theater, and in, 1956 made her first appearance in the same role at New York's Met.

Those were also the years of her famed public feud with Bing over contracts and what roles she should sing. She became renowned for her "Lucia," "Aida," "Traviata" and PurltanI" and an extensive repertoire of other operas. She also made numerous recordings, including 19 complete operas and 10 albums of operatic selections for Angel Records. Although many critics described her voice as shrill or edgy, they agreed that when she was good, she was electrifying. "In truth, Callas doesn't sing in opera, she is opera," wrote the arts editor of The Associated Press after viewing a performance.

"In one svelte, shapely package, you get all the elements of suspense needed for an evening's entertainment. She has you on the edge of your seat, she works on your nerves." Miss Callas retired from concert singing in 1965, claiming ill health. She returned to the stage nine years later, in February 1974, to the cheers of a packed house in PhUadelphia's Academy of Music. But critics found some of the magic gone. "The Impression remained that for all her presence, her appeal and charm, her voice is probably something to be recalled from recordings of the '50s," wrote the music critic for the Inquirer.

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