MARIA CALLAS. PERFORMANCE ANNALS 1934-1977

EDITED BY FRANK HAMILTON

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…NOTES ABOUT THE GREEK TRANSLATION FOR YEARS 1938-1945
Representing artists’ names from Greek sources presents special problems since that alphabet is a different one than is used in this document.
It has not been my intention to transcribe names from the original sources exactly as they appear in each representation, since they appear in many variations. I have tried to create performance annals where a standard spelling is used for each individual to minimize
confusion. Many artists’ first names were represented in school programmes by only initials, and often those initials were for nicknames. Later, in their first professional performances, formal names were used, but many times only initials appeared there too. Depending on the nicknames, the initials may remain the same, but occasionally they change to a different
letter. Where full names have been discovered in later programmes, and one can be sure that they are for the same person, initials and nicknames have been expanded or replaced in all occurrences throughout this document.
Greek names may be spelled differently depending on case, i.e. how they are used in a sentence. Masculine names normally appear in programmes ending in the letter ’s’, e.g. Nikos, Petros, Stéfanos. At times I have chosen to drop the ’s’ from the first name.
During the years of occupation, programmes were produced in Italian and German. Different letters of the alphabet were chosen to represent names phonetically in those respective translations from Greek. The producers of those foreign language programmes where not consistent in their phonetic approach either, so names appear differently everywhere,
sometimes even in the same programme.
It appears that some performers had foreign names which were represented in the Greek alphabet phonetically. And interestingly, when Italian and German programmes were produced, instead of using the spelling of the original language, another phonetic translation was made. Here, assumptions have been made, and they hav e been changed accordingly.
Callas’ name appears as ‘‘Maryann’’ in most student programmes, but later becomes ‘‘Mary.’’ Family names appear differently in Greek for men than for women.
I am especially fortunate to have a friend, Guillermo Ramírez, as translator. Born in Puerto Rico, living in New York, he has also lived in Greece and speaks most of the languages of the operas that appear in these annals. In 1998, translations of programmes from the Petsális- Diomídis book took place in Frankfurt a/M. with another friend, Christo Misirlóglou, from Thessaloníki…

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