Selection: Michalis Katsigeras

CALLAS TRIUMPHS: Rome, January - This week a great name and a great voice moved even the coldest heart in the audience at Milan’s La Scala opera house: the Greek-American soprano Maria Meneghini-Callas, who opened the season with Spontini’s luxurious but now somewhat outdated opera “La Vestale,” staged especially for Callas and which cost $140,000. Arturo Toscanini, artistic director of La Scala from 1921-1929, was present, as well as the current artistic director Victor de Sabata. Both sat in the same box after years of ongoing disputes. It was even more significant to those who knew that for years Toscanini had supported Callas’s rival Renata Tebaldi. At the end of the second act, when Callas was bombarded with carnations by the audience, she bowed to Toscanini and offered him one of the flowers, bringing the house down. (...) Now aged 31, Maria Callas has the entire opera world, and not only in Milan, at her feet. PAO-OLYMPIAKOS: 4 - Panathinaikos beat Olympiakos 1-0 during the first match of the holiday cup. The goal was scored in the 35th minute by Sofianos.