Callas-inspired passion project gets new home
Avid collector Dimitris Pyromallis talks about the incredible archive he donated to the Greek National Opera
The entire Maria Callas collections released by EMI, Angel, Arkadia, Myto, Mercury, Cetra, Melodram and Naxos record labels, studio recordings and even unofficial recordings from live shows, some 4,000 vinyl records and 6,000 CDs, dozens of books and magazines, clippings from newspapers, stamps honoring the great Greek opera singer, medals, hundreds of photographs in printed form and thousands in digital, not to mention personal items like necklaces, a silver powder case and a bottle of scent: So much of Callas’ life and art was ensconced in the home of Dimitris Pyromallis, carefully tidied away in display cases and drawers that just kept getting fuller every year. “My apartment only had two rooms, but I wanted my collection to be neat. I didn’t like living with stacks of books everywhere and records piled on chairs or the floor,” he says.
This incredible collection no longer lives with the person who put it together, after Pyromallis decided to donate the lot to the Greek National Opera. “It’s a weight off my shoulders. I’m relieved and content,” he says about parting with his prized belongings.
The collector has dedicated decades of his life to Maria Callas. “I wanted to collect her art. I was less interested in her personal objects – though I have some of those too – and more in what she expressed, in her most enduring quality,” he says.
Born on the Ionian island of Zakynthos in 1958, Pyromallis remembers his mother telling him that he had met Callas when he was aged 4 and she was on a visit to the island with shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. She took him in her arms and pinched his rosy cheeks. It is a scene that is dear to this lifelong fan of La Divina.
At the age of 20, after completing his military service, he set out to get to know the artist who had made such an impression on him and gradually began collecting anything he could find that was related to her work. As his interest evolved, he reached out to collectors’ clubs all over Europe, offering trades. “There’s no taking without giving,” he says. He’d get phone calls from antique sellers at Athens’ Monastiraki flea market about new acquisitions and race off to examine the finds. He met people who worked with Callas and spent hours talking to them about their experience.
The music collection comprises all of Callas’ official recordings, meaning those done in a studio, starting with her first full opera, Amilcare Ponchielli’s ‘La Gioconda,’ in 1952
“I have listened to her CDs so many times, I don’t miss a single note,” he says, glowing with pride. He’s memorized all of her arias, without ever having studied music, and is especially fond of “Vieni, t’affretta” from Giuseppe Verdi’s “Macbeth.”
He describes how Callas began many of her days in Paris with a sparse breakfast of coffee and orange juice, sitting at the kitchen table with her personal assistant, Bruna – “she died two years ago” – and her butler, Ferruccio – “he’s still alive” – reading the papers and laughing at the exaggerations about her relationship with Onassis. “That woman was a soldier for her art. Nothing and nobody could touch her – apart from opera,” notes the collector. Even though his collection has left for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in southern Athens, where the GNO has its headquarters, Pyromallis’ home is still dedicated to Callas, with a framed photograph of the opera singer next to a vase of flowers on a prettily arranged table, memorabilia in the display cases and other mementos here and there. “I like the photographs of her when she was still a bit plump, from the early 1950s. Her voice was at its peak and she was singing in Mexico and Argentina,” he comments.
Even though each piece he collected over the years is treasured, there are those that stand out for the collector. “It took quite a chase before I could get them, like a specific vinyl record of ‘La Traviata’ whose price still never falls below 500 euros and has even reached 2,000 euros. There’s also another LP from Cetra’s live recordings that took me 19 years to track down. It’s ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ with [Giuseppe] di Stefano and [Herbert] von Karajan and the cover has a painting of gothic windows. I love the covers to all the ‘pirate’ recordings, which preserved Callas’ voice during her best period,” he says.
After being donated to the GNO, Pyromallis’ collection was registered, documented, painstakingly researched and catalogued. “From the entire treasure of the Pyromallis collection, the albums, books and photographs are the most valuable,” explains Dr Sophia Kompotiati, a musicologist working with the GNO. “They are testimonials that help us better know and understand the era, but mainly the art of Maria Callas.”
The music collection comprises all of Callas’ official recordings, meaning those done in a studio, starting with her first full opera, Amilcare Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda,” in 1952 and ending with Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” in 1964. But it also includes all the arias, recitals and live performances released by the top labels of the time. Most of the vinyl records have hand-painted covers, detailed inserts and biographical notes on the artists. The print collection is equally valuable, as it features coffee-table books, biographies, magazines, performance and event programs, many in Greek, but also in English, French, German, Dutch and Portuguese.
Pyromallis’ photo archive is extensive and documents La Divina’s life from her early years to her first appearances at the Greek National Opera during the Nazi occupation and then in Italy, through her growing reputation with shows at the greatest theaters in the world, her social and personal life, and up until the end.
This wonderful collection will be put on public display on November 26 as part of an exhibition titled “Unboxing Callas,” which brings together stories, memories and archival material on her work and life. It also comprises original pieces by contemporary artists that have been inspired by this material.
The show, which will be on display at the National Library of Greece at the SNFCC, is curated by Vassilis Zidianakis, with Kompotiati acting as the scientific adviser.
