August 4, 1957
TSATSOS ON CALLAS: Minister to the Prime Minister Constantine Tsatsos made the following statement yesterday: «There is no doubt that the illness suffered by Maria Callas which obliged her to postpone her appearance would give rise to a revival of the polemic against the Athens Festival. Everything in yesterday’s announcement by the festival’s management regarding the reason for the postponement is correct. Anything else is nothing but scurrilous conjecture, either due to ill will or the imagination of all those who, for personal or partisan reasons, want to undermine the success of the most important cultural event in the country. I am once again obliged to say that the fee that was agreed to be paid to Madame Callas may be unusual for Greece, but is commensurate with what she is paid in other countries. Not to mention the fact that there have been dozens of reports in foreign newspapers over the past month referring to Callas’s trip to Athens and the festival itself. If these had been paid advertisements, they would have cost far more than the fee agreed upon with Madame Callas.»
