New Maria Callas Museum Opens in Athens, Greece

The museum will display compelling artifacts relating to Callas's life — such as her notebooks and a lock of her hair

A new museum honoring the beloved Greek-American soprano Maria Callas has recently opened in Athens. The museum opening was timed to coincide with the centenary celebrations of Callas's birth.

The artifacts on display include several personal items, such as Callas's prescription glasses, costumes, and a notebook she used to memorize parts of her roles.

The Maria Callas Greek Society has also donated a number of items of interest, such as a sketch of a design for Callas by the luxury shoemaker Manolo Blahnik. The society also donated a lock of hair that the soprano's hairdresser had kept and sold at an auction.

The top floor of the museum recreates a room of her Paris apartment and also contains an imaginary forest and a sound studio. Visitors can listen to recordings from Callas's live performances and view video clips of lessons she gave at The Julliard School.

"I think we are primarily addressing a person who is the ordinary visitor who might not know much about opera. They might know much about Maria Callas," said museum supervisor Erato Koutsoudaki.

"So we invite them to start with the spaces where you can listen and watch her perform iconic arias from the great operas. So you can just live it. Then you can learn more about who this woman was and why she was important, on the lower floors that are more like a conventional museum."