Aplication note of Nina Foresti (Maria
Callas?) to the Mayor Bowes Amateur Hour contest.
By courtesy of John Ardoin.
Catalogue: MC-DOC-005
“My musical
studies were begun when I was four years old. I studied piano many years
but as my family was in very comfortable circumstances, my music was not
considered seriously. I was sent to finishing school, studied languages
and singing all as social accomplishments only. One day in 1930, upon
our return from a cruise, we found our ‘comfortable circumstances’ had
vanished so I have been giving piano instruction. However, I always
loved to sing so I continued my vocal studies and have sung in concerts
and made my debut as Nedda, in Pagliacci, but as an amateur. My voice is
admired but opportunities are so few and I find that corner – from
amateur to professional – a very difficult one to turn.”
From the notes of Divina Records
DVN-1 CD:
It is believed that a girl who participated at a 1935
Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio audition could have been the eleven-year
old Mary Ann Callas using the false name of Nina Foresti. The recording
made on that occasion is still controversial in that the singing voice
of the contestant does not bear any resemblance to the great soprano’s
(Foresti was given a “D” rating and the note “Faint possibility for
future”). However, the girl’s speaking voice (which can be heard during
the introductory dialogue with Major Bowes in its entirety here for the
first time on CD) is strikingly similar to Callas’. The clue to the
mystery may lie in the contestant’s tone when she describes herself as
an Italian-American who is “employed in the toy department of a large
department store.” Neither of these statements was true in Maria Callas’
case, and a slight hesitancy, discomfort and hurry to finish can clearly
be heard on this recording. A pseudonym was probably chosen to deceive
Callas’ father, who objected to his wife’s ambition regarding their
younger daughter’s career, in case he or some acquaintances were
listening to the radio. According to Nikos Petsalis-Diomidis, Mary Ann
Callas had only two music teachers in New York from 1931 to 1937 –
Signorina Sandrina, who taught Mary Ann the notes and gave her piano
lessons once a week for a few months in 1931-1932; and a neighbor from
Sweden, who gave her singing lessons without payment. Considering such
modest training, it is possible that Mary Ann learned the music she
performed in public between 1934 and 1937 mainly by listening to records
and radio programs. Since Callas always had an impeccable ear, learning
to sing “Un bel di” by imitating the singing style and timbral
characteristics heard on a recording would have posed no difficulty.
This might explain why neither Nina Foresti’s singing nor her timbre,
curiously mature-sounding for an eleven-year old girl, resemble anything
known to have been recorded by Callas from 1949 to 1977. Once merely a
hypothesis, it is now generally accepted that Nina Foresti was actually
Maria Callas, despite Callas’ denial that she ever sang under an assumed
name. (She nevertheless admitted the fact to her friend and confidante
Nadia Stancioff; the same assertion was made independently by Steven
Linakis, Callas’ cousin who knew her in her childhood days.)
(c) Milan Petkovic, 2000.