WE DON'T WANT CALLAS IN ROME! was scrawled over the posters. Said others, in tribute to Soprano Callas' famed rival: VIVA TEBALDI! On Via Nazionale, before the Hotel Quirinalewhere Callas stayed in her suitetruncheon-swinging police again and again charged shouting demonstrators. On the floor of Parliament, a Deputy introduced a motion that would bar Maria Meneghini Callas from all of Italy's state-subsidized opera houses. Her offense: on opening night at the Rome Opera, Callas had walked out of a performance of Bellini's Norma after the first act, leaving behind her a glittering audience of notables, including President Giovanni Gronchi.
Diva Callas could...
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