Diva is the story of the world renowned opera singer Maria Callas. Maria had a voice that moved audiences world wide . She more than earned the right to be a Diva. Her fame preceded her where ever she went and with fame comes an expectation from her fans. Maria stated " the whole world expects you to play the part" and play the part she did. Daisy Goodwin shows us a vulnerable side to the opera star. Her issues with her Mother, her sadness, her loneliness. Maria had a well known affair with Aristotle Onassis for many years and the thing she coveted the most was marriage to him. Aristotle bought her many things but money cant buy happiness. I got totally lost in the story and the pages turned quickly. Once again Daisy Goodwin has captured the reader's attention from beginning to end. com

Diva Diva opens with the Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis, marrying Jackie Kennedy in 1968. A man born on the wrong side of the tracks in Greece has married his way into high society. But his jilted ex-lover of 9 years, Maria Callas, can only watch in sorrow and hurt as they marry in the chapel on his island of Skorpios where she always hoped that they would tie the knot. In flashback the reader learns, almost in snapshots, the events that led up to this momentous occasion; the fateful meeting between them and her life as an opera singer which she gave up as he was uninterested in it. He pursued her determinedly and it destroyed both of their marriages. Callas wanted Onassis to love her in the same way that she loves him as she feels that he treats her as a woman first and foremost. She has issues with her mother exploiting her talent from a young child in Nazi occupied Greece and her older husband who sees her as a business. But Onassis is unfaithful as she soon discovers, and she is destined to be supplanted. The book is described as ‘historical fiction’ and it is stated at the beginning that it is ‘a fictionalised account of Callas and Onassis. It stops after they break up and doesn’t cover her later years when she took up singing again. I’m interested in Callas as I grew up with an opera loving dad and so heard Maria Callas recordings from an early age. I also worked within an opera house and know only too well the fear that singers have of opening their mouths and nothing comes out. I was quite surprised that opera singers had such a limited time span and Callas career was over when she was 40. The book followed her demanding schedule travelling between opera houses, theatres and performances, practicing, attending society parties often in the company of Elsa Maxwell who appears in the book and being at the very pinnacle of her career. In between she is assessing new opportunities such as films. The estranged relationship with her family, particularly her mother, is touched on but not dwelt on. It is believed that being farmed out as entertainment during the Second World War to occupying soldiers by her mother might have contributed to her vocal decline in later years. Callas marriage was more like a business partnership as her husband was much older and she always has the pressure of knowing that her singing career is finite. The remarkable drive that she had is well portrayed but I didn’t feel that the book emphasised how much of a trail blazer she was. Even now she is one of the best selling opera artists and was known as ‘La Divina’ or ‘the divine one.’ This was a woman of no half measures. It was all or nothing and she gave up her career for Onassis although he was unfaithful and moved from woman to woman. I felt that there was an element of soap opera to the book as famous people of the time drift through, the Churchills, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Taylor and Burton and Marilyn Monroe. The strongest impression I had of both Onassis and Callas was them wanting to be accepted by the world despite their humble beginnings and that they recognised this in each other. However, Callas achieved immortality beyond her wildest dreams. I enjoyed the book a lot. It was a lively and engaging read with two fascinating lead characters and enough sex and drama to keep it moving along at a brisk pace. The pressures on Callas such as worrying about regaining weight, family problems, wanting a child and the approaching end of her singing career were well portrayed. In the book Callas became the woman behind ‘La Divina’ and I could understand how a man like Onassis could take them away from her by giving her an escape route. The book had a great cover as well. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

From her poor beginnings Maria Callas has risen to become the greatest soprano in the world however, her personal life is not so fulfilled. In a loveless marriage, her manager husband pushes Maria too hard and when her voice fails, she is called a Diva, and worse. Then Maria meets the charismatic and fabulously rich Aristotle Onassis and falls in love. Can Maria get her happy ending or will she be like one of her tragic opera heroines? Goodwin has a talent for writing fictionalised stories about well-known figures that contain enough fact to be taken fairly seriously but are actually just really great entertainment. Here her subject is the great operatic star Maria Callas but Goodwin focuses on the key years of her affair with Aristotle Onassis. There are some liberties taken for narrative effect but the author admits this and I think the changes make the story a better read - yes, it's very light but it's a well-crafted, enjoyable read.

Diva tells the story of Maria Callas, still thought of as one of the greatest opera singers of all time, and her relationship with Aristotle Onassis, the Greek tycoon. I really enjoyed this book, the author brought the characters fully to life and there was enough backstory to help explain how Callas, the diva, differed from Maria, the woman, and how her past had shaped her. Her relationships with her family, her unsettled life as a child and young woman, her fear of losing her voice explain how vulnerable she is and why she would fall so hard for someone who is fairly obviously unreliable from the start. I only knew the bare bones of the story beforehand and I’ve no idea how accurate much of this is but it is a novel based around the life rather than a biography and as such, it’s a very entertaining read.

I knew nothing of Maria Callas before listening to this novel. She was loved and revered for her voice and her powerful presence. Yet she lacked love just for herself from her mother and others in her life. She met and fell in love with Aristotle Onassis who made her feel loved as a woman not a Diva. Enjoyed this well written and well narrated novel (I listened to the audiobook). She had a hard start to life, a glittering career, love and sadness. The novel offers us an idea of what her life may have been like behind the scenes, enjoy.