Greek-American opera singer Maria Callas was BOTD in 1923. Born in New York City to Greek immigrant parents, she received her musical education in Greece, and started a professional career in Europe, praised for the power and expressive qualities of her voice. Though trained to perform dramatic roles, her career took an unexpected turn when she performed Bellini’s bel canto opera I puritani in 1949, relaunching her as a coloratura soprano. She went on to celebrated performances in Bellini’s La somnambula, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Anna Bolena, Cherubini’s Medea and Lully‘s Armide, reviving interest in the bel canto repertoire. She performed regularly at the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House and La Scala, working regularly with directors Tullio Serafin, Franco Zeffirelli and Luchino Visconti, and starred in Pier Paolo Pasolini‘s 1969 film Medea. Her career was often overshadowed by personal scandal, and she became a tabloid fixture with rumours of diva-like behaviour, the break-up of her marriage, her affair with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis and her well-publicised weight loss. She ended her stage career in 1965, undertaking a series of master classes in New York (inspiring Terrence McNally’s 1995 play Master Class). She died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1977, aged 53. Her enduring status as a tragic gay diva was encapsulated in Jonathan Demme’s 1994 AIDS drama Philadelphia, in which a dying Tom Hanks narrates Callas’ recording of the aria La mumma morta, drawing an implicit comparison between her suffering and his own. She remains one of the most beloved and best-selling opera singers of all time, and has been portrayed many times onscreen, notably by Fanny Ardant in Zeffirelli’s 2002 film Callas Forever and by Angelina Jolie in the 2023 biopic Maria.