‘Without a voice, she had no self’: who was the real Maria Callas?

A new Oscar-tipped Netflix film sheds light on the later years of the opera legend, played by Angelina Jolie, and the problems she faced

“Madame is the greatest star of them all.”

The words are spoken by Max Von Mayerling, butler to the fading star Norma Desmond, in the film Sunset Boulevard. They could just as easily be uttered by Ferruccio Mezzadri, butler for 20 years to the diva Maria Callas who, after retiring from the opera stage, lived a largely reclusive life in Paris.