MARIA CALLAS - PRIVATE TORMENT OF CALLAS REVEALED IN AUCTION OF BELONGINGS

PRIVATE TORMENT OF CALLAS REVEALED IN AUCTION OF BELONGINGS

Letters revealing the private torment of opera singer MARIA CALLAS have gone on public view in Milan, Italy, in the run-up to a major auction of her personal belongings. The world famous soprano's private articles, including glamorous dresses, musical scores, 3,000 photographs and 5,000 pages of handwritten correspondence - some of which detail her desperate longing for a child - have been released by the estate of her late husband, Italian industrialist Giovanni Meneghini. The letters were penned before and after her marriage to Meneghini, whom she eventually left for Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, and are billed as the most valuable items in the sale, with a price tag of $72,780 (GBP36,000). She writes to Meneghini, 28 years her senior, "Dear love, the day of our encounter is coming! Do you want me? I am yours!" The auction opens next week (12Dec07).