Internationally renowned film actress Monica Bellucci is in Athens to perform the monologue “Maria Callas: Lettres & Memoires” by Tom Volf, which she will perform in French on the stage of the ancient Herod Atticus Odeon (Irodion) theatre, at the foot of the Acropolis for three nights, from 21-23 September.

Ms Bellucci held a press conference for Greek journalists on Sunday where she expressed her initial hesitation before finally accepting the part when it was offered to her by Tom Volf due to the fact that this would be her first experience of a theatre performance “so different from the cinema”.

In the end it was her love of Greece and the fact that she could not resist Callas’ letters which were “filled with emotions, fragility and honesty” and revealed a woman who had led a brave life, followed her heart and had not compromised.

According to the people that knew her, Callas did what she wanted and knew what she was doing, Ms Bellucci said, sacrificing her life to music and her career and then seeking to live her wife as a woman once she met Aristotelis Onassis. Maria Callas remained a modern woman and one who inspired, the actress added.

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The production premiered in Paris in November 2019 and had been scheduled to take place in Athens in 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic. The high demand for tickets led organisers to add one more day.

The monologue is based on a book by Tom Volf, who is also director of the play, and his recent film “Maria by Callas”, in which he collected more than 350 unpublished letters written by the diva between 1946 and 1977 from personal friends, foundations and private collections.

The letters are read out in chronological order and shed light on hitherto unknown aspects of Callas’ life, from her childhood years in New York to the war years in Athens to the first steps of her career and her love affair with Onassis.