Pablo Larraín’s Maria Strives, and Fails, to Capture the Magic of La Diva Callas

You don’t have to love opera to love Maria Callas. She was bold but vulnerable, her life roiled by drama. Her voice reflected all the colors of paradise, as it was before Adam and Eve were kicked out. And her beauty was halfway between mythical and mischievous, as if she’d been drawn by the gods’ caricaturist-in-chief: her mismatched features—the take-charge nose, the almondine eyes—met in a kind of haphazard classical perfection.

If you have room in your life for only one opera singer...